recipe for cooking chips

[JimmyH155]

RECIPE

Dish: Cooked chips

INGREDIENTS

One 8 inch SCT beaut Meade complete with clock drive
One f/6.3 focal reducer
One Meade DSI imaging camera, with USB connection to computer
One home made solar filter - Baader solar film for main scope
One home made solar filter for spotter scope


METHOD

First, polar align your scope and get it tracking well. Then, with the scope turned away from the Sun, attach the solar film and all the bits in the optical path, - the last bit being the DSI camera.
Now switch on, and carefully guide the scope to point at the Sun, using the spotting scope and carefully shielded eyes.
Switch on the software and focus the imager on the Sun - preferably a sunspot. When in perfect focus, hit the go button and start imaging.

So where are these cooked chips?? Read on
Upon completion of your imaging run, switch off the imaging software, thus switching off the camera.
Next thing to do is to turn off the electrics on the SCT to stop it tracking the sun
TO COOK CHIPS FOLLOW THIS SIMPLE EASY PROCEDURE, AS I DID
Immediately after switching off power to scope, remove the solar filter from front of scope and then, just 3 SECONDS later, place the solid front cover on the scope.
All done. Return sfter lunch (I had a niggling thought) and remove camera from eyepiece holder.
HEY, OH NO the bottom of the camera - where the IR filter is screwed in place in front of the CCD - is all MELTED and large blobs of melted plastic all over the CCD chip..... Just 3 SECONDS is all it took. SO... COOKED CHIP
I am trying to see if I can salvage something.
BE WARNED FOLKS just a few seconds and your expensive equipment is history. That Sun up there sure is powerful. I will be modifying my procedures a bit, methinks.. If I had just left things say 30 seconds after switching off tracking, and then remove filter, the Sun would have shifted well out of the FOV.

[ving (David)]

oh man! i dont know if i should laugh or cry... I am leaning towards crying mind you, a cooked chip is not a funny thing!

but the way you have described it is quite amusing
sorry to hear about your cam.
getting a new dsi to replace it?

[avandonk]

Reminds me of when I was a kid and tried to look at ants with a magnifying glass. Never got to see them as they kept on bursting into flame.

In all seriousness thats a bit of bad luck. The camera is replaceable your eyes are not. Take home message, be very careful with any optic where the Sun is concerned. I wonder how many people damaged their finderscope at the transit?

Bert

[JimmyH155]

Actually, Ving, it could work out quite well. Apparently those DSI 2's are much better (also about a grand though ) Shouldn't be too much trouble getting the funding application through SWMBO - she wants me to do her hair tonight - now THAT would be the time to approach her about a replacement. ie if answer is no, then only half of her head would be blonde the other half would be grey. . I think that the CCD chip looks undamaged - only the IR filter and plastic holder got fried, but I dont have to tell her that............do I??

[Dennis]

So glad to read it wasn't an important part of you that got fried. As a precautionary measure, I never fit a finder scope to the 'scope when I'm solar observing or imaging.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by JimmyH155

I think that the CCD chip looks undamaged - only the IR filter and plastic holder got fried,

Does the chip still function correctly and display a nice image? I would have thought that the ccd and/or circuits may also have been damaged by the intense burst of solar radiation?

Cheers

Dennis

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

You've taken it all very philosophically.
If you don't laugh you'll cry.

[venus (Lydia)]

gee not nice, and here is me thinking this is a recipe thread..

[bojan]

It took me just ONE second to destoy my friend's eyepiuece while showing him how to watch the Sun on projection (cheap, plastic thing).... He is still considering me a friend :-)

Bojan

[JimmyH155]

Hey, Dennis, I have a horrible feeling you may be right. Please look at the attached photos. I focused on Acherner with a Hartman mask but the photo comes out looking like- well - a monster. Likewise with 47 took - I have never seen it that colour Maybe it's in the processing I stuffed it up. Actually I think I might just go visual from now on. All those fantastic photos you guys send in - I just cannot compare. Perhaps Acherner has really gone supernova and the purple halo is glowing ionised gas - iif so I claim rights of discovery

[Dennis]

Hmm, doesn't look nice does it? Try to re-take an image you have previously captured, and use the same settings to see how they compare. However, I suspect something has been fried.

Sorry to hear the news.

Dennis

[Doug]

Jimmy if that 47 toucani image is post sunburn, you're away laughing.
You cooked the IR filter so images will have more red in them. The other image is just over exposed. if you can improve tracking you'll get some 'gooderer' images.

cheers,
Doug

[bojan]

Those pics you sent look quite good to me.
Try to take a pic of some large terrestial object... if something is burnt, the effects should not be uniformly spread across the whole chip, they will tend to be localized.
Also, those chips are pretty resistant to temperature extremes (if they are not piowered at the same time... by the way, the manufacturing process temperatures are veryhighy, close to 1000C)
So, I also think you get away with minor damage. Most likely only damaged IR filter and plastic parts. All this is replacable or repairable....

[JimmyH155]

Thanks, guys for all that - including the exploding ants You have given me confidence to perservere, and maybe I got away with it after all. Actually, I do have a spare IR filter, because, the day the camera arrived, I unscrewed the "nose" and the little glass filter fell out onto the concrete Fortunately it broke in such a manner that I can just use it. I bought another one which is the one that fried.
I will take some shots of the Moon, which should confirm if any damage
Cheers Jimmy