Planetary Imaging - Using iCap
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- Learn some of the features and gotchas in iCap, the capture software that comes with the NexImage 5 webcam.
Link to my website on planetary imaging:
planetaryimagin...
Link to the planetary imaging playlist:
• Planetary Imaging
You can learn more by visiting the Cloudy Nights astronomy forums. Most of what I know I learned there.
cloudynights.com/
They have a forum just for planetary imaging called
Solar System Imaging & Processing
www.cloudynight...
This video is extremely helpful! I spent a night imaging, and then afterwards trying to figure out why nothing would help the resulting AVI, it was because of the DV encoder. I followed your instructions and have had much better results.
Thank you so much for this, I just spent the past 2 hours trying to fiddle with things. I've given up for tonight, but hopefully with this guide, I will be much better prepared for the next viewing. I managed to get it focused on a roof top during the day, but going from that to a tiny point in the sky was very difficult. I wish I had seen your video earlier.
The best tutorial on subject, all over the CZcams.
Thanks dearly for such a GREAT job and you are amazing.
Great job on this video. I was lost getting started with my first time on this camera this video was a HUGE help. Best video I found for sure.
My video files refuse to be recognized from my Next Image 5 camera. The camera refuses to be set on Y 800, and only on DV video encoder. When on DV video encoder then my laptop will recognize and open the file and its recorded contents. I also noticed that the little tiny yellow colored gearwheel next to the codec slot will light up/engage when only on DV video encoder mode. When placed in Y 800 the gear wheel symbol turns grey and is not engaged. Why is this all happening?
Such an incredibly helpful video! Thank you SO much!!
Brilliant guide. Thanks a lot for taking the time to do this. I was trying to get a good recording of Jupiter last night, but via a lot of guess work ended up with a blurry output after taking it through registax. Can't wait to try again tonight... which will no doubt be a perfectly cloudy night with nothing in view... Thanks again!
+Iain Hamilton Thanks. You may still be able to salvage your capture by using AutoStakkert instead of RegiStax for stacking. Then use RegiStax for the wavelet sharpening. I learned a lot by visiting the solar system imaging & processing forum on Cloudy Night.
www.cloudynights.com/forum/77-solar-system-imaging-processing/
I have more stuff on this web site:
planetaryimagingtutorials.com/
Awesome thanks. I'm going to watch all your planetary imaging videos a couple of times more so I'm swotted up for tonight! Thanks again for all the effort you put into these.
Thank you very much for such clear cut tutorials.
BRILLIANT, downloaded video to watch whilst doing it, THANK YOU
Nice, clear and easy to understand video, many thanks! Subscribed! ;0)
Many, many tanks!
I don't think the DV codec comes with iCap, but is a default codec on Windows computers. iCap lists every codec you have installed on your computer, whether they come with iCap or already there, and the DV codec is usually the first in the list so gets selected by default.
David Billo Thanks. I once tried capturing with every codec I had and all the compressing codecs were too slow or incompatible with the stacking software, except for the DV codec (I used an old/slow netbook). The DV codec does a pretty good job considering that it compresses as much as it does.
Great tutorial - thank you...
so, i just bought this camera... should i have bought a newer one to use with my 127 SLT? what do you think?
The NexImage 5 is still a great camera at a good price. The next step up would be the ZWO ASI224MC but that requires you to also buy a Barlow and an IR-cut filter. If you're new to this and haven't yet found my website check it out. planetaryimagingtutorials.com/
@@wwgeb Thanks. I'm new but plowing through the information... Figured i'd like to start off with decent stuff..
I'm considering this ZWO ASI224MC..
bought this - is moon filter similar?
www.amazon.ca/Celestron-94303-Accessory-Kit/dp/B00006RH5I/ref=asc_df_B00006RH5I/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=292982082419&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12940201364125511524&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1002306&hvtargid=pla-382459762079&psc=1
I will check out your site - thanks again!
