Jupiter from Bembridge 04/12 (ASI224MC)

[SnakeyJ]

I've had little chance to get out so far this season and test the new camera and think this is only my second outing with the camera that was purchased in early October.      All in a rather different game from shooting mono with the QHY5L-IIM.    I have kept basically the same imaging train, including the SX filterwheel, but am only recording with the L filter (to provide IR-block), this also allows me to experiment with the PP742 IR-PASS.    Frame rates and sensitivity are considerably better than the QHY5L-II (Aptina MT9M034) sensor, due to the USB3 and Sony's IMX224.   It is also considerably more stable and has not hung so far, in comparison to the QHY5L-IIM that would hang 3-4 times during a session (crashing firecapture).

Anyhow, windy but pretty fair conditions this morning as a gap between fronts blew through.    Seeing was pretty poor and it was difficult to nail focus, but slightly better towards the end of the session.   This is a quick process of my last capture at 06:00hrs, stacking 30% of 7000 frames in AS!2 and linked wavelet sharpening in R6.

Not had much of a chance to play with the camera settings, so this was aimed at a 70% histogram and was clocking around 120FPS at 640x480 ROI.     There are some Newton rings evident, probably from over sharpening and non optimal capture settings - I've attached the firecapture logfile if anyone wants to review and possibly offer a hint on more optimal settings.

Using the TV 3x barlow, I would expect focal length to be around 3.6m, rather than the 6.3 estimated by FC - pixel size is the same as the QHY5L-IIM, so not quite sure why this is so far off!

2015-12-04-0600_2-JG-L-6.txt

[Mick J]

Nice Jake,  a good start with the new camera.

[mitchelln]

Very nice!

Have you seen ZWO have released a cooled version of the ASI224MC? (well, all their USB 3 cameras in fact). At £600 its a game changing price for a cooled camera. It won't make much odds for planetary, but interesting for more DSO stacking type stuff.

http://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/products/asi-cooled-cameras/asi-224mc-cool

[laudropb]

Very promising start with your new camera.

[SnakeyJ]

Very nice!

Have you seen ZWO have released a cooled version of the ASI224MC? (well, all their USB 3 cameras in fact). At £600 its a game changing price for a cooled camera. It won't make much odds for planetary, but interesting for more DSO stacking type stuff.

http://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/products/asi-cooled-cameras/asi-224mc-cool

 Thanks Mitchelln,

Oddly enough I was just browsing the ZWO site looking for any news of the release of their own ADC.   Disappointed to see this has not yet hit the market, but I was drooling over the pricing and dark frame for the Cooled ASI174MM  - the pricing is looking very attractive at 799USD, the biggest limitation though will be the 12bit limit on ADC (14 bit on ASI178MC) and perhaps anti blooming in comparison to small chip conventional CCD cameras like the 414EX.    

[SnakeyJ]

 I've attached the firecapture logfile if anyone wants to review and possibly offer a hint on more optimal settings.

I found quite a good CN Thread on optimal settings for this camera @ http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/519383-best-settings-for-asi224-when-imaging-jupiter/ (thanks to Darryl and Stuart for their insights)

I'll try capturing at Unity Gain (315) and change the Gamma setting to 50.

[Freddie]

Very nice start with the new cam there Jake.

[Pete Presland]

Nice start with the new camera, is the "onion ring" effect actually newtons rings? 

[SnakeyJ]

Nice start with the new camera, is the "onion ring" effect actually newtons rings? 

You are correct Pete, newton rings are interference effects produced by lens elements, whereas I have onion rings produced by pushing the wavelets in R6 and probably too low/non optimal gain for this sensor.

I'm hoping to get another run in tomorrow morning if the forecast holds good, so will see if I can produce a better result.

[Pete Presland]

I had a morning a couple of weeks ago where had the same effect. On analysing the AVI'S the histogram was only 60% full instead of the usual 70+

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

[Tyson M]

Nice shot and breakdown of image capturing. 

[Space Cowboy]

Nice start with the 224 Jake!