Jupiter sept 13th

[neil phillips]

Was very windy tonight, but i was determined to at least try After weeks of rubbish weather. By using the technique of having the mouse in one hand and tracking controller in the other, everytime it flew off screen i paused it, put it back, and started recording again.

Not ideal as you lose time, and it blurs frames. Which goes to show jupiter has improved in size and brightness since i think i last imaged as the result doesnt look miles worse. Will need a windless night, to bother with colour, My NEQ6 seems to have some play, the image moves up and down during focussing, and the wind made it seriously fly off. Will have to try to figure how to sort this. Some more to go through. But under the circumstances, im surprised it doesnt look awful especially as i was using the 5x powermate. The red spot just coming into view here 60 fps DMK21AU618.AS 245MM Newt

capture size

[johnh]

Its still showing good detail but colour needs a grade higher and steadier as blue will be bad. If there is play you need to weigh one side of axis heavier. Tiny grub screws on worm and cylinder need tweaking in daylight. Must be irritating having Jupiter leave the scene like that as long Newtonians are wind sails.

John.

[Space Cowboy]

Well done Neil! GRS peeping round the corner. It was actually very calm here before sunrise but was busy getting ready for a sale so could not take advantage. Looks like its gonna stay windy for most of the week.

[neil phillips]

Hi John i think its the declination that has play are you saying it would be better to put the declination slightly off balance ? the play is not a lot, but at high power a few mm is like 10 inches movement on screen. Not sure what i should do, as tinkering will void the warrenty. It was very anoying, just completely few off, i had to try and guess when it was going to do it, sometimes i was too late. but we have virtual dub.

Cheers Stuart. I think we had a tiny tale end of that hurricane that was blasting scotland. im surprised it was calm were you are, though they did say the wind would calm some. which it did, but it never lasted for more than a few seconds here

[26Left]

Hi Neil,

It's not just you. My EQ6 declination axis has some play in it. I never really took much notice of it until last night, when I had similar problems with the wind. Taking it off balance helped a bit, but, in the end, I removed the dew shield, which made a difference.

Anyway, you've caught some very good detail.

Cheers,

Tom.

[neil phillips]

Hi Tom yes i think its a common problem. for now i will try putting it off balance, see if that helps. without wind its not as troublsome, mostly focussing, as it moves up and down when i try. I cant be without a mount at the moment, so im just going to keep working with it. like John said, i think it can be adjusted.

cheers

[Ibbo!]

It just shows that even in marginal conditions what can be done

A question for you with the 618 chips just how much more sensitive are they

lets say you were imaging at 1/20 sec with the "old" 21 what would the new chip be running at?

Cheers

Steve

[neil phillips]

Hi Steve hard to say off the top of my head, but its not just a question of sensetivety.The old DMK produced artifacts at 60 fps, the new camera does not, capturing at a faster exposure ( compared to say 1/30 secs 30 fps ) the camera can beat the seeing much more readily. As it reacts to brief moments of calmer seeing. At this power which is easily 10 meters focal length maybe more i have the gain at about 90% which is high. But of course i can capture 8000 or so frames. The old DMK at this power would be 100% gain only 30 fps 1/30 secs exposure ( less speed ) and Dimmer histogram. So clearly it is much more sensetive, and a more capable camera alround.

[LeeB]

Great result given the weather keeping anything steady last night was fun.

[Ibbo!]

The reason I asked was that I normally use an 8" sct for planetary and can't get the frame rate up to 60 fps and was hopping that the new cam would up the frame rate

In this case I expect aperture helps

I did try the 12" dob on the gem and the weather did not co operate and had to take it off for a public observing session and have not tried it again as its hard getting it on the mount and I've now got the mount loaded with other stuff

So to sum up keep trying with the sct and don't be greedy and expect a high frame rate

Thanks Steve

[neil phillips]

Another

[AztecastroMcJ]

Nice1 Neil,

both showing nice fine details, nicely processed aswell

weather is shocking at min too so job well done there

James

[26Left]

Hi Tom yes i think its a common problem. for now i will try putting it off balance, see if that helps. without wind its not as troublsome, mostly focussing, as it moves up and down when i try. I cant be without a mount at the moment, so im just going to keep working with it. like John said, i think it can be adjusted.

cheers

My EQ6 is years old. Every so often, I get the allen keys out and adjust it. Strange thing is, there is much less dec backlash this afternoon. I wonder if it's related to temperature.

[neil phillips]

I can feel a slight rattle in the declination axis, but its quite slight im suprised its causing so much movement though at even medium powers, i guess it will amplify timy mount movements. wondering if the larger head that is fitted rather than the older vixen one needs tightening. Is it the 3 flat screws that attach the losmandy ? do you know

[26Left]

I have the standard Vixen puck. But, it gets loose occasionally, so it's worth checking. Can't be certain, but I think it's held in by three grub screws. There are also two or three flat countersunk screws. I can't work out what they do. They're like the inspection covers on the main head.

Discouraged by the backlash and slopiness, I decided to adjust my dec axis yesterday and wish I hadn't. It takes ages to adjust and I don't think it was necessary anyway. The wind that night just amplified the problem.

[Ibbo!]

You have rather a large sail on your mount with the 10" and a lot of inertia

Steve