new asi120mc starting over again......last night Jupiter

[northcanadian]

  Hi Folks......it has been a long time since I did any imaging....lots to learn and relearn.   I tried out my new ASI120MC last night....trying to learn Firecapture again.  Tried some 3 minute runs thru the 9.25SCT using a 2x Barlow.  I think I only got 12 or so fps using 640x480 ROI.  My image is quite noisy yet but an wondering how can I get a much faster frame rate?  Another drift alignment and check collimation is on the to do list also.

Thanks for looking and any suggestions much appreciated

Cheers

Roger

mc jup.tif

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi Roger and welcome back. Looking forward to seeing some more of your images. 

[Freddie]

What was your exposure as obviously if it was 0.08 (1/12) sec then that was your limiting factor so you would have to increase gain and reduce exposure. Other possibility is you are limited by download speed. Are use USB 2 or 3. Do you have SSD or normal hard drive?

[Davey-T]

Is the camera USB 2 or 3 ? even USB 2 should manage 30fps at full frame, what sort of computer is it plugged into ?

Dave

[northcanadian]

Thanks Phillip, Freddie and Dave....

I'm using a Toshiba 17" laptop...Win 7  with a new 1TB hard drive.  It is USB2 I believe.....shutter was 30.04 ms...gain 90...usb traffic (off) ...high speed on...gamma 50.  The hard drie is partitioned.....c has 473 GB free and e has 391 GB free.  I'm an older guy so my tech acumen is somewhat underwhelming...methinks.

Cheers

Roger

 

[Davey-T]

Something amiss somewhere, try playing with the sliders in Firecapture and watch the fps readout.

Dave

[cuivenion]

I'm a Sharpcap user that uses an ASI224. I think you may need to increase the USB Traffic Slider. If you have it at minimum (or off) in Sharpcap it will limit the FPS. If you have it set too high it can lead to dropped frames.

[cuivenion]

Just checked with an ASI224 with Firecapture. I had it plugged into a USB2 socket with the USB traffic at minimum. I was getting 28 FPS. 30 FPS with the USB Traffic at max.

You don't need the high speed setting on at that exposure as your maximum FPS is around 30 anyway.

You could try a different cable or a different USB port. Sometimes USB ports that are actually part of the motherboard perform a lot better than those that are in a seperate part of the laptop and wired to it.

You don't have the FPS limit slider checked in the control section do you?

[northcanadian]

Thanks ....I will have to check that fps limit slider (where it is and such) next time out...I thought the frame rate should also be a lot higher with a 640x480 ROI(?)

 

Cheers

Roger

[cuivenion]

4 minutes ago, northcanadian said:

Thanks ....I will have to check that fps limit slider (where it is and such) next time out...I thought the frame rate should also be a lot higher with a 640x480 ROI(?)

 

Cheers

Roger

Hi, It's just labelled FPS, it's in the same area as USB traffic slider at the bottom. You get there by clicking the gear symbol in the control tab. It's your exposure thats limiting your frame rate. If you lower the exposure and increase the gain your frame rate will go up. 1000ms=1 second, 1000/30.04= 32.89 frames per second, which is about what I was getting when I tested with Firecapture. Your settings will be very dependent on seeing conditions of course.

I would suggest doing your checks when you're not trying to image, that way you have everything working when you need it. Good luck!

[northcanadian]

Thank you.....so the smaller roi will not advantage towards a faster fps also?

[Merlin66]

Generally smaller ROI give higher frame rates.

I went for a ASI 174mm usb3 for my solar imaging.... on a reduced ROI (for the spectroheliograph) I can get up to 400 fps.

Definitely needs a fast computer with large memory (16Gb) and an SSD drive.

[cuivenion]

1 hour ago, northcanadian said:

Thank you.....so the smaller roi will not advantage towards a faster fps also?

Yes, but that's because the bandwidth taken up on the USB is not as much (filesize is smaller), so you can transfer more frames per second. But if you're only exposing every 30.4ms you'll only get 32.89 frames in one second. If you lower the exposure to 15ms you should get about 66fps.

