First ever CaK images

[nicspenceryork]

NS 20220811 0804 Sun CaK FD AR3071 3074 3076 3077 3078 by Nic Spencer, on Flickr

NS 20220811 0734 Sun CaK AR3071 AR3077 by Nic Spencer, on Flickr

If it wasn’t for many of you I would never have tried CaK so I’m very grateful to you all for introducing me to it.
Honest feedback welcomed as I’m always seeking to improve!
Kit:
SW Evostar 80ED DS Pro, 
Lunt CaK Module B1200
, Celestron AVX
, Daystar flatcap flats (150 frames at 88%), 
Tilt adapter that wasn’t needed!
All done on a MacBook Air. Captured with oaCapture, stacked in AS!2 via Wine and Processed in ImPGG via Wine and finished in MacBook Photos app and GIMP.

Scope stepped down to 50mm for both images (because that’s the size of the removable central cap within the scope cap… but I see Mark recommending a 60mm step down and will try that next time).

FD with ASI 174MM stacked 4% of 1025 frames (41 frames) with a gain=1 and exposure=2msec 16 bit SER image size 1936 x1216 high speed off (should it be on?) USB traffic 74 (preset don’t know what it is/does!) recorded for 45 seconds average 22 fps histogram 73%. I save straight to an external hard drive which I why I think you’ll find my frame rates slow.

Closer in with ASI178MM in a 2x barlow stacked 4% of 364 frames (14 frames!?!) (gain=68 exposure=14 msec (I used gain because the exposure was seeming a bit too long but maybe this is ok with CaK? I dont usually use gain.) The mystery USB traffic was 60. 16 bit SER again. Frame size 3096x2080 (have had a go at binning before but the images weren’t as good I thought) that was running at 8fps capture length 45s. Histogram intended at 73% but text capture states 77%. I did dither whether to step down for the closer image as the barlow darkened it anyway but when I had a quick glance with the scope at full 80 and then 50 mm step, the 50 step by eye seemed better.

I’ve tried processing the proms too but I keep over sharpening them because I’m so used to h alpha so they’re work in progress!
Thanks for looking, and for posting your lovely CaK images over the years which has given me a head start,
See you later at the zoom meeting,
Nic

[Montana]

Did you try visual as well?

Alexandra

[MAURITS]

Excellent details in the Calcium II K images Nic.

[astroshot]

Fab images Nic!
Well done!
Let us know how you get on visually next time.

[SJohnson]

Those are fantastic Nic!

[nicspenceryork]

Thanks all... I was tight for time so visual CaK top of the list next session 👌
Nic

[torsinadoc]

These turned out great! Congratulations

[DeepSolar64]

Nic,
WooHoo!! You did VERY well for a first CaK image! Did you do a colorized one?

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

James

[ffellah]

Fantastic first images, Nic, very well done ! A great start of your Calcium imaging: resolution is great, you already figured it out. I am sure you will enjoy this very much.

Best wishes,

Franco

[marktownley]

Hi Nic,

These are super first CaK images, well done! For both cameras make sure high speed traffic is turned on and USB traffic is set to 100. Are you writing to a SSD drive or is it a 'traditional' HDD? Your FPS seems really really low, but hopefully tyhe 2 settings above will rectify this. Using gain won't hurt, but you really need to be getting more raw frames in total if you're stacking 4%, hopefully you'll be able to increase the fps so this will happen naturally. The exposure time with the barlow is quite long, so to get it shorter will help. As with anything practice makes perfect!

Mark

[Carbon60]

Fantastic images, Nic. Beautifully uniform FD and cracking close view. I’m sure you’ll solve the fps issue.

Stu.

[nicspenceryork]

Hi Nic,

These are super first CaK images, well done! For both cameras make sure high speed traffic is turned on and USB traffic is set to 100. Are you writing to a SSD drive or is it a 'traditional' HDD? Your FPS seems really really low, but hopefully tyhe 2 settings above will rectify this. Using gain won't hurt, but you really need to be getting more raw frames in total if you're stacking 4%, hopefully you'll be able to increase the fps so this will happen naturally. The exposure time with the barlow is quite long, so to get it shorter will help. As with anything practice makes perfect!

Mark

Thanks Mark,
The external hard drive is a Toshiba 2TB Canvio Basics Portable External Hard Drive, USB 3.2. Gen 1, Black (HDTB420EK3AA). Very open to suggestion about something more appropriate. It was a stab in the dark with the limited funds I had available on the day of purchase!

In the meantime, I'll try those speedy settings (only after I've looked at CaK visually as I now realise it's 'quite the thing' to be able to see it with the common or garden eye!) and notice any differences.

Away from CaK on a WL tangent for a moment... is stepping down to 60mm a good thing for WL with my 80mm scope and a 1.25" Herschel Wedge too?

Nic

[nicspenceryork]

Thank you all.
That's high praise indeed as I think by now you realise that I hold you all in the highest regard! It's lovely to think that you are all in some way beside me through this now. All things solar have been a long drawn out struggle by getting half a well intended tale from social media & making up the rest!

James I decided to avoid the mither of colour until I got the mono someway half decent as I found it such a distraction when I was learning about h alpha. There'll be some purple circles shared before too long I imagine!
Nic

[DeepSolar64]

Nic,
I understand. Do what you are doing. Learn first color later. That’s really good for your first CaK image! It’s a good image, period!!

James

[eroel]

Nic:
Beautiful clean and detailed CaK images.
Best wishes.
Eric.

[rigel123]

Excellent shots Nic!

[marktownley]

Hi Nic,

These are super first CaK images, well done! For both cameras make sure high speed traffic is turned on and USB traffic is set to 100. Are you writing to a SSD drive or is it a 'traditional' HDD? Your FPS seems really really low, but hopefully tyhe 2 settings above will rectify this. Using gain won't hurt, but you really need to be getting more raw frames in total if you're stacking 4%, hopefully you'll be able to increase the fps so this will happen naturally. The exposure time with the barlow is quite long, so to get it shorter will help. As with anything practice makes perfect!

Mark

Thanks Mark,
The external hard drive is a Toshiba 2TB Canvio Basics Portable External Hard Drive, USB 3.2. Gen 1, Black (HDTB420EK3AA). Very open to suggestion about something more appropriate. It was a stab in the dark with the limited funds I had available on the day of purchase!

In the meantime, I'll try those speedy settings (only after I've looked at CaK visually as I now realise it's 'quite the thing' to be able to see it with the common or garden eye!) and notice any differences.

Away from CaK on a WL tangent for a moment... is stepping down to 60mm a good thing for WL with my 80mm scope and a 1.25" Herschel Wedge too?

Nic

Hi Nic.

The hardrive should be fine. Your bottleneck will be the USB bus, definitelty change the settings in FC.

With white light stay at 80mm, it will give the same resolution as CaK. You are stopping down for CAK as the filters are happier with slower f numbers and there is less spherical aberration at 393nm with the scope stopped down.

Mark

[vineyard]

V nice!

[Dennis]

Very good first results. But yes, the camera can do much more fps, so especially if you go for larger apertures then 50mm - why not maxing the potential of the seeing out.

[pedro]

Great first light Cak images Nic

[christian viladrich]

Splendid Nic !

[Petrus]

Superb result!

[arnedanielsen]

Congratulations on a fantastic first light in CaK, Nic! Great work!

Best regards,
Arne