@@mclean9758 The moon filter reduces the amount of visible light which is useful to keep from blinding you when looking at the moon. The ASI224MC needs a filter to only eliminate the IR light. The reason they didn't make it with a built-in filter is so you can use the 224 to take IR images by using a filter that only cuts out visible light. So you can use it with IR-cut filter for planetary imaging, an IR-pass filter for imaging in the IR, or no filter at all for autoguiding. The best place to get answers is Cloudy Nights. They have several forums. This one is all about imaging the planets. www.cloudynights.com/forum/77-major-minor-planetary-imaging/
How the actual hell do i download this software. I have been trying so hard to find a somewhere to download it. :( I Spent 200 dollars on a neximage camera but i can't use it because it says i need the iCap software. Where the hell am i supposed to get that from :(
Here is my copy on proton drive: drive.proton.me/urls/BT66WTBWSC#Q75NWeAfOZzK
when I get the plant centered it slowly rises out of the picture.any idea why this is happening ? I am using a dobsonian
Ugh! forgot to record in Y800 set it to RGB32 and I forgot to turn off I think debayering spent the whole morning doing captures of Jupiter and now I got the lines and squares in the capture eh! RIP ...
It's your windows 8 laptop. Everything after windows 7 is garbage to hook up Astro cameras to make them work.
Any tips on how to get a Macbook to recognize the Neximage10?
Hi Steve - I just got an NI5 and find your videos very helpful. I'm having an issue with y800. I have it set in both places in ICAP and when I bring it into Registax and select a debayer method the color comes in, but as soon as it finishes stacking, the color goes away. Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?
Have found the videos posted to be extremely useful - thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge. I am new to planetary imaging - I recently purchased a Celestron NexStar 5 and NexImage 5. In viewing the video about "Using ICap" I followed along with changing the Codec to "Y800" - the video stated "don't worry about losing color, that can be recovered in RegiStax" - however I cannot find a video that addresses how to bring the color back - any guidance? Thanks
Use AutoStakkert to stack. In the color drop down menu select Auto Detect. If that doesn't work then select Force Bayer GRBG. I believe that is the right one for the NexImage 5. There are only 4 Force Bayer options. Click on each one until you get the right color in the preview screen. The "right" color will be a bit green though. All my planetary imaging tutorial videos can be found here:
planetaryimagingtutorials.com/
When I switch to 640x480 I can never find the planet. I can find it in the higher at 20%. Do you have any tips to find it in 640x480? I have tried everything and am getting very frustrated. I have a celestron 6se. Thanks for your help. Your videos are excellent.
Watch this video starting at 6:14. You stay at 640x480 and 100% but use the 4x binning to toggle between wide view and narrow view. The planet needs to be centered in the wide view before switching to narrow view. If your computer screen doesn't let you see the entire thing all at once it can be hard to judge where the center is. If you have horizontal or vertical scroll bars when viewing wide view then center them so you're looking at the center of the video when centering the planet in wide view.
@@wwgeb thank you for the reply. I will try that. 👍🏻🔭
@@wwgeb that did help - I was able to find both Saturn and Jupiter in the 640x480 window after centering in the finder window. Thank you so much for your help. 👍🏻🔭
@@azdh85224 Cool! If you haven't seen my website for beginners it is here: planetaryimagingtutorials.com/
Note that Jupiter isn't actually round, it's oval because of it's own fast rotation - it bluges at the equator very noticeably in the eyepiece.
So I used the y800 codec and am fairly certain debayering was turned off when I recorded since I was only able to see monochrome but when I put the avi file in autostakkert it remained monochrome. Is there a way to fix this? Have a done something wrong, or am I just using an out of date version?
You need to see Y800 in two places on iCap per the video at 9:30. See comment #2 at this link for AutoStakkert settings. www.cloudynights.com/topic/440811-y800-codec-on-neximage-5/
--wwgeb
Very helpful. Thanks!!
Steve could you use ROI to avoid all that switching settings to acquire the planet? With ROI you can use less than 640x480 giving smaller files as well? I have a 1280x960 Skyris 445M so not as good as the 5MP camera...I'm going to use a flip mirror and eyepiece for the initial centering. It's good enough for Chris Go who gave me the idea. Great video...I'm here because I screwed up something when installing FireCapture!
iCap only has select ROIs and the smallest is 640x480. FireCapture is the capture software I use except for the NexImage 5 and that is because FireCapture doesn't fully support the NI5. I don't remember which setting it was but when I used FireCapture with the NI5 it asks for what setting I wanted when I first started FireCapture and then it wouldn't allow you to change that setting without stopping FireCapture and restarting it. I don't know what you mean by "all that switching settings to acquire the planet" unless you didn't watch the whole video. In the video I showed the hard way but later showed a simple way to go between wide angle and 640x480 in one step. FireCapture has a single button that will toggle between using all the pixels and using a smaller ROI. If you can get FireCapture to work with the Skyris I would think that would be best.
