SolarChat!

PDB

Yep. Here is the animated Gif I extracted from the captured file. Around 50 frames. (Reduced it "little" bit to get a "usable" filesize)
(You are right: 20. Didn't even count them ..)

: C2017-03-27-0937_8-PDB-SC.ser_F1710-1750.gif (456.44 KiB) Viewed 993 times

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Hello Pedro, don't know if that 4GB size limit still exists for AVI. In standard AVI it does, but new software seems to use tricks to get around that. But might not always be "portable". Still have some older AVIS that don't play on all my computers (missing codec, invalid format ...) Here...

PDB

Hello, There was plenty of sunshine an reasonable seeing. Must say that visually the view was much better than what I could capture. Quark set to +3 this time 2017-03-27-1200_5-PDB-Ha_g3_ap1513_conv.jpg And a full disc in white light. (Only 1 frame exported from the SER file, haven't processed the f...

PDB

And with the SER file you could get exact time of the transit (frame by frame)

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Hello Alexandra, nice capture. I NEVER use AVI files. There are soo many flavours of image compression and storage inside the AVI envelope that you always risc compatibility issues. I do all captures in SER format (yes the file will be bigger, you can zip it later, but at least the information in th...

PDB

Thank you all. Alexandra: you should get your money back! The "repaired" one seemed even worse than the "bad" one. Looks like mine is still "working" but atmospheric conditions having big influence. Doing some tests again today, and could visually see great details. (im...

PDB

Sunshine this morning. 15 days without spots, finally something new Seeing did not allow higher resolution. Good periods wit 1.0" through 1.5" 80mm@f/24 Quark Chrompsphere - ASI120MM-S (Bit overprocessed, need to redo this, and still struggling with correct setting for the Quark) 2017-03-2...

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Spring started today! Good to see you finally had some sunshine. Hα disk looks great and some nice prominences.

Nothing but rain and clouds here rest of the week.

Paul

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Hello Derek, there must be something strange in the way Daystar measures the temperature. (Maybe the just calculate a temp offset?) But it really looks as if below 20°C the "thing" is not performing, although specs say between 5°C an 40°C. Also got the impression the Quark is performing sl...

PDB

Thanks for the comments. Actually don't find these images very good compared to what the Quark produced last year. Starting to have my doubts about it. Quality?

Rgrds,

Paul

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Slightly better conditions than yesterday. Started around noon, so lots of turbulence. As a test placed a "home made" diafragama (carton, scissors & duct tape) in front of the scope reducing it from 80mm to 60. This creates f/34 before the Quark. Produced (what I was expecting) more co...

PDB

Nice images Alexandra. Pefect example why an ADC will help on planetary imaging low in the sky. (Execpt for the seeing) Hope your Quark is now doing a better job. Nothing but problems here. Bad USB3 cables, rain, an finally some shunshine but all washed out images through the Quark. I wonder if it i...

PDB

"maybe nobody likes me" don't think so Alexandra. I know if one company (if still existing) selling a coronograph (very similar to the one from Walter Lille). German company called Beloptik. They are on Airylab's dealer list, but the website mentioned there seems to have vanished. (so no i...

PDB

Hello Carl, only basic knowlegd on magnetometer output, but from what i read it produces "sound" captured via line-in (or soundcard) from the PC. Problem wit the PI is that standard there seems to be no line-in connection (only headphone or hdmi out). So looks that some type of usb sound c...

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Good to see your picture back Franco.

Paul

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difficult to choose a winner between the sm40 and the lunt60. SM40 looks little bit better i think ...
Nice "observatories" pictures. Is that your shadow on the bottom left one?

Rgrds,

Paul

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Thanks.

It was a very short sunny intermezzo. Rain and clouds again.

Regards,

Paul

PDB

Hi,

very small image (to allow high framerate) captured at noon from AR2636. Seeing not very good.
(Weather was fine and nice, but seeing awful)

: P2017-02-16-1213_6-PDB-Ha_g3_ap43.png (126.04 KiB) Viewed 1035 times

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Thanks for the explanation Robert.
Think I will need to talk to my supplier and probably have a look first. (Baader D-ERF + scope is not cheap)

Rgrds,

Paul

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cloudy whole weekend, but should be sunny tommorow Robert: these images are great. With Sun so low, perfect imaging. Also like the processing, spot on. BTW: see you are using the ES127. Suppose this is the ES AR127. If so, how far is focus outside the tube? Considering getting one, but need to be su...

PDB

No sun, but nice sunflower

Looks hot an humid down under. (At least that is what some newspapers here say "hottest summer in 158 years")

Nice collage, perfect pictures; as usual.

Rgrds,

Paul

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Thanks Eric and Franco.

PDB

Just found an explanation on Emil's page: http://www.astrokraai.nl/software/manua ... lanet.html
(but as i am slow in understanding will need to read this carefully)

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Mark, Marios and Alexandra: thanks for the comments. (I think the image could be a lot better if seeing would permit) Alexandra: if I understood it correctly, you stack once with auto-size in the reference frame. Then you stack a second time with Last Stack is reference and AS!2then uses the last st...

PDB

Hi, the login at the bottom of the page is not working all the time. Sometimes works, sometimes gives the 500 Error, and sometimes goes to the login pages saying "a password" is needed. Trying a few times usually helps. What I found works best, is when not logged in, open a post, and then ...

PDB

Was attending our Astrophotograpy day last weekend. One presentation was about solar eclipses. Seems this might be a good choice to test: http://www.strickling.net/eclipsedroid.htm If you test it carefully on beforehand (do general rehersal) and set all parameters correct it might free give you time...

PDB

Hello, image already dates from 2nd of February. Original processing was not very good, so tried today with reprocessing the file multiple times in AS!2 with last stack as reference. Seems to give slightly better results. Has anyone already used this "last stack as reference" to process th...

