Sharpcap stacking issue with Hypercam 183c and Meade LX90 8" SCT

[Roger Allpress]

Can anyone please help? I have a Hypercam 183c and I am very much a beginner with this. I have had decent results imaging and stacking nebulae and then processing, but am having difficulty getting images of galaxies to stack. I'm guessing it's to do with the settings but I can't seem to get it right. For example I tried the Whirlpool recently at 60 seconds intervals but it wouldn't stack, saying too few stars were recognised, yet on the screen there was a decent, clear image, even after just one image. I used Sharpcap with gain at 600 and black around 30. Any help appreciated. Thank you

[GazAstro]

Are you using DSS to stack ? you can adjust the star threshold %. Also could be poor star shapes ?

[Roger Allpress]

@gazastro. Hi... I'm using live stacking in Sharpcap. No problem at all with nebulae or globular clusters, but galaxies, with the exception of Andromeda, seem to be a problem 

[don4l]

I suspect that most people don't live stack galaxy images.

I capture my images as FITS files and stack them later.

There are many free and paid packages that will do this for you.  DeepSkyStacker seems very popular.  Siril is much more comprehensive and becoming popular, but it is poorly documented.

Did the camera come with its own acquisition software?  If so, I would use  that for deep sky stuff and Sharpcap for Planetary and Lunar imaging.

 

[Greg M]

I realize this is a very old post but I'll chime in anyway.

Roger, did you ever have any luck with this issue?

I use SharpCapPro quite a bit and found when I encountered stacking issues it sometimes had to do with my gain being set too high. I'm guessing SharpCap was having difficulty distinguishing between noise and stars in the stacking process. 

If your guiding is good, I'd recommend lowering your gain and increasing your individual exposure time. See if that works for you. I've had great success with SharpCapPro in stacking on faint galaxies including M33, M81-82, M51.