@@wwgeb Good advice! I am playing with the 445M and iCap and I am able to draw any ROI size I like. I did a couple of one minute runs. At the full 1280x960 files size was 1 GB...the first ROI file was 131 MB. I'm using version 2.4 of iCap. Your videos are awesome....you deliver the information perfectly. Thank you!
@@wwgeb Confirmed...I made a crazy small ROI and the one minute long file was even smaller first 131MB file at 20 MB...Who'd have thunk it? :-)
@@brettatton I guess they added custom ROIs in version 2.4. I should get 2.4 to see what else they changed. Get used to collecting TB of data. I would capture for 2 or 3 minutes. I assume you're using a raw codec like Y800. The RGB24 and RGB32 codecs give you files that are 3x and 4x and they actually contain less information. It seems the fun is beginning. Get good on Jupiter and Saturn for the Mars opposition this October. I collected 328 GB in one evening to make this Jupiter animation. www.cloudynights.com/topic/527527-jupiter-animation-with-a-c8/
@@wwgeb Nice!
Thank you!!!
I am thankful for you 🙏
I'll get a DSLR over cc'd camera cause of software issues with these cameras I went to three of these it ain't worth time and money all I do is set DSLR camera into video mode and that it then u stack it go order the stacking software and to finalize it by photo shop no registax image software
Do what you do and soon you'll understand how wrong you were.
Thanks for the great info!! I took a nice movie of Jupiter last night using the y800 Codec as you recommended. How do I get the color back in Registax? Thanks!
+Michael Zitaglio Post #2 in this thread shows how to get the color.
www.cloudynights.com/topic/440811-y800-codec-on-neximage-5/
RegiStax hasn't been updated in many years. I can't get it to get the color back on Windows 7 but it still works on XP. You shouldn't be using RegiStax for stacking now that AutoStakkert has come out. It is way better. Watch my videos on AutoStakkert and RegiStax.
planetaryimagingtutorials.com/
+wwgeb Thank you very much for the quick reply!!
nr 100!! ;)
What camera would you recommend for the Orion Skyquest XT6?
Edit: The moons is the main object I wish to picture. Which cameras are good for this and which moon phase is the best time to image it?
You might want to see my video on Equipment Needed
planetaryimagingtutorials.com/getting-started/
to see how hard it is to track with a non-motorized alt-az scope. The NexImage 5 is a good camera. Ideally you would want to use a 2x Barlow with that camera but that would make tracking extra hard so I would start with the camera without any Barlow. I also have a video Which Barlow? and Which Webcam? that might be helpful.
For the Moon just use your cell phone. First quarter is the best time. Full Moon is the worst. Get a device to clamp your cell phone to the eyepiece.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LCHLDWS/
Hi there, I have recently bought a celestron neximage burst color and my first try I can see a few dead pixles,is it defected or is there a way to fix this? any help would be appreciated :D
They all have a few dead pixels. For planetary imaging it doesn't matter because the planet drifts around during capture. The dead pixels take turns on different parts of the planet. The effect is negated during stacking so you will never notice.
wwgeb thanks for the help
Do these settings also work the same for NexImage Burst C?
I am not sure. -- wwgeb
Hi Sir, Thank you for those very good videos of yours. I have a Neximage 5 and I can not get the Video Size 2592 x 1944 as shown in this video about iCap but only 1280 x 960. I installed FireCapture and the Max is the same as iCap (1280 x 960). Do you happen to know what could be preventing me to get the 5 Mega Pixels Video Size, please? Any clue?
I'm guessing you have 2x binning selected. You can only get 2592x1944 with binning disabled. If it's not that I would try it on a different computer to see if there is some limitation with the computer you're using.
I tried with 3 computers already being the best one an Intel Core i7 16Gb RAM. The Binning options are Disabled. There is no way to select 2x or 4x Binning. Tried iCap 2.4, as well. The original Mini USB cable that came with the camera had a defect then I purchased a new one but a bit longer. It is a 1,2 m long cable. Do you think the lenght of the cable, which could be more resistive, could cause such problem?
