Ready Steady Go (Stack)!

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SimonM
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Ready Steady Go (Stack)!

Post by SimonM »

I'm somewhere between a returned Quark Chronosphere (with some issues) and getting an h-alpha scope (most likely a Lunt LS60MT).

We had some sunshine this morning in Hampshire, so I thought it a good idea to dust off the ol' refractor, solar wedge, and collect some WL video.

The seeing conditions were not great - the image on the laptop seems to "wobble" a bit more than I imagined. The scope is 550mm f/5.5 and the size of the 178 sensors isn't quite big enough to get a full Sun's disc (what I would like to get).

I am new to collecting video - this was from a 7GB video with 178 QHY mono guide camera:

1. Using FireCapture - downloaded and first-time use, so not too sure of how to configure the application;
2. Using AutoStakkert 3 - downloaded and first-time use, so not too sure of how to configure the application;
3. Affinity on Mac to colorize the mono image - I have a simple "macro" to turn it a bit golden.

I'm no expert, but I might summarise it as "not much doing".

Sun_115433_lapl5_ap3640.jpg
Sun_115433_lapl5_ap3640.jpg (1.25 MiB) Viewed 283 times

The idea was to experience capturing a video, stacking 5% with a program, and generating a tiff file before colorizing it (with a macro) to get a single jpeg image.

There is an area that looks like dust or a reflection and so no details from the Sun. I tried rotating the camera, the wedge, and moving the direction of the scope - it doesn't move across the laptop screen. Could it be an internal reflection? Unlikely to be the scope's objective e.g. dust?

I would hope with h-alpha I would eventually have something to look at. On Gong (halpha.nso.edu), not much to see today.

Simon
Last edited by SimonM on Wed Feb 10, 2021 5:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Ready Steady Go (Stack)!

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Hi Simon,
You fairly-certainly have a dust-bunny somewhere. I do know about these thingies from last years efforts of mine.

Don't expect anything from the white-light for imaging at present as there's nought to really see today except a small faint AR.

Ha is showing some proms, so about the only real-worthwhile imaging and possibly Cak too..

I would have thought that a 7Gb capture is a bit over the top for WL, but others will likely know better than me...

Terry


SimonM
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Re: Ready Steady Go (Stack)!

Post by SimonM »

EGRAY_OBSERVATORY wrote: Wed Feb 10, 2021 5:37 pm I would have thought that a 7Gb capture is a bit over the top for WL, but others will likely know better than me...
Thanks, Terry. Agreed - too much video. We had some thin cloud passing in front of the Sun (interesting and infuriating to watch at the same time) and then a clear patch, so I let the video just "rip", to be sure. I was going to view the .ser file and select the best "chunk", if the clouds persisted. Hence, far more than a quick 30-second video. The frame rate is lower than I wanted e.g. only about 10 fps. I'm not the most sophisticated individual :cool: .

Simon


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Re: Ready Steady Go (Stack)!

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Thanks Simon.
At least you managed to get something today.

I gather now that a resolve to the problems with the Quirk and it's A.C. live power-supply is on the way.

I have an older LS60THaFT/B1200 LUNT 60mm Hydrogen-Alpha/FeatheTouch/B1200-Blocking-Filter new from 2010 + a
LS50FHa LUNT 50mm Ha Double-Stack Filter which seems to do the bizz without any problems, so I'm sure if your do go the Lunt way, you will be well-satisfied...

Best Wishes
Terry


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Re: Ready Steady Go (Stack)!

Post by JochenM »

Hi Simon

You did well under seemingly difficult conditions (always hard to test out things). As far as the software goes; it's fairly straightforward to use.

Autostakkert! can simply be run with the default settings (just make sure it's set to surface mode and not planet). In firecapture, you can play a bit with the exposure and gain settings in order to get a correctly exposed image. Aim to fill the histogram (can be found halfway down the left side of the screen) 80-90%. I think you may have slightly overexposed this image.

The spot in the image is most likely a dust bunny somewhere. Give the different optical surfaces a quick clean (lens rag) and that should go away.

Good luck! Looking forward to seeing more.


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Re: Ready Steady Go (Stack)!

Post by marktownley »

Great first result Simon!

Looks like the wedge is working well. The dust bunny, by its size, is a piece of crud somewhere between the top of the wedge face and the chip. If you have a UV/IR or continuum filter here then this is where it is. Does the camera have a protective glass screen that sits proud of the chip itself, that is the other likely culprit.

Looks like your FC settings were ok. Lots on here about AS3 settings to read about.

Making a 60mm mask is going to give you optimal sampling with the skywatcher, 540nm, 178mm combo at prime focus.

Mark


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Re: Ready Steady Go (Stack)!

Post by SimonM »

marktownley wrote: Wed Feb 10, 2021 8:15 pm The dust bunny, by its size, is a piece of crud somewhere between the top of the wedge face and the chip. If you have a UV/IR or continuum filter here then this is where it is.
Previously, for the dust bunny:

1. It is too big to be on the sensor. Conclusion: not on the sensor;
2. Previously, I said I rotated the camera and it didn't move. Conclusion: it isn't on the cover glass;
3. Previously, I said I rotated the diagonal (wedge) and it didn't move. I should have said I didn't rotate the camera relative to the diagonal as well;

Thinking about it, I assumed that rotating the diagonal (wedge) would show it "moving". That was wrong? Since the Sun had no distinguishing features, it also doesn't show anything differently, if it is rotated. There may be some (almost) unique features, but these are too subtle to show up in "real-time".

The correct conclusion should have been, that if the camera is rotated and it doesn't move the mark (a dust bunny), but with both the camera and diagonal moved together, whilst the Sun is "moving" it also doesn't move, the mark (a dust bunny) must be on a surface that is also stationary relative to the camera and diagonal like the surfaces identified by Mark e.g. the filters and diagonal (wedge).

So the top surface of the closest filter e.g. the ND 3.0 filter is the likely place to look and blow off. Failing that, it could be another (unopened) filter surface internally. The front of the diagonal is "open", so the top face (front) of the wedge requires careful inspection too. After a while, of course, it probably becomes second nature to know where to look for the dust bunnies.

Similarly, if it had been an internal reflection inside the scope, then the rotating diagonal and camera would show this reflection rotating too. Since it was stationary, it can't be caused by an internal reflection.

Finally, the whole Sun disc doesn't show with the 550mm and 178 camera. With an EP that is 8mm, or longer, it does easily show the whole disc. To fix this requires either a Reducing lens between the camera and diagonal (wedge), or a shorter FL scope, or a bigger mono sensor. Since a "quality" Reducing lens that maintains the image quality isn't an easy thing to source, using a shorter FL scope or bigger sensor is preferable.

It is tempting to consider getting the LS60MT, as it can be converted to a WL scope by removing the etalon and blocking filter, to use with my solar wedge. For the 178, it would comfortably show a whole disc of the Sun on 420mm scope that my refractor slightly crops. My SW 100mm f/5.5 refractor has only a field flattener (not used for solar) and there is no SW matched 0.8x reducer. Similarly for the moon and also for IR of the moon, it would be ideally matched at 420mm with the 178.

Simon
Last edited by SimonM on Fri Feb 12, 2021 10:32 am, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Ready Steady Go (Stack)!

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Congratulations Simon! 👍🏻


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