Michael Dean After Dark – MICHAEL W. DEAN

Programming suggestion; Be able to hide every feature not in use

(posted on the SharpCap website, Jan 9, 2026)

Feature Request: Customizable Interface Modes

I think this should be a feature for every program.

If I only use 1/10th of 1 percent of the features in a program, I’d love to be able to hide all the ones I don’t use.

Some would say that’s a bad idea because you’d never learn to do more things if you don’t stumble on them by having them enabled. But you could have it so you could have 3 settings:
1. All features fully on
2. Just the features I want.
3. Just the ones I want, and the ones I don’t want grayed out so I can see what’s there.

…with a way to toggle between the three states.
Some would keep it on State 2 for use, but toggle to State 3 when not pressed for time to learn more about the program.

When in State 2, just the features I want, the hidden ones would vanish and the ones I want would re-flow. So, for instance, if I click on Tools, I’d only see Histogram, Focus Assistant, and Seeing Monitor, since those are the only ones I have turned on.

Scripting and Sequencer wouldn’t even show since I have everything under those turned off.

Overall this would be a great feature since shooting at night with night vision colors enabled, or shooting Solar during the day, both make it hard to see the screen well.

If there were only the few features we want at a given time, we wouldn’t have to fish through all of them to find them. Especially when shooting time is a valuable commodity for people who live where it’s cloudy a lot.

Maybe we could have different profiles for this. Like I could set up one for Solar, and a different one with different options showing for Deep Space.

I’ve never seen a program do this, and I imagine if you did it people might follow with other programs.

Would be highly personalized and make any program work exactly as it would if each user programmed it only to solve the issues they have, not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Maybe call this feature “Selfish Interface UX”
;-]
Michael W. Dean

Seeing a computer in the Sun for solar astrophotography (computer screen headset)

I used these computer screen googles to mirror my laptop monitor (put them on 2D not 3D)

They didn’t work on my older laptop but they were plug and play (mirroring screen) with this 14 inch dell laptop that cost me 260 bucks renewed with warranty, and it was fast enough to capture solar video for this.

I used this little 30 dollar laptop sunscreen to hold the laptop, for when I had to peek out at it. (Cats love it too!, when not in use for laptop)

I used Player One Neptune-M camera on Lunt 40 mm solar scope with BF1200. on Sky-Watcher SolarQuest Mount which JUST WORKS!

Here’s what I shot on my 3rd day ever of solar shooting.

This headset has no camera, so I recommend not putting it on until you’re seated, and stay seated until you’re done. At least don’t try to walk wearing it.

If you want to have fun with the goggles, add your pick of these inexpressive creature eye stickers to them.

Solar Ruler improved – Photoshop download included

DOWNLOAD ZIPPED PHOTOSHOP FILE: (updated Dec 3, 2025)

I made an updated version of the old Guy Buhry Solar Ruler design.

I put the the concentric lines on Photoshop layers, so you can turn off the measuring lines you don’t need.
I also translated from French to English.

I never liked that the concentric rings were all there even if using a shot with short proms. It made it look like the proms were underwhelming, even when they’re awesome.

So I made it into Photoshop layers, so you can turn off the measuring lines you don’t need. Will share Photoshop file in first comment.

Note: you want the Sun circle to be on the sun itself, not the “atmosphere” of the Sun. It’s done correctly in the first image aboe (I did it), and incorrectly in the second image above, lol (I didn’t do it, but left it for an example)

I also translated this from French to English. Feel free to translate for your local language.

I’m sure someone won’t like that, but: English is the Universal language of science. Because, while it’s the 4th most common first language, it’s by far the most common SECOND language, so most people can understand it.
So it should either be in your local language (feel free), or in English, or in about 100 languages. lol

The test images here are NASA for the long proms and Dominique Gering for the short prom pic.