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Kitsunegari

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Posts posted by Kitsunegari

  1. Explore scientific firstlight 127mm x 1200mm achromat with basler aca1920-155um camera

    Identical processing,  Identical amount of frames.   +1 difference in gain setting on the triplet. 

     triplet set focuser position to about 17mm.       quadruplet set focuser position to about 32mm.    The focal point of the quadruplet barlow is nearly double,  which was not expected.

     

    I think i see finer surface detail on the triplet  in the white mottle's,  but  sharper overall image detail on the quadruplet.   This could be a moment of atmosphere affect of better seeing condition, or  simply a fumble  by my hand with focus on the triplet.

    2" Celestron Luminos 2.5x Quadruplet 

    FPS (avg.)=149
    Shutter=6.629ms
    Gain=13 (36%)
    Gamma=140

    1500 frames / -90%  /  stacked best 4%

    679805585_quad4percent.thumb.gif.8aa8e19264d6fa4cd2b80a2323826bbf.gif

     

     

     

     

    1.25" Celestron Ultima SV 2x Triplet 

    FPS (avg.)=149
    Shutter=6.629ms
    Gain=14 (38%)
    Gamma=140

    1500 frames / -90%  /  stacked best 4%

     

    202930540_trip4percent.thumb.gif.9dfbfa2b8074cf90e0ef33dc4816d1a1.gif

     

    • Like 3
  2. 9 hours ago, Altair8389 said:

    Hello Kit

     

    Hello Kitsunegari,

     

    Did you solve your Newton Ring's problems. I am on my way to solving this.  Which camera and solar telescope are you using ?

     

    Thanks

    Magnus

    I never found a fix for them unfortunately, and pretty much gave up.   I think the solution is to mount the telescope in a bedroom, then using a 500 watt lamp with saran wrap over the objective and then record 1 million frames of the lamp. :)

    I say 500 watts because you need to match the exposure level settings for the particular filter system used, and the amount of light output at that particular wavelength from the lamp.     

     

    The 1 million frames remark is just a quip,  it may only require 500,000 frames 🤣

     

    Since the camera records at 500 frames per second,  there may be a fractional factoring of required frames compared to a camera that is much slower.    I,E  a slower camera sees more motion blur in detail by the drifting, and a fast camera sees zero blur from the motion.    

  3. 17 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

    I find 250 frames often leads to noisy results, I find, especially working at F/30 and a quite narrow 0.3 Å bandwidth. I might get a new filter that matches my newer, more sensitive cameras better. A better grade filter may also have higher transmission

    IT does introduce some noise; especially if you over do it on the processing. USually it is not noticeable unless you have the gain cranked up.  What are your typical exposure , gain and gamma settings for capture?       Using a 0.3angstrom filter ,  you will experience longer exposure times because they are dimmer than a wider bandpass.

     

    Unfortunately on the solar spectrum and daystar filters the real handicap is in the  blocking filter used in them;   These  gradually die in storage and overtime a performance loss occurs.;  this is first  noticed by requiring longer exposure times :(      The mica typically stays good however.

     

    Placing the SS and Daystar stuff  in a box exposes them slowly to  damaging environment factors like car pollution,  and humidity; even residual vapors of  in home chemicals such as paint ,floors and plastics; airconditioners and heaters.    Sadly the filters suck this invisible  stuff up like candy unless you vacuum seal it in a silica bag  :(

     

    Also the amount of exposure to sunlight was predetermined to cause a gradual death, regardless of energy rejection.   These two filters (red and gold)   are designed to fail to protect the valuable mica.

     

     

    0.3angstrom filters are the best out there, and solar spectrum is the leading manufacture brand currently; so i doubt you will find anything better.        The two blocker and trim filters are sourced from andover optical and they have limited shelf life, so this is the unfortunate nature of these systems.   Sometimes Mark Wagner can upgrade these for you to a better suited bandwidth that can brighten up the system a bit; but the 0.3a mica is always going to be dimmer than a 0.5a system.

     

    The sundancer2 by solar spectrum is supposed to be a remedy for the expiration date on filters,   with a sacrifice of etalon size and bandwidth  for life time extension.        It sports the baader planetarium name, but is still made by solar spectrum.   They are 0.65a and are likely the next best option,  the longevity factor alone is very attractive.  

     

     

    I do agree with the camera statement,  perhaps you can find one with greater sensitivity in h-alpha.   Some cameras now are well suited for near infrared light and would indeed provide a brighter image.   Using such a high focal length is going to decrease image brightness;  so trying to maximize efficiency is certainly worth investing in to get the most of the filter you already have.          I did this with my calcium system,  found one that had 85% quantum efficiency at my desired wavelength and it was immediately noticeable when i used a long focal length.   Most cameras are less than 50% efficient below 400nm;  so you can imagine boosting this to 85% would logically provide an improvement somewhere and it does.  

