SharpCap

SharpCap is a pretty cool astronomy camera capture tool that has tons of features and is super user-friendly. It's designed to give you all the tools you need without too many downsides. So whether you're into planetary, solar, lunar, or deep-sky astrophotography, or even Electronically Assisted Astronomy (EAA), SharpCap has got your back!

A Wide Range of Camera Support

Just like many astronomy apps out there, SharpCap works with a variety of cameras. Popular brands like Altair Astro, Basler, Celestron/Imaging Source, iNova, Point Grey (or FLIR), QHY, StarlightXpress, and ZWOptical are all supported. Plus, it also plays nicely with most webcams and frame grabber devices. If you're using an SPC900 webcam or LX modified SPC900 cameras, you'll find special support for them too!

Capture Formats Galore

One great feature of SharpCap is its ability to capture images in different formats like PNG, FITS, TIFF, and JPG. And when it comes to video formats? You can record in AVI and SER! The exposure time is pretty flexible too—it mainly depends on what your camera can handle.

Easy Controls and Live Preview

You’ll find an easy-to-use panel right next to the capture area where you can control everything about your camera. As you capture images of the deep sky live on-screen, you can tweak each frame before adding it to your stack (think alignment and rotation options). And let's not forget about the handy histogram that helps ensure your exposure settings are just right!

Additional Features

SharpCap also offers flexible file naming options so you can keep things organized. You can save and restore camera settings easily; these specific settings show up with every file captured! Other nifty features include quick capture mode, focus aids, plate solving capabilities—pretty much everything a budding astrophotographer would want.

The PRO Version Perks

If you're looking for even more power from SharpCap, the PRO version has extra image processing options like dark frame subtraction and flat frame corrections. You'll also get features for polar alignment and some neat python scripting abilities for automation!

User-Friendly for Everyone

Even with all these fantastic features packed into one app, it might feel like a lot at first if you're new to astrophotography. But don’t worry! SharpCap comes with a detailed User Manual, which gets updated with each version! We recommend checking out sections like Quick Start and Camera Basics before diving in.

Your Astrophotography Companion

All in all, SharpCap is an awesome choice whether you're just starting out or if you've been doing this for a while. You can try out the free version first—it offers plenty! If you feel ready for more tweaks and processing power later on, the PRO version is there waiting for you.