I've never come across this problem. You might try asking on one of the imaging forums on Cloudy Nights. Maybe someone has seen this before.
www.cloudynights.com/forum/77-solar-system-imaging-processing/
Thank a lot!
When i switch to Y800 and take a video, registax always says the image is b/w and will not get me any color. Help! What am i doing wrong.
Check out comment #2 on this Cloudy Nights thread.
www.cloudynights.com/topic/440811-y800-codec-on-neximage-5/
For me Registax stopped being able to use Y800 after I upgraded from Windows 98. Almost nobody still uses Registax for stacking though most still use it for wavelet processing. Instead everyone has moved to using AutoStakkert for stacking. See my stacking web page for details.
planetaryimagingtutorials.com/stacking/
wwgeb Ok, so: Careful to have Y800 in both places, capture raw data, use autostakk to stack it and that color should come back?
Yes. You should see color on the screen in AutoStakkert as soon as you load the video file and before you begin the stacking process. I usually choose Auto Detect under the Color menu but sometimes that won't work and you have to try the different Force Bayer options until you find the right one. Otherwise you get weird colors.
wwgeb Thank you so much. I'm using a neximage color burst with my 8se, and I'm sure I'm not achieving the images i should be getting. So every little bit helps.
If you haven't found it yet Cloudy Nights has a Solar System Imaging & Processing forum which helped me out a lot. They have a running thread where people post their pictures of Jupiter using a 6 inch or smaller scope. You should be able to do better with an 8 inch scope.
www.cloudynights.com/topic/398608-small-bore-challenge-jupiter-w-6-or-less/
my Image of Jupiter is way too bright any hints are welcome...ernest
+Ernest Joyner Use the histogram. You can move the histogram to the left (less bright) by lowering the gain, lowering the exposure time, and/or increasing the focal ratio. I have videos on using the histogram, selecting the best Barlow, and choosing the best gain/exposure settings.
planetaryimagingtutorials.com/
My photos are BW but I dont know how to put color
Hello, I followed the parameters and that improved my videos a lot, the only thing they are BW
If you have a monochrome camera then you need to use a color filter wheel to make one minute videos of red, green, and blue. Then you have to combine them using something like PhotoShop. If you have a color camera and capture raw, like Y800, then you get your colors back when you stack using AutoStakkert. Check out planetaryimagingtutorials.com/
WarmWeatherGuy no, I got the neximage 5 but I run in Y800 now I dont know how to get the color back
Go to comment # 2 of this Cloudy Nights topic.
www.cloudynights.com/topic/440811-y800-codec-on-neximage-5/
WarmWeatherGuy excellent this helped me a lot
icap sensible a l andicape du monde avebnor...uncc/gda/
hey i recently purchased a celestron neximager 5 and im having some problems and cant seem it get it to work....i want to know that when u plug it in would u get an image right away or do u have to adjust some settings first? plz help thanks
+christian camacho Try pressing the open device button at the top left if that doesn't work look in you're device manager and if there is an exclamation point on the neximage5 you need to install new drivers to do that go to the celestron neximage5 page[ www.celestron.com/browse-shop/astronomy/astroimaging-cameras/neximage-5-solar-system-imager-(5mp) ]then scroll down and click on the support button the the second link then install . Once in iCap you should be prompted with a small select device window now plug in your camera ,refresh and you're done👍🏻
+christian camacho If I run iCap with no camera plugged in I get a message telling me there are no devices found. Do you get that message? If I run iCap with the camera plugged in I get a window within the main iCap window. The text across the top of the window say NexImage 5 (13214066) [100%] [live] [52 FPS] as you see in the video. Do you get that window? If you do get that window but it is totally black, or totally white, then adjust the exposure time to make it gray. You will need a lens to get an image.
+wwgeb yes i get that window....and when u mean by lens what exactly do u mean.....the telescope or a barlow lens is needed?
+christian camacho You need a lens to focus the image onto the cmos chip. Your telescope will do that when you're in focus. For the video I had a small 72mm telescope pointing at a neighbors roof. Without that you only get black, white, or some in-between gray image depending on the exposure settings. It sounds like you have everything working just right. :-)
+wwgeb k bro ill try again tonight with the moon....would be a big moon tonight....thanks for your help and positivity....cuz its really upsetting when u get faulty tech....thanks again