Help - How do I use an ADC with a mono camera?

[Stub Mandrel]

OK, I've set up my 150PL with a five position filter wheel (IR cut, IR&UV cut, Blue, Green, Red), then ADC, then x3 barlow then mono camera ready for Jupiter.

Great! Epic!

But... how do I get the ADC set properly using a mono camera?

All I can think of is selecting blue then trying to get the image as sharp as possible?

<edit> should add I've been practising on aldebaran setting up finderscope, practising focus, get to know camera controls etc.

Edited April 20, 2018 by Stub Mandrel

[CraigT82]

I wouldn't have thought you'd need a adc with a mono camera? As you'd refocus for each filter the align in post process??

[Stub Mandrel]

2 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

I wouldn't have thought you'd need a adc with a mono camera? As you'd refocus for each filter the align in post process??

Apparently it still sharpens each channel quite a bit.

[CraigT82]

8 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Apparently it still sharpens each channel quite a bit.

Only thing I can think of is to leave one position in the FW clear and use that to set the adc? Maybe not very helpful Sorry! 

[Stub Mandrel]

11 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

Only thing I can think of is to leave one position in the FW clear and use that to set the adc? Maybe not very helpful Sorry! 

I was going to set it using the IR cut only setting to get 'maximum blurring'.

Google says you can get a filter that lets through red and blue (magenta coloured I suppose) so you point it at a nearby star that 'splits in two' and you adjust the ADC until it is a single point.

[CraigT82]

40 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I was going to set it using the IR cut only setting to get 'maximum blurring'.

Sounds like a plan. Tough to do it by eye though... Don't suppose you could substitute in a colour camera to set the Adc (using the Adc tool in firecapture or similar)  then switch over to mono for capture? 

[Stub Mandrel]

Not sure it will make any difference - jupiter is bouncing round like a bunny - the seeing is appalling.

Perhaps it will be better when it gets up to 20 degrees

[Stub Mandrel]

This is ZWO's manual.

ADC Manual EN.pdf

[Stub Mandrel]

Things did get a bit better and I had an inspired idea!

Fit a bahtinov mask... you need a longer exposure but with a bright star yo can use the ADC to bend the bahtinov 'cross' like a banana.

I found I could use Io with about two seconds exposure and get a very obvious shape, I then used trial and error to get it as straight as possible.

Not 100% sure how much this is just getting eh orientation right and how much it is actually getting the setting right...

In the end I ran out of sky and couldn't face moving the scope a third time at 1:00am

[knobby]

Did you progress with this, sounds interesting ?

[Stub Mandrel]

Had to go back and see what I could find. This is the RGB image I ended up with.

Compare with RGB image a couple of weeks later:

Perhaps a lot of the difference is the processing?

[Blazar]

Never bothered with an ADC (but I did buy one), and I have a 174mm...I guess shooting with a colour whilst they are low is ideal and the ADC is beneficial... Jupiter is around -20 degrees below the celestial equator even at the meridian. Probably why I have not been out for two years or so! 

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Blazar said:

Never bothered with an ADC (but I did buy one), and I have a 174mm...I guess shooting with a colour whilst they are low is ideal and the ADC is beneficial... Jupiter is around -20 degrees below the celestial equator even at the meridian. Probably why I have not been out for two years or so! 

Makes a big difference, I would have put planetary imaging aside if I hadn't got it. I was convinced my setup was broken in some way, but it was just atmospheric dispersion.