From: Mark Gaffney <markgaffney@me.com>
Date: May 26, 2010 4:10:22 PM MDT
To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Best planetary imaging camera
Hi Alan & Milton,
Apart from some good results shooting the moon with my colour Flea 2 I`ve been mostly disappointed with results from it with the planets. I`ve tried Saturn & Jupiter on 2 different nights with poor results-& not from want of actually trying hard to get the settings right when I have a planet in my sights...
So far my best results with Jupiter have been with my DBK 21. Would this be because of some inherant limitation of the chip on the Flea 2 in taking these subjects? (as mentioned below Milton, you say the ICX618 is most sensitive in certain spectra).
I posted some results with my B/W Scorpion 20SOM recently of Jupiter taken since my corrector & secondary was removed which seem to indicate that the collimation is in fact not too bad..I`ve attached a snapshot again below..
As for the Sun, Ray for one, was advising me to try an off axis mask for the Baader film on my C9.25.
Other interests have intervened since my negative results in summer, when the observing conditions for a start were against me & I haven`t got around to making another mask.
I have however been looking at this filter which gives results in a yellow colour..
http://www.myastroshop.com.au/products/details.asp?id=MAS-062N
The info regarding solar observing at this site (which is the place I obtained my C9.25 OTA) says (& this is verbatim).."Larger apertures suffer more from daytime atmospheric turbulence.This turbulence is magnified by the aperture. Perfect daytime "seeing" only occurs about 3% of the time but having a full aperture filter during such rare events can really make a difference to how much you can observe. But for most of the time "off axis" reduces the aperture & increases the focal length thus reducing the turbulent effects.." What would be your opinion(s) on this?
Mark.
On 27/05/2010, at 6:18 AM, Milton Aupperle wrote:
Hi Allan;
I can not agree more with what you said.
People need to learn how to master their tools (hardware and software) before buying new stuff that supposedly will fix this or that problem. Most times people don't really analyze and think through what the problem is before jumping on different band wagons.
TTYL..
Milton Aupperle
PS:
If you check the Sony .pdf sensitivity specs for theses CCDs, the ICX618 (in Flea3) is about 1.7 times as sensitive as the ICX098 (in TIS Camera) is. The ICX618 also has a shifted light sensitivity curve which is is most sensitive in the green to greenish red spectra than the ICX098 CCDs. This will require that people adjust their filtered exposure times so that the color balance is correct too, which enforces what you said about changing hardware being time consuming.
On 26-May-10, at 1:53 PM, Alan Friedman wrote:
I enjoy discussions about which camera is the best as much as the next guy. That said, I would suggest that the camera is not the limiting factor in most amateur images (mine included). Switching hardware is a time consuming activity. Most users will see more improvement in their images by getting better acquainted with the camera they already have.
...my very personal opinion, of course!
Alan
On May 26, 2010, at 3:18 PM, Mark Gaffney wrote:
Terry,
To avoid (more) possible confusion here`s the link to the Pt Grey site...scroll down to Flea 3 tab click on it, then on the models tab...
Mark.
On 27/05/2010, at 4:58 AM, Mark Gaffney wrote:
Terry,
If you`re referring to Chris Go`s recent transition to using the Flea 3, a recent response from him to me on the SCT user group gives more detail on which chip, therefore camera he`s using. He says his is the ICX618 mono chip which would mean the FL3-FW-0321M-C camera..If you scroll down to Flea 3 here & click on Models you can check yourself. He`s! saying his new Flea 3 is 2x more sensitive than than the ICX098BL chip which I guess is his old TIS DMK 21...?
Mine is the Flea 2, FL2-03S2C-C colour CCD which is not as sensitive as the comparative mono chip.
Mark.
On 26/05/2010, at 10:16 AM, Terrence R. Redding, Ph.D. wrote:
I am heading out to the observatory for a few hours of imaging Venus, Mars and Saturn. I understand the Flea3 is now the best camera for planetary im! aging - or is there yet another?
Terry - W6LMJ - 14.287
Terrence R. Redding, Ph.D.
Redding Observatory South, West Palm Beach, Florida
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