Southern Hemisphere Jupiters.....

[Kokatha man also!]

Hi all - this is me (Kokatha man) but I had to re-register under "Kokatha man also!" because I cannot find my old password and due to not having sent SGL my change of email address recently (like 3 or 4 years ago ) I couldn't use the "Forgot your password" link.....

It is the reason I haven't posted for a considerable time here and I apologise for not being able to comment on some of the good images posted in the meantime.....

Jupiter in South Australia is of course diabolical with 30 degrees elevation so we've made a couple of trips North to eke out a few more measly degrees - we're also testing the cmos-based ASI120MM mono camera and its' sister the ASI120MC colour camera that were kindly sent to us by Sam of ZW Optical some time back.

I have posted some very late Mars images here on SGL about 2 or 3 months ago using this camera, but have been frustrated by the rotten Jovian imaging opportunities for the Southern Hemispere this current (and the next etc! ) apparition...

We arrived at our present location the night before last about 2 hours before sunset having travelled 2300kms and it was pretty hot, so after unpacking the car and sorting out the caravan we set up just after dusk intending to do a PA of the mount to assist imaging - but the seeing very early was encouraging so we swung straight into imaging around 11pm...

Unfortunately I was lulled by this into going without my normal essential collimating routine.....we had driven 1200km or so that day and it was very hot and we were very tired - but some routines should allways be adhered to..!

When we did check much later the collimation was quite out (not surprising after all that travelling!) and naturally the earlier seeing was the best.....

We were hampered by hot winds that had the image ricochetting around the screen like a pinball on speed, requiring me first to select 640x480 resolution @ 60fps to allow enough room to keep the planet onscreen for most of each channel's recording duration.....but then had to switch to 800x640 @ 50fps for even more headroom due to the idiotic and uncontolable gyrations of the image within its' window/sreenbox..!

As allways I hope there's something better in all the data we compiled that night, but here are 2 images from that session - the first AFTER collimation but when the seeing had dipped a bit.....the second BEFORE collimation when I believe seeing was markedly better.....and you'd think I would've learnt not to cut corners by now!!!

But despite the hot wind, some haze and having to wait for cloud banks to pass through during the night conditions were quite good for us (relatively speaking as a member from the Sthn. Hemisphere..! )

My wife was constantly warning me about the lightning flickering in the South-East from whence the cloud bands were emanating.....we cut it fine and had everything packed up and the C14 & NEQ6 under tarpaulin only 10 minutes before the most incredible storm struck - the lightning & thunder that accompanied it was the most amazing I have ever witnessed in my 63 years - and over 60mm of rain was dumped on us in about 90 minutes...!!

Apologies if the colour etc isn't quite right.....this was done "in the field" on the laptop so some anomo;ies will be present!

[StuW]

Absolutely stunning results. I too have the ASI220MC and getting half decent results considering I've only used an SPC900 in the past. Talking to Sam through email, he's actively developing the driver so things can only get better!

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[JamesF]

Agreed. Gorgeous images.

Please do post your thoughts on the ZW optical cameras. The more information there is about these the better I think (though it doesn't actually seem to be possible to buy the colour one at the moment).

James

[Kokatha man also!]

Thanks Stu.....Sam sent me the ASI120MC (colour) camera also to test but tbh I haven't used it still, but am hoping to before we head home next week if conditions allow!

Are you using FireCapture or Sharpcap..?

Because I concentrated on assisting Sam get the mono camera fully-functional I got rather manic pushing him re that particular camera, but Sharpcap was quite ok with the colour cam where things like changing settings for each channel capture etc, etc aren't an issue for colour captures...

Sam would agree that our correspondence in the "early days" of getting this camera fully-functional involved quite a bit of to-ing & fro-ing to understand what each other was saying sometimes.....sometimes his English explanations would stump me and require repeated emailing - but as I kept saying, his English was perfect in comparison to my Mandarin..!

Anyway, the bottom line is these cameras are imho a definite "frontline player" - I also own and use a PGR Flea3 so I'm not comparing it to a "Box Brownie" when I give it high praise!

Look forward to seeing what you can achieve with your camera and the much more favourable elevation you enjoy over the next month or so!

[Kokatha man also!]

James, I believe they ARE available (Stu obviously purchased one!) and the best thing for folks to do is email Sam at ZW Optical.....I only have his "unofficial" speculated price he was considering when we started testing - but I believe it is enormously" competitive compared to the Flea3 and also DMK/DBK618's - and I mean "enormously competitive!!!"

Later I'll do a bit more of a specific write-up of the camera and post details.....

[JamesF]

Could just be that they're not in the shop, then. Or if they are I'm too slow to find them. Did you get yours direct from the shop, Stu?

Not that I'm desperate to buy anything right this minute, but I'm hopeful there'll be cause for a small celebration once my books are done and I've paid the taxman at the end of December...

James

[StuW]

James, I got mine from the aliexpress shop. With the current exchange rate the colour works out at about £180 with IR filter, 150 degree lens and 1.25" adapter.

Sam mentioned he was opening a support forum on his site soon, so development should be much easier then.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[sologuitarist61]

Fantastic !!

[StuW]

Forgot to answer your question Kothka. I'm using Sharpcap atm, it seems to be the most compatible including ROI even though the 120MC isn't supposed to have it.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[JamesF]

James, I got mine from the aliexpress shop.

I'm not going mad, am I? It's not showing there now?

James

[Kokatha man also!]

Forgot to answer your question Kothka. I'm using Sharpcap atm, it seems to be the most compatible including ROI even though the 120MC isn't supposed to have it.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

Nothing against Sharpcap Stu but I'd recommend you give FireCapture a tryout - it is the #1 planetary capture software and there are features/aspects in it that make capturing avi's "as easy as falling off a log"...as well as other benefits!

[neil phillips]

Certainly got some detail on those Darryl. Especialy for the low Alt

[Kokatha man also!]

Thanks Neil - here's the red channel for the first image revealing a wealth of detail in both Polar regions and areas adjacent to these.....

[astroman001]

Hi Darryl

Superb images, love the blog as well. Glad you and the gear survived the storm!

Peter

[Kokatha man also!]

Thanks Peter - we're doing it "tough" with Jupiter nowadays, but last night the seeing went up several notches and that flamin' wind wasn't around.....will post some images later!