Frame an focus window black

[catherineryanhyde]

I'm using BackyardNIKON 2.0.11, Premium Edition, with my Nikon D810A. I rarely if ever had trouble with the live view in the frame and focus window, but the last few times I've used it, it's completely black. I have to take an image to see if the star is centered. Have others had this problem? Any troubleshooting tips? Thanks.

[astroman133]

The following assumes that the camera is connected to a telescope at prime focus.

The exposure duration of LiveView frames is only a few milliseconds long, so it is expected that only the brightest stars will be visible. Given how it works it is very likely that it is working as expected but the field of view is so dim as to appear to be black.

Have you selected the Maximum Sensitivity setting in BYN's Live View Settings? This will brighten the LiveView image as much as possible. It does it by setting the ISO to the camera's maximum value and selects a long exposure value that brightens the image as much as possible. Note that lengthening the exposure only brightens the live view frame it does not affect the frame rate, which may still be 15-20 frames per second. Instead of using Max Sensitivity you can manually set the ISO to its highest value and lengthen the exposure to a value around 2 seconds to achieve the same effect.

It is also possible that you do not see any stars in F&F because the image is not close to focus. Of course taking a Snap image would confirm this.

[catherineryanhyde]

I meant to type this as a direct reply. Sorry--have only used this forum once before. 

[catherineryanhyde]

3 hours ago, astroman133 said:

 

Yes, it's connected to a telescope, which is in focus. What you describe is how it's been in the past. The window may be too dark and I may have to turn up the ISO just for the purpose of seeing a star well enough to do a fine alignment or check focus. But now it's completely black, no matter how I set the exposure. And I didn't change anything (except of course there is always the possibility of accidentally hitting something you didn't mean to.) One thing to add: I was able to see through the live window once since this problem began, by setting the camera mode to P instead of M. But of course it needs to be on M to take images, so I'm hoping for a better solution. I should note that I'm a relative beginner and it's possible that I'm missing something that a more experienced astrophotographer would immediately see. Thanks for answering.

 

[admin]

2.0.11 was released in 2019.  Please download the latest and try again.

Keep us posted.