Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

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marktownley
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Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by marktownley »

On thursday the weather turned sunny here in the UK, a pleasant change from the grey and rain we have been experiencing. It was frustrating being at work in such lovely weather, however a call from reception to tell me I had a parcel lifted my mood as I knew it was my FLIR Grasshopper 3 with an IMX174 chip to replace my slower IMX249 Blackfly (up for sale very soon if anyone is interested?). I was also able to get away a little earlier than usual and so when got back home was quick to get the SM90 setup. With the temperature in the mid 20s and surrounded by my concrete / tarmac vista I knew lots of frames was going to be the best way to get some good data.

Starting off at prime focus with the SM90 and my other grasshopper 3 the 916M with its ICX814 chip I went for a full disk, and while the disk was pretty blank a couple of nice proms were visible along with the return of plage and turbulent plasma from the equatorial activity we've had for a couple of rotations now:

Imageha-fd-ss-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imageha-fd-ss-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Next I double stacked the SM90 with the Quark and tried out the new GH3 with the IMX174 sensor. First thing that was apparent was the frame rate; I plugged it into the lappy when I was at work to check all was ok, and just using USB3 power the frame rate jumped around all over the place. Plugging in some 12v battery via the GPIO injector the frame rate happily stabilised at 160fps when in 8 bit mode, interesting observation I thought!

Initial impressions are I like my new GH3, it seems noisier than the bigger framed chip - maybe a difference of 14bit v 10bit ADC?, so as a result I needed to stack more image, but it all seemed to work in the end.

First off the area of turbulent plasma coming round at the equator, which incidentally this morning is sporting a huge prom!

Imageprom1-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imageprom1-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Next up, further north another prom was visible, and given it's latitude, and also the bright spot mid image (see me cycle 25 post) this is all the fledgling signs of cycle 25. After processing these images it's clear to see the improvement frame rate has on image clarity at longer focal lengths.

Imageprom-2-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imageprom-2-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

With a south easterly airflow this morning has dawned cloudy unfortunately, and this evening is a pint after work, so i'm hopeful saturday morning will offer me some clear skies before the heat of the day destroys seeing. Hope you like these!

Mark


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by xn44 »

Congratulations!


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by denababy »

Hi. mark I read that you powered your camera, I have the same camera and have asked this question before and Montana kindly posted a picture, but for the life of my I cannot find that post. I do not have a power cable for the camera so can you explain how you powered it and which cable did you use?


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by Starry Jack »

Congrats Mark on the new camera!


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by Carbon60 »

Nice images, Mark and nice new toy. The large prom has been pretty spectacular today.

Stu.


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by MAURITS »

GREAT Mark.


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by marktownley »

Thanks everyone!


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by robert »

Nice results, you are good at keeping up with the tech!
Robert


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by ffellah »

A very nice set, Mark. Congratulations on your new Grasshopper 3 174, that is a great camera. I am sure you will put it to good use.

Franco


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by Astrophil »

Really nice looking images, Mark.
Sure is fun to get a new toy. Never gets old.

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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by Valery »

Very nice series of images, Mark.

Impressive for a blank sun. With greater activity will be fantastic.


BTW What was the exposure duration in a DS mode? And what was the final F/D at the chip? Which reducer was used?


Valery


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by banjo »

Very Nice serie With the new camera , bravo!!! :bow :bow :bow
Paul


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by yltansg »

Hi Mark,

Nice FD and prom captures. Congrats on nice captures with your new camera.

Alfred


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by MAURITS »

Excellent Mark.


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by marktownley »

Thanks everyone for kind comments!
Valery wrote: Sun Jun 30, 2019 4:03 am Very nice series of images, Mark.

Impressive for a blank sun. With greater activity will be fantastic.


BTW What was the exposure duration in a DS mode? And what was the final F/D at the chip? Which reducer was used?


Valery
Hi Valery, exposure time was 7ms in DS mode, exposure time in SS mode is 1ms, I have to use ND filter to get to it. Final focal ratio is 8.8x4.3 = f37 / f38. No reducer was used.


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by Valery »

Thanks, Mark.

You do have a VERY luminous SS telescope.


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by marktownley »

Valery wrote: Sun Jun 30, 2019 7:08 pm Thanks, Mark.

You do have a VERY luminous SS telescope.
Fine tuning the blocking filter definitely helps - going for the ITF, blocker and mirror that let the most light through...


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by pedro »

Any problem with Newton rings Mark? I always have NR with my ZWO ASI174MM


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by marktownley »

pedro wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2019 3:40 pm Any problem with Newton rings Mark? I always have NR with my ZWO ASI174MM
None at all Pedro


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by pedro »

Thanks Mark. I will have to try again with my setups


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by Montana »

Congrats on the new camera Mark :hamster: and some very fine images too :bow I also find the ZWO174 a lot more noisy than my Grasshopper. However I only get a maximum 120fps out of the ZWO and 60fps in 16 bit. There is no way I am plugging in an external power source to my cameras ever again :)

Alexandra


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by marktownley »

Power supplies all the way for me Alexandra ;)

I've noticed the frame rate of mine drops off quite rapidly when I go from 8 bit to 10 bit (I think I will only be using it in 8 bit). It's also considerably less efficient at Ha than my other Grasshopper, and like said a lot more noisier. Whilst I see it having a space in my solar tool kit, it's not the swiss army knife of sensors than you would get the impression from reading across the web. I'm not disappointed with it, just not as impressed as I am with the other grasshopper.


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Re: Warm Sunshine & New Camera - 27th June

Post by Montana »

I got exactly the same feeling :)
Alexandra


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