Hints and Tips for Astrophotography Software
The driver behaves slightly differently depending on the Astrophotography software you have selected. This is mainly because ASCOM is a (let's call it) flexible standard that allows different software to make assumptions. For example, when returning an RGB image, the ASCOM Specification doesn't actually dictate the order of the R, G, and B channels. So each software vendor can do what they feel is right. APT assumes the image pixel order is RGB. SmartCap assumes the order is BGR. Because of this the driver allows you to specify the "Personality" of the software you're working with.
Below are some things that might help:
Best image quality is RAW - this is called "RGGB" in the driver setup.
By default, the driver does not crop the RGGB data coming from the camera. It gives you "all of the pixels". If you want the driver to deliver an RGGB image that is cropped to (hopefully) be the same resolution as those Photoshop/etc would display, then you need to manually edit a registry setting. (This can be useful if you want to import some of the ARW files as well as the FITS files from your favorite app).
- START -> Run ->
regedit - Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\retro.kiwi\SonyMTPCamera.dll\Cameras\Sony Corporation\{your camera model here} - Right click on right-hand side and choose "New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value"
- Type
Crop Modeas the name and hit Enter - Hit Enter a second time and you should get an dialog that lets you type a value in
- Type
1and hit Enter (no need to worry about Decimal/Hexadecimal) - Close Registry Editor
| Crop Mode | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | No crop, show me all the pixels (Default) |
| 1 | Automatic, show me the pixels the camera wants me to see |
If your workflow doesn't yet include processing FIT files, you can have the driver save the raw received files to a folder on your computer.
Unless you really need them, set your camera to only download RAW files to your computer (most will still allow RAW + JPEG to be saved to memory card if you have that option enabled). Downloading both ARW and JPEG will take a little extra time.
The ability to support Sony LiveView was added in APT 3.82. You need to enable "LiveView Automation" checkbox in APT for it to work properly. From 3.84, the "LiveView Automation" checkbox is optional.
Even when Preview is enabled APT will only update when the exposure time has passed (I think this is because other ASCOM cameras work this way). So if you have it set for 30s, you'll only get a LiveView update every 30s. I suggest that you set the exposure time to 0.000s, that way the Previews will update as fast as possible (a few images per second). Remember to set it back to a bigger number when you exit Preview mode!
Note that sometimes the Preview feature in APT doesn't correctly use LiveView. As such, an option was added to the driver configuration dialog that will force LiveView to be used when you attempt to take a 0.000s long exposure. If your camera is listed as supporting LiveView, and you are still hearing it snapping away when you engage Preview, try checking the Use LiveView for 0.0s exposures checkbox in the settings screen for the driver.
By default, APT debayers the RAW files using it's default Gamma of 1.000. To have the images correctly colored you need to go to APT settings screen for CCD camera and set the Red and Blue Gamma values to 1.500. (Thanks to Yoddha of APT for pointing this setting out!)
Although you can set readout mode to "Fast Readout" (which enables camera LiveView) the NINA software is expecting a RAW file and errors when it gets an RGB image. In the future it may be possible to create a fake RAW image from the RGB data.