ZWO & SharpCap mask continued.

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Wednesday: Sunny periods allowed intermittent testing of various capture software and the two cameras. [ZWO and Neximage5.] The masking seemed far less obvious until I tried H-alpha with the ZWO and SharpCap RGB24. I captured a number of screen shots with various combinations to have a comparison. 11.30 It has now clouded over completely so I must pause in my trials. 11.33 Now it is raining hard and the temperature has dropped like a stone!! Thanks goodness for an observatory! It takes only a few seconds to close the shutters to guard against the elements.

The USB3 to 4xUSB3 hub has arrived in the post. A few seconds later all the USB devices were working properly and I still had one empty USB3 socket left on the laptop. I used to smile at all the cables dangling from imager's instruments. Now I know why they have so many. It has started raining heavily again after a pause.

Using ASICAP produced a glistening, ground glass mask. I couldn't be certain it wasn't a thermal effect. Like looking downwards into vast dish of boiling water so fine were the individual boiling elements. Rather oddly, I was unable to see any surface detail in WL or H-a. Which was quite easily seen in SharpCap behind [or rather below] the concealing mask.

The Neximage5 crashed SharpCap repeatedly. I had to Restart Windows several times. A cloud over the sun was enough for the camera signal to be lost. Then a large warning box came up which could not be closed nor any of the button choices have any effect. The screen loudspeakers complained with a loud bong every time I tried to close the message box! Solid cloud arrived as I planned to try FireCapture.

The strange thing about the mask in SharpCap, with the ZWO camera, is its "organic" appearance. There is never any suggestion of digital artifacts. In fact it looks more like a sharper version of H-alpha surface detail. As if it were literally worn into the screen. Or had dirtied the screen like an algae film. Though it can't be either because it instantly migrates to each new screen I try. Logic suggests the camera is responsible somehow. Though that would surely mean the mask or film should rotate with the camera?

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