PDB

When trying to login in the forum usually get this: 500: Internal server error This error is generated when a script running on the server could not be implemented or permissions are incorrectly assigned for files or directories Troubleshooting suggestions: Temporarily disable any rewrite rules by r...

PDB

Hello Alexandra,

nice and sharp pictures. Seeing was probably not bad. We had a few hours of sunshine this week, and a weekend promisses lots of rain. Can imagine you were very happy.

Rgrds,

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PDB

Hello David, What works best is, like Eric suggested, tilting the camera. (Some cameras like my ASI120 need very heavy tilting, others like my ASI178 with focal reducer need none, so trial and error) In some cases it is possible to get rid of them in post processing. (Tried on your image with but no...

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That is not good news Franco. Sorry to hear, but nice pictures.

Of course there will be plenty of sunshine in the coming weeks.

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Thanks. Beautiful sunrise this morning so promising and will try some higher resolution images today. (Hope collimation of the C8 is still ok)

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Hello,

Quick session today before the sun was hiding behind trees again. Some hazy clouds passing over the image from time to time.
80mm f/6 - ASI-178MM - AstroSolar ND5 + Green Filter
Processed quickly in AS!2-ImPPG-Gimp (image reduced to 50%)

: 2017-01-18_T_11-28-29.jpg (147.23 KiB) Viewed 990 times

Regards,

Paul

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Most of references i found state that small AP's to be used with high resolution and larger AP's with lower resolution/poor seeing. see also http://www.astrokraai.nl/tut/guide_dennis_put.htm http://www.planetary-astronomy-and-imaging.com/en/autostakkert2-comparing-alignment-point-sizes-for-jupiter/ ...

PDB

Does not look as anyone is selling cell only. (But always good to have some spare sheet of film) The filter cells I use come from EURO-EMC in Germany (http://www.euro-emc-astro.de/pdf/sf100.pdf document is in German) Think these are very good, and you can replace the Solar Film fairly easy. They are...

PDB

Thank you Derek (can't compare to your pictures ...)
Little bit of sunshine today, but the only thing to get a quick setup if the old D40 with 400 tele and astrosolar, but pixel size of that camera is just to big to get decent resolution. Then had to run again for rain and snow ...

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yep! Showing on SDO. (and raining)

Still lots of things to do ... Solar scintillation monitor is finished an working, now building a controller to get my focuser motorized.

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;) Clouds, rain, frost, Sun too low, most of the time behind trees. No spots for over a week now. At noon little bit of sun and clouds. Took my old Nikon D40 (despite a few defective pixels) and Sigma 120-400 tele to take a few shots. (And of course 2 airplane transits which I just missed) This seem...

PDB

Hello Frederic, will send you a list with all the problems i still have with Genika 2.12, but first need to test it on both my PC's. (This will take a while because I want to run the tests in different setups to see if there is an interaction with other software or setups I am using) BTW the focusse...

PDB

Would be nice if I got normal focussing to work.
Jog window is not even working with my Ascom focusser.
Works without problems from the ASCOM box and from FireCapture.

Genika has too much bugs for me.

Paul

PDB

Thanks, think this was a good test. Could have done this without the SSSM, but then probably needing 6000+ frames captured. (Should not have taken the C8, came close to resolution once for maybe 1 or 2 seconds) Will also use this tool to monitor seeing and help me decide if a bigger scope (and what ...

PDB

Hi Alexandra, if about aligning East-West/PolarAxis by observing the drift (N/S) of a star near meridian an east or west horizon and adjusting accordingly. http://astropixels.com/main/polaralignment.html http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-resources/accurate-polar-alignment/ Work quite well whe...

PDB

If your telescope is not placed on a patio but on a field of grass, and every time at the same place you could try the following. Take a copper pipe (does not rust) and cut 3 pieces of about 1 to 2 ". Allign your tripod as good as possible, en then mark the 3 points where the tripod reaches the...

PDB

Nice "glimpse"
Seeing conditions must have been fairly good to get that detail.

Regards,

Paul

PDB

Alexandra, 30 seconds exposure, I can only dream of that. Did a test 2 months ago and at f/6 after a 10 second exposure, background is already gray. (Too much light pollution, that is why I turned to solar.) Have you tried making lots of short exposures and then stack them? Very nice and sharp CaK i...

PDB

Hello, Took the C8 today but very difficult seeing conditions never reaching the resolution of the C8. Did further testing with the SSSM. During a 300 second run the SSSM captured 103 reasonable frames. 20% stacked in AS!2 This is what I got. Not good, little bit overprocessed, but considering the s...

PDB

Thanks guys.
Mark: you should give it a try. Difference with normal capture is that you save a lot of frustration, disk space and processing time. Without the plugin you can make as good images as without it but you will end up wih much more frames in the captured files.

Regards,

Paul

PDB

Hi, due to cold weather (Quark does not like that) back to white light imaging. Used the Baader Astrosolar and an old W58 green filter. The Solar Continuum filter in combination with the Baader AstroSolar 5 gives too dark images so I switched to an old W58 filter. PR-2016-12-03-1106_8-PDB-W58__SSSM_...

PDB

Hello Mike,

not bad at all. Just curious how you keep your Quark working when it gets colder. Mine seems to go off band when outside temp drops too much. (Light stays green, but CW completely moved compared to using in warmer weather)

Regards,

Paul

PDB

Hi Alexandra, despite the cold weather I did a quick test today. Power up the Quark inside to -5, then quickly take a video, take it back inside warm it to 0, video and inside warm up to +5. The images were bad, no time for good focus or waiting for seeing, but the Quark seems fairly on band at 0. L...

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