Experimenting with new camera

[grimble_cornet]

Experimenting with my new ASI290MM in hot, hazy and humid conditions.
Lunt 100THa and ASI290MM used to capture data for an 8 pane full disc mosaic:

Lunt 100 THa ZWO ASI290MM 120820 1039 ut 8-pane mosaic coloured by Mike Garbett, on Flickr



Struggled to capture any hi-res in the poor conditions but....

Lunt 100 THa ZWO ASI290MM 120820 1208 ut coloured by Mike Garbett, on Flickr

AR2770



Lunt 100THa ZWO ASI290MM 120820 1248 ut by Mike Garbett, on Flickr

I guess this will be AR2771



I have been using a PG (FLIR) Grasshopper CCD chipped camera for the last few years so I need to get my head around using CMOS for solar work. I had assumed that using zero or at least minimal gain would be the way forward but decided to try different combinations just for fun:

Lunt 100THa ZWO ASI290MM The effect of increasing GAIN coloured by Mike Garbett, on Flickr

Conditions were vile by this point so ALL of the images are rubbish but I was surprised how little difference there was?

[EGRAY_OBSERVATORY]

Excellent images and the colouring is superb.

Terry

[dhkaiser]

That 100 and camera combo is working well for you.

[yltansg]

Hi Mike,

Nice images. Looks like this camera is becoming a popular one for solar imaging.

Alfred

[Montana]

Fantastic images Mike, looks like there is very little noise coming through even at 250 gain, I wish my ASI174 was like that!


Alexandra

[ffellah]

Excellent test of your new camera, Mike. I like your gain experiment.

Franco

[marktownley]

They look a great set of images and results Mike, i'm thinking about a 290 myself too.

[grimble_cornet]

Thanks guys


The ASI290MM has been a pleasant surprise.
When I ordered it I didn't give a thought to whether it would work for Solar imaging as I was intending to use it for deep sky and/or AllSky work.
However, having realised that it has incredibly low noise (less than 1.5 (e-rms) above 100 gain), high sensitivity (which peaks at 600nm) and small pixels (2.9um) which give good sampling rates with some of my scopes in Ha and all of my scopes in CaK........ it was a no brainer to test it out.
First impressions are very good with good frame rates even at full resolution and only minor Newton's rings which are easily removed with a slight tilt.

I'll certainly be spending more time with it if/when the UK sees the Sun again

[AndiesHandyHandies]

Hi

The first image is very nice.

And confirms I am seeing the 3 features in my Chromo Quark which I have not used much so far.
Must use it a bit more.

Cheers. Andrew.

[pedro]

Nice results Robert. I have the ASI290MC that is not that great for solar imaging. The b&w version is much better

[MalVeauX]

Wonderful results, lovely captures!

Very best,