Full Discs- Testing new ASI 178 camera

[Zakalwe]

Testing a new ASI 178 camera on the Lunt L60

Image details:
Full disc fits nicely on the chip.
Double-stacked Lunt L60 pressure tuned.
ASI178 camera.
Mesu 200 mount.
Captured in Firecapture, stacked in AS!3. Sharpened in ImPPG.
Final processing in Photoshop.

 

07_06_2020 Full Disc Normal Proms Inverted DiscGrad Bkgrnd by Stephen Jennette, on Flickr

 

07_06_2020 Full Disc Normal Proms Inverted Disc by Stephen Jennette, on Flickr

 

07_06_2020 Full Disc Inverted Proms Normal Disc Pseudo Colour by Stephen Jennette, on Flickr

 

07_06_2020 Full Disc Inverted Proms Normal Disc Mono by Stephen Jennette, on Flickr

Edited June 7, 2020 by Zakalwe

[tooth_dr]

I kinda regret selling my 178 now. These are superb images. 

[Zakalwe]

7 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I kinda regret selling my 178 now. These are superb images. 

Thank you.

I only had a chance to test it in the late afternoon between the clouds, so not ideal conditions.

The camera seems to match the Lunt 60 well. Nice to be able to capture a full disc without having to mosaic!

[tooth_dr]

4 minutes ago, Zakalwe said:

Thank you.

I only had a chance to test it in the late afternoon between the clouds, so not ideal conditions.

The camera seems to match the Lunt 60 well. Nice to be able to capture a full disc without having to mosaic!

I have switched to a 290MM, and whilst it fits over half the disc in the fov, I’m out of luck when out comes to going mosaics.  Takes a fairly decent pc to run the 6MP at full pelt I think?

[Davey-T]

Very nice Stephen, when you say it fits nicely on the sensor are those full images or cropped ? I have the same setup and have trouble getting the Sun centred vertically with my clunky old iEQ45.

Dave

[Sunshine]

Those are simply breathtaking images! 

[Zakalwe]

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

I have switched to a 290MM, and whilst it fits over half the disc in the fov, I’m out of luck when out comes to going mosaics.  Takes a fairly decent pc to run the 6MP at full pelt I think?

Mosaics can be a PITA if the conditions are a bit changeable or the seeing is all over the place. Photoshop does a good job, but if it fails then Microsoft ICE can sometimes succeed. I stack the panes, merge into a mosaic and then sharpen. That seems to work for me.

 

 

2 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Very nice Stephen, when you say it fits nicely on the sensor are those full images or cropped ? I have the same setup and have trouble getting the Sun centred vertically with my clunky old iEQ45.

Dave

Thanks Dave. It just about fits on the sensor. I used a ROI of 2560 x 2048 and it just about squeaks in there. There's no room for any drifting though, so the mount needs to be solid and track well.

[Zakalwe]

2 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Those are simply breathtaking images! 

Thank you. Gotta admit that my processing skills (such as they were) are pretty damn rusty. I kept staring at Photoshop like a dog that's just been shown a card trick* wondering which damn button to push! 

 

 

*Thank you Bill Hicks, you absolute legend!

[Davey-T]

8 minutes ago, Zakalwe said:

Thanks Dave. It just about fits on the sensor. I used a ROI of 2560 x 2048 and it just about squeaks in there. There's no room for any drifting though, so the mount needs to be solid and track well.

Bought a SW SolarQuest mount for it but it has a lot of backlash which makes it hard to get it centred vertically as I push the direction button and nothing happens then it suddenly jumps too far,
once centred it tracks nicely on the Sun though.

Dave

[richard ashbee]

excellent photos just waiting for mine to come to use with same set up

[MarkAR]

Excellent set of images, looks like there's one hell of a big disturbance on the surface.

[Pete Presland]

Superb start with the 178, excellent image!