Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

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marktownley
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Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by marktownley »

I recently bought a ZWO 183mm camera, primarily as it will allow huge full disks (WL, CaK, Ha, Lunar) with my APM 100/800 scope. Well after many years of having a broken continuum filter, I finally got round to testing it this weekend. Saturday was sunny but I had the job of getting the boat on it's 7 hour journey back to its mooring following several weeks of maintenance on it out of the water. Sunday dawned with rain, but by later afternoon the clouds had broken and I was presented with milky skies. Keen to try out my new acquisitions I used the Lunt wedge for a bit of white light action...

First off the full disk, a huge image, so double click to view in flickr, then double click to view full size. The granulation is nicely visible!

ImageWL-FD-100mm-f8-zwo183mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageWL-FD-100mm-f8-zwo183mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Next, swapping cameras for the ZWO 290mm, and using the APM 1.6x telecentric to get a slightly closer perspective on the regions of interest...

ImageDeparting-ARs-100mm-1.6x-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageDeparting-ARs-100mm-1.6x-290mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagenew-ARs-100mm-1.6x-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagenew-ARs-100mm-1.6x-290mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagesmall-departing-AR-100mm-1.6x-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagesmall-departing-AR-100mm-1.6x-290mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

I don't think these have come out too bad considering i've not done any whitelight in years. I think next time I will try a bit more 'zoom' if the seeing allows!

Hope you like these.

Mark


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by MAURITS »

Very clear and sharp WL images Mark.
Nice details in and around the spots.


Regards,
Maurits

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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

EXACTLY AS MAURITS HAS SAID MARK

THANKS VM
TERRY


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by arnedanielsen »

Beautiful images, Mark!

The 183MM is a perfect match for FD's with the 800mm fl. Here's my Continuum from the same date with the same camera, but with the 80/800.
Image

Best regards,
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Last edited by arnedanielsen on Tue May 10, 2022 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by torsinadoc »

Nice images. What frame rate did you achieve?


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by marios i. »

Sharp and very detailed images Mark! Maybe I get a camera but after 10 years😄😄


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by JochenM »

Cracking shots, Mark.

Lots of nice detail in that full disk indeed. The file sizes of these larger resolution cameras are always lots of "fun" to deal with in processing (aka sit around waiting), but definitely worth it :)


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by Carbon60 »

Very nice, Mark. The larger format of the 183 certainly saves making mosaics.

Stu.


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by marktownley »

Thanks everyone for your kind words. I think I got up to around 25fps with ROI so wasn't recording empty sky.

I also tried on CaK, but by then there were cumulus clouds readily bubbling up, and this reflected in the seeing. This time dropping back to 60mm aperture (50mm would have been better), but otherwise the same setup.

ImageCaK-FD-60mm-f13-zwo183mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageCaK-FD-60mm-f13-zwo183mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageDeparting-ARs-Cak-60mm-f13-zwo290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageDeparting-ARs-Cak-60mm-f13-zwo290mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageNew-ARs-Cak-60mm-f`13-zwo290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageNew-ARs-Cak-60mm-f`13-zwo290mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Hopefully will get to image in the evenings later in the week weather allowing.


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by sywong2000 »

Mark,
Very nice result! I've got 183mm pro and on my first attempt I got grid patterns with the Ha filter - thats got to be the microlens. ZWO FAQ also confirms such behaviour. This gives me a problem of getting a flat frame with full disk.

Did you try Ha? After seeing these results, I'm thinking to give it a try once more.
Stephen


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by nicosolcy »

Excellent results Mark! Ordered one as well about an hour ago - to be paired with a 80mm f6 scope and a 1.75x telecentric for full disks, as I am getting tired of mosaics with the 290!


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by Freddie »

Nice first shots with your new kit.


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by ffellah »

Excellent results with your new camera, Mark. Very rich in detail, I like it a lot.

Franco


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by Dennis »

Very nice Mark, that looks like a good cam for the purpose.
Granulation easily and nice visible.


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by Montana »

These are fabulous Mark, why has it taken you so long to image in WL :)

:bow :hamster:

Alexandra


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by marktownley »

Thanks everyone! I did try in Ha, on 2 different scopes and don't get any fixed pattern noise which i'm pleased about. I didn't record any data as my hardrive was full though...

Spent some time with my IT man at work today getting a flavour for what is out there in terms of me buying a new laptop for imaging - what I thought I wanted to spend and what I wanted to get are miles apart, so need to do some more reading and digging into this before making rash decisions. Until then I cant take as many images in one session as I would like :lol:


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by Alun_H »

Fantastic images Mark!

Alun


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Mark,
You got the individual granules! Nice. So far my best white light images come up just short of showing them looking more as Terry would say " Porridge ". I think my inability to track hampers me here since if the alignment of the images is off just a tiny bit it reduces detail. Seeing is another factor as well.

Anyway, very nice job. You should do white light more often!

James

P.S. Nice CaK too but we all know you can do that well! :lol:


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by nicosolcy »

James, do consider a SkyWatcher SolarQuest mount. It's the bees' knees when it comes to alt-az tracking for scopes up to 4 kilos!


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Re: Testing The ZWO 183mm on the Sun - 8th May

Post by DeepSolar64 »

I have a Sky-Watcher AZGTI but it won't hold the C102 or SMII90. I should have gotten the SolarQuest Vs the AZGTI. It tracks the sun better. I do often use the AZGTI with my Astro-Tech AT72EDII and have used it with the SMII60. It's the non-driven Losmandy AZ8 that I use with the bigger scopes. It's great for visual but a challenge for imaging.


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