     

     

  4. 12 hours ago, GreatAttractor said:

    Very nice results!

    But 10 000 frames (100 s) sounds a bit too much time-wise; at this scale I'd expect the features to evolve noticeably. Can you try processing just 2000-3000 frames?

    It certainly depends on the frame rate, and length of the video duration. 

     

    I find that 8-10 second capture time per video  is the ideal amount for h-alpha; and   Realistically one only needs to use 250 frames for stacking.      Less stacked frames = less processing as well.

  5. while you are capturing, disable your  wifi first; then  Click on the start menu and open "virus an threat protection" , click on the manage settings button just under the virus and threat protection section;      and disable them all.  You will gain 150+ fps ability from your camera

     

    Something about the real time virus  threat monitoring and cloud protection and automatic sample submission kills the camera record speed.      I guess it uploads your capture somewhere on the net while you are making it...

      

    Turn them all back on when you are done capturing and ready to get back online.

    • Like 1
  6. On 02/10/2021 at 03:12, Icosahedron said:


    Hi Apollo,

    I'm about to construct a camera with smaller pixels and will attempt Ba again after that and solving the interference problem. No Hg lines present in the solar spectrum according to the reference I use.

    The UV mercury I-line would be hiding somewhere inbetween 365nm and 366nm, and the green mercury  e-line is exactly 546.073

  7. Looks like I got a lemon.     $7000.0 quantum SE 0.5 angstrom.     I guess that saying "you get what you pay for"  does not apply to anything at daystar.         

     

    While the area that is good, is indeed good.   I cannot  believe they shipped something where only 1/5th the image is presentable.    I have had PST etalon's that only cost $500 perform better.

     

    A flat would not even fix this  :(  

     

    spacer.png

    spacer.png   The top right of this image is phenomenal.  Its too bad that it the only "great" part of this $7000 product.   Dont ever buy a quantum.

    • Sad 3
  8. 2 hours ago, GreatAttractor said:

    Nice catch! Can't remember seeing a floater like this before.

     

    Suggestion: you can upload animations on SGL (and other forums running on more modern engines) as MP4 videos, this can drastically reduce file sizes compared to GIF. E.g. my animation from the other thread was 174 MiB as a GIF, and < 10 MiB as a H264-encoded video. At a bitrate preserving all details.

    You can convert to videos e.g. with the free FFMPEG tool, using an invocation like this:
     

     

    ill give it a try, but i usually have poor success with mp4 compression,  everytime i upload it to youtube it looks like garbage.   Flickr had the best non-destructive replay but the video dimensions are limited there.   Vimeo was also good.   The issue i have is that my camera records beyond 1080p but below 4k, so finding a right match is chock full of errors with automatic scaling and image ratios.

  9. Replace the erf of your front mounted etalon with  a piece of clear camera glass, you should be able to find a plain old UV filter that fits and it will boost transmission by a ton.      

    If you have a pressure tuner, theres an erf inside the scope already and you are losing 20% transmission by having two erf's installed via double stack.

     

     

     

    • Thanks 1
  10. 15 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

    Wow - very impressive! Looks like you’ve got a great filter.

    it certainly hits the home-run with prominence captures;  but i think the banding with surface detail is quite bad to my eye;  my modified LS50C etalon is a ton better unfortunately. 

     

     I would rate this etalon a 6 out of 10 for surface detail

     

     

    I may have to run the etalon itself at F/60 to eliminate that dark stripe, and then use a focal reducer to widen the field a bit at the camera   (a true f//60 via 6x magnification,  not stopping down the objective)   

     

    All the images are taken at f30 with a 3x baader telecentric.

     

     

    The hard truth is that there really is a "lottery affect" on etalon0;  does not matter who made it.,  Only 1 in 10 people will get an 8 out of 10 quality etalon.     Only 1 in 50 will get a 10 out of 10 etalon.

  11. Changed up the system a bit and measured my TZ3 properly,  eliminated all focuser sag.  Let the TEC cooler sit for 30 mins before imaging.   No active regions for me to focus on to tell if i am on band or not, but i did get some much better surface detail today when the dial was set to 24.

    Limb test for prominences

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    surface test 1 before the tec was cooled.

    spacer.png

     

    This is about 10 to 15mins of  cooling with the tec

    spacer.png

     

    this is 30 minutes after cooling

    spacer.png

    • Like 10
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