iceman
04-08-2011, 01:09 PM
I'm trying to get myself back into imaging again..
Starting off easy, I got the PST out today to look at the Sun. It looked quite nice through the eyepiece. Some good sunspot activity and a few small prominences.
I then hooked up the DMK21AU618 and DMK41AU02 that I've got on loan from Astronomy Cameras and captured some data.
I had some difficulty getting them to focus initially. The DMK21AU618 required a 3x barlow to come to focus (not enough in focus), but eventually I found a few things I could unscrew from the front of the camera, plus a different 1.25" nose piece, to allow it to get closer to the focal point and get to focus at prime focus.
The Sun doesn't fit in the FOV of the DMK21 even at prime focus. Can probably get about 75% of the disc. With the DMK41, it fits with about 75 pixels to spare top and bottom, so no problems there.
The PST really suffers from an uneven illumination across the field. There's a real bright spot in the middle of the image, and to stop that overexposing, the edges are much dimmer than I would like.
I tried capturing a few different settings and might ultimately have to HDR them to get an evenly illuminated image.
I'm keen to get the 12" out and capture some images of Jupiter, but I know I'll need to spend a few hours washing the mirror and re-collimating first. It's been a loooong time between drinks. There's probably a family of spiders living in the tube by now.
Anyway it was nice to be out in it again. I fumbled around for quite a while, I've certainly forgotten a lot of things.
Looking forward to processing the images.
Starting off easy, I got the PST out today to look at the Sun. It looked quite nice through the eyepiece. Some good sunspot activity and a few small prominences.
I then hooked up the DMK21AU618 and DMK41AU02 that I've got on loan from Astronomy Cameras and captured some data.
I had some difficulty getting them to focus initially. The DMK21AU618 required a 3x barlow to come to focus (not enough in focus), but eventually I found a few things I could unscrew from the front of the camera, plus a different 1.25" nose piece, to allow it to get closer to the focal point and get to focus at prime focus.
The Sun doesn't fit in the FOV of the DMK21 even at prime focus. Can probably get about 75% of the disc. With the DMK41, it fits with about 75 pixels to spare top and bottom, so no problems there.
The PST really suffers from an uneven illumination across the field. There's a real bright spot in the middle of the image, and to stop that overexposing, the edges are much dimmer than I would like.
I tried capturing a few different settings and might ultimately have to HDR them to get an evenly illuminated image.
I'm keen to get the 12" out and capture some images of Jupiter, but I know I'll need to spend a few hours washing the mirror and re-collimating first. It's been a loooong time between drinks. There's probably a family of spiders living in the tube by now.
Anyway it was nice to be out in it again. I fumbled around for quite a while, I've certainly forgotten a lot of things.
Looking forward to processing the images.