It is all in the detail.

[denababy]

Hi all, today’s problem for me is that I cannot get any detail in my videos. My equipment is a Lunt 50 ha single stack, zwo 120 mm camera, software is Sharpcap v 3 Autostakkert 2 and Photoshop cs 2. After careful alignment and clear blue skies I have taken numerous videos over two days but when I try to process them there is little to no detail. I focussed at 200 magnification and my settings in Sharpcap were exposure 0.10 gain 59 and Gamma on 1. Am I expecting too much from my setup if so what is suggested? When I say no detail I mean there is, compared to others, no-detail.

[Montana]

Hello, I think we really need to see a screen capture or picture of what you have taken to make sense of what is happening.

Alexandra

[Carbon60]

I agree with Alexandra. Silly question, but are you tuning the etalon? Do you see any detail visually if you look directly through an eyepiece?

Stu.

[denababy]

Thanks for your replies. Yes the first thing I do is look through an eyepiece and tune the best I can, to ensure I have a good visual before I attach the camera. Tomorrow I am going to try and upload the stacked pic so that you can see the detail I have not got.

[PDB]

I focussed at 200 magnification

Hi, i suppose you focused visually when you say at 200 magnification or do you mean 200% on the SharpCap screen. Focus position for eyepiece and camera are not the same. The camera needs to be more infocused than the eyepiece and I have seen many discussion on how to reach that with an LS50.
You might need to unscrew the eyepiece holder and connect the camera (think you need an adaptor for that) directly without the eyepiece holder. Since I don't have an LS50 can't test, only guess ....

Pictures are really needed:
- your setup
- screen dump of SharpCap screen
- result

That will at least give more clues.

Regards,

Paul

[denababy]

hi in reply to my focus issue I focused using an eyepiece first then attached my camera and refocused using the magnification on Sharpcap (200).

[denababy]

Trying and trying to insert a pic. It's all in the eye movement

[denababy]

I am trying to upload a pic, I go to Full Editor & Preview, then attachments at the foot of the page then type in some words and hit submit but nothing seems to happen, what am I doing? Or what is the next step to upload a pic.

[PDB]

Just forgot not all file types are allowed. Best is jpeg or png

[PDB]

Have you selected "add files" in the attachment tab?
then you should see a dialog box that lets you browse on your local pc to the file you want to upload.
Select it, doubleclick on it, and it will transfer the file to solarchat.

Then you can select the "place inline" an in the text box there should be a reference to the uploaded file.

Use preview to see how it looks

P

[denababy]

Where will I find place in line? I have looked and looked but for the life of me I cannot see it. Wait until I can do this There may be quite a few pics to go along with my questions.10_27_28_g6_ap1534.png.tif

[PDB]

When your file is uploaded you should see a screen like this where the Place Inline button is

Test.png (17.64 KiB) Viewed 892 times

But you seem to have a file .png.tif extension. Are you sure if the file is correct? That filename questions.10_27_28_g6_ap1534.png.tif will probably give you problems uploading.

Regrds,

Paul

[denababy]

10_27_28_g6_ap1534.png (1.09 MiB) Viewed 890 times

Right I have saved the file as a png. hope this works.

[PDB]

Hi,

yes the upload was ok. That image doesn't look good, there is as you said no detail. Focus looks ok if I look at the solar limb so that is probably not the problem. (The Newton Rings can be avoided so that is not a real problem). There are some other strange artifacts in the image but I don't see what the problem is. If you could try to upload the stacked file coming out of as2 we can see if the problem is the later processing, or that file is already weird.

P.

[denababy]

Hi the pic is a stacked one from Autostakkert 2. The Newton’s rings I can get rid of using the flat, but I have problems when I load it, I must be doing something wrong. I follow Marty’s video step by step but must be missing something. Thanks for your time.

[PDB]

To be honest, I have no clue what happened here. Never seen a stacked image like this.
if you open the file in AS!2 do the images also look washed out?

[denababy]

Hi the images look just as the pic. Is there something I should try during the capture process, my settings in Sharpcap are - exposure 0.10 ms, gain about 57 and Gamma at 1. Do I-need different equipment to improve things or should I be able to achieve better results using my Lunt 50 ah? I have an Explore Scientific 80apo if I fitted a Quark Chromosphere would it give me much better detail?

[PDB]

Hi,

First thing i should try next time is put the gamma value at 50 instead of 1. (For ZWO cams 50 is the recommended and neutral value) Exposure value, that you can only judge using the histogram in SharpCap.

The LS50 is surely capable of producing excellent pictures. You will have more detail with bigger scopes, but try first with this one. Even with low action on the Sun (as we see today) there should always be some details even with the smaller scopes.

Regards,

Paul

[denababy]

When we next get some clear skies I will try Gamma at 50. I use the histogram and try to set everything so the reading is between 70 x 90. That way I am not clipping off data. I am really looking forward to getting some worthwhile shots of the Sun. Cheers

[THEO BAKALEXIS]

can you put an image of the camera software menu.....?????????

[THEO BAKALEXIS]

You have no focus because your camera is to closed to the eyepiece.

I believe you must try to use

1) a barlow 2X

or

2) an extension tube

on your camera.

[denababy]

Thank you Theo, if I use any Barlow at whatever magnification it is impossible to get any where near focus. I Have three ccd cameras, DMK 21 an Altair Astro 8gm and the ZWO, out of those three only the zwo works on my Lunt. I have emailed Lunt a few times but never received a full answer. I changed from the original focuser to a Feathertouch, in the hope I would get more inward travel.

[TheSkyBurner]

Denababy: I think you have to "climatize" your pressure tuner. You do this by unscrewing the brass tuning knob completely off. Then you simply put it back on, and thread it in till about the half way/70% inward location.

If you still see no details I would hate to say that you might have a damaged telescope. Your image seems like it is in focus, you would not have seen newton rings like there are in your uploaded image sample.

Give it a try

[THEO BAKALEXIS]

I had the same problem with my coronado and i solve it with a barlow 2X televue.

If you make observation and you see clear icon your scope it`s ok. I believe you have a camera focus problem.

Use the barlow with two ways.

Put the camera inside the barlow and all the set in eyepiece position. After turn the ethalon to focus.

If you cant see anything then unscrew the len of the body of the barlow and put it in the eyepiece position and after put the camera and make focus again with the ethalon.

[Bruce Girrell]

That doesn't look like a magnification or focus issue to me. The disk appears to be in good focus. That pattern is certainly strange though. That looks electronic to me. How did the image look on the monitor as you were making the capture?

The one thing that I see a little odd is the 0.1 ms exposure. With only 100 microseconds, that starts to push timing in the camera. It also forces the use of a higher gain. I don't understand how your exposure could be so short at a gain of 59. Especially with the gamma set to 1, I would think that the gain would be pretty far up.

Get your settings back more to the center of their ranges and try again

Since the CameraSettings.txt file is small, you might want to simply copy that and post it.

BTW, if you have a Nikon SLR, the lens fits snugly into the opening of the camera (watch the electrical contacts and push gently). Find something to support the lens and the camera on their sides. The lens can then be used to focus an image on the camera sensor for testing. It also lets you play around with camera settings and see what it does to the image, since you can see the scene and how it appears to the camera live