SolarChat!

Hoping that I can still make an announcement here, I'm proud to announce the general availability of the first off the shelves solar seeing monitor !



The Solar Scintillation Monitor (SSM) is the first daylight seeing analysis system for the amateur solar observer and imager. Based upon scientific papers (Beckers/Seykora/Roddier), this device allows to determine instantaneously the seeing value in ArcSec at his specific location by daylight for solar observation and imaging.

The SSM has been designed for three main applications:

- Help you to find the best observation site for solar visual observation and imaging. The small handheld form factor makes it very easy to bring to potential locations for a quick survey.
- Determine the best seeing time for a given observation location. Used with its data acquisition software, you may collect data over the day to see the general seeing evolution over time.
- Directly command image acquisition when used with our application Genika Astro. In that case, Genika Astro connects to the SSM directly and trigs acquisition from the camera when the seeing goes below a predefined threshold. For more information about this topic, please refer to Genika Astro user manual.

The SSM is small and easy to operate. It comes in two editions:

- SSM Standard Edition with a sensor inside the SSM.
- SSM Remote Edition with a separated sensor that can be located next to the entrance pupil of your instrument for a more accurate measure.



The SSM is a perfect match for our HaT high resolution solar telescope (the largest Ha telescope commercially available up to 280mm), but also for all daylight high resolution applications : White light on the Sun or Venus for example. BUT it doesn't work at night unfortunatly...

More details and references to the papers are in the user manual.
The SSM has been tested thoroughtly by solar imaging specialists like Jean Pierre Brahic and Christian Viladrich.

Looks very interesting, please could you tell me the cost?

Many thanks
Alexandra

Hi Frédéric

great you are now on the market with the SSM, good luck

Thx Walter !

@Alexandra : Outside EU its 225€ ex VAT for the standard edition, 270€ ex VAT for the remote edition.
Within EU its 270€ and 320€ (inc 20% VAT), and 20€ for shipping.

Frédéric.

Hi Frederic.

I would love to use the SSM but see that Pt. Grey cameras are not supported by Genika Astro. Will this situation ever change or are there no plans to support PGRs?

Thanks.
Peter.

p_zetner wrote:Hi Frederic.

I would love to use the SSM but see that Pt. Grey cameras are not supported by Genika Astro. Will this situation ever change or are there no plans to support PGRs?

Thanks.
Peter.

I am second to that !

If you are in relations with Genika author(s), tell him that he loose many potential customers. I know at least two dozens of users of the PGR cameras, who refuse to buy Genika cause it does not support their trusty PGR cameras. Me included.
I also do not buy the SSM for the same reason. It will be nice if you will ask the author of the FireCapture software to make it compatible with SSM so, that SSM will pull the trigger of the recording once the seeing is OK.

Thanks.


Valery.

I'm the author of Genika actually
I may add back PGR at some stage this year, expecting the SDK to be much better than 3 years ago...

fjabet wrote:I'm the author of Genika actually
I may add back PGR at some stage this year, expecting the SDK to be much better than 3 years ago...

Hah! Do it, Fred! We all are impatiently waiting for such an option for the Genika software.

fjabet wrote:I'm the author of Genika actually
I may add back PGR at some stage this year, expecting the SDK to be much better than 3 years ago...

That would be great! Apparently, you would have, at least, two new customers, myself and Valery, for the SSM and Genika.

Cheers.
Peter.

make that a 3rd

marktownley wrote:make that a 3rd

Alexandra - 4

Valtori (probably) - 5

Bob Yoesly (probably) - 6

Who else ?

I think we have a petition going

Alexandra

Me too!

Oivind Tangen
60N 10E

We need to share the rumors about this SSM and this petition among all our solar imaging friends!


Valery.

Hi All,

I confirm my participation in this action!

Val

I'm also interested. I own two PGR cameras

GRASSHOPPER 3 2.8 MP MONO (GS3-U3-28S5M-C)
BLACKFLY 2.3 MP Mono GigE PoE (BFLY-PGE-23S6M-C)

I have a question. The SSM can be operated as a stand alone programme, without the Genika soft?

I always use firecapture with all my cameras (PGR and DMK).

regards

Yes Fred, can't you implement it so that the SSM software works in conjunction with firecapture, that way avoiding the troublesome PGR SDK?

Fred,

We welcome vendors on this forum. Dont forget about us during our yearly fundraiser in October.

+1 for SSM use with PGR/FireCapture.

Kevin

I don't want to support FC. Genika PGR support is now coded and passing in beta test for USB. I did the GigE as well but I have no camera to test it.
And I can now confirm what my wife told me about PGR SDK : it is absolutly archaic

That's fantastic, I can't wait to try it with my Grasshopper

Alexandra

Very good news!

Val

I agree, great news. I bought the SSM and I will try it soon with the Genika soft

best regards

Get the software compatible with my PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera and consider yourself another customer both for the software and also the SSM. I'm happy to beta test too if that helps

Genika is now working with USB PGR cameras in both 32 and 64 bits (Genika has the two versions). As for GigE I coded it, but I have nothing to test it and in the PGR SDK, GigE management is different from USB. And I think that doing that at a distance would require a lot of tests. Depends on the time you have Mark.
I should buy a GigE camera as it would be difficult to find one to lend nearby in France, PGR is almost non existent here.

I'm happy to download Genika and give it a go Fred, as long as I know what to report back to you i'm happy to have a play around.

You should speak to Rupert at Astrograph, i'm sure he would loan you a PGR GigE camera, then you could send him some SSMs and I could buy one off him

Tried the PGR GigE with Genika and could not get it running.

I managed to repair my other PGG Grasshopper 3. One of the ribbon cables inside the camera was loose...

I opened it verified everything and it is running now.

I have to confess that I'm good with a screw driver but I do not know anything about electronics...

best regards

I downloaded Genika from the website but the version I downloaded does not want to work with PGR

Mark, did Frederic send you a link? it needs to be coded to your camera serial number.

It works very well with my Grasshopper 3 (USB3), I just need some sunshine to test it properly. I am itching to try out the 'mosaic help' function next on my list is the SSM

Alexandra

Yes it needs to be coded, serial number

Waiting for details from Fred... I shall report back

I will have to try again with my "repaired" PGR Grasshopper 3. I will let you know as well

Great Pedro. It should work fine with your USB camera.
Mark, send me the serial of your camera to fjabet at airylab.com

Hi Fred

Ironically it has been on the 'to do' list to ask you update Genika to work with all PGR cameras, particularly that we are now a dealer of yours.

I will send you an email

Best Regards

Rupert
Astrograph Ltd