[northcanadian]

Thanks...that is very helpful

Clear Skies

Roger

[Pete Presland]

Really nice image Roger. I hope you don't mind, i have given a very light Gaussian blur to remove a little of the noise and converted to a PNG file, so it can be viewed within the thread.

Regarding the frame rates. I had a problem with Firecapture and frame rates, when I installed a new driver for my Asi290mm. It might be worth maybe re-installing the programme perhaps, is it an older version?

As others have said you should be getting a better frame rate than 12. It might be worth posting the capture detail file that accompanies the video file.

This is a capture file with my old Asi120mm

Camera=ZWO ASI120MM
Filter=L
Profile=Jupiterx2
Diameter=38.89"
Magnitude=-2.14
CMI=228.8° CMII=153.3° CMIII=293.6°  (during mid of capture)
FocalLength=4950mm
Resolution=0.16"
Filename=Jupiterx2_160617_223324_L.ser
Date=160617
Start=223324.652
Mid=223454.657
End=223624.662
Start(UT)=213324.652
Mid(UT)=213454.657
End(UT)=213624.662
Duration=180.010s
Date_format=ddMMyy
Time_format=HHmmss
LT=UT
Frames captured=10043
File type=SER
Binning=no
ROI=640x480
ROI(Offset)=0x0
FPS (avg.)=55
Shutter=17.89ms
Gain=75
AutoExposure=off
Brightness=0
SoftwareGain=10 (off)
USBTraffic=65
HighSpeed=off
Gamma=50
Histogramm(min)=0
Histogramm(max)=185
Histogramm=72%
Noise(avg.deviation)=n/a
Limit=180 Seconds
Sensor temperature=29.0 °C
 

[northcanadian]

Thank you so much....looks better for sure.  I reprocessed and brought out Callisto (I think) in the bottom right.   I will use png next time also.  Are SER better than AVI captures?  Was thinking maybe a 2 minute run would be better if I can get the frame rate up considerably.

Great to be back and learning....

Cheers

Roger

 

[newbie alert]

1 hour ago, northcanadian said:

Thank you so much....looks better for sure.  I reprocessed and brought out Callisto (I think) in the bottom right.   I will use png next time also.  Are SER better than AVI captures?  Was thinking maybe a 2 minute run would be better if I can get the frame rate up considerably.

Great to be back and learning....

Cheers

Roger

 

Hi Roger..id use far less than 2 min on a 9.25 as with Jupiter you will get rotation smear on the image..unless you de-rotate in windupos

[northcanadian]

Thank you....was wondering about that...I think Winjupos is a bit beyond my level at present.  With same session data I reprocessed 1000 from 2030 frames...I will try a shorter run and hopefully much more fps next time out

Cheers

Roger

[Freddie]

Rotation is only a problem at very high resolution so with a 9.25 and 2x barlow you will be fine with 2 to 2.5 mins. 

[Freddie]

To show the "rotation will cause a blur" issue isn't quite true for even reasonably high resolution images, here is a 2.5 min AVI from my 9.25 and 2x barlow from a few years back.

 

[northcanadian]

Wow....great image!...Thanks for that....will try next session for 2.5 

Cheers

Roger

[northcanadian]

...just trying to reprocess from previous data

 

Cheers

Roger

[PeterCPC]

Welcome back Roger. Are you sure the collimation is ok? Focus looks a bit off to me.

Peter

[newbie alert]

13 hours ago, Freddie said:

To show the "rotation will cause a blur" issue isn't quite true for even reasonably high resolution images, here is a 2.5 min AVI from my 9.25 and 2x barlow from a few years back.

 

And there' me doing 40 sec subs with my 8,No Barlow.. 

 

[northcanadian]

Thanks Peter....good to be back. My scope is in a shed but not on a pier so I think I will first do a drift alignment (maybe the frost heaved it off a bit)...then for sure I will check on the collimation.  

Cheers

Roger