From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: September 11, 2010 4:24:02 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: New file uploaded to Astro_IIDC

Hi Tim;

On 11-Sep-10, at 2:38 PM, doobisary wrote:

Here's the capture file for my latest Jupiter upload.

Your gain / Brightness are very high at 530. The gain maximum on the Flea 2 color I have here is 683, so your on the high end. That will amplify the noise levels dramatically especially if your not stacking a lot of frames.

Seeing was probably a 8-9/10.  Scope was well collimated.  But in the images containing a satellite, I could see little pollywog tails pointing north (up) that are probably thermal plumes.  Since they were still present after a couple of hours of equillibration time, I suspect that heat from the flea2 was flowing up the primary baffle and into the light path!

Possibly, but I'm not sure. I've never seen it on the C8 through in the winter time when i don't use the Cooler on the Grasshopper. And the Grasshopper adds + 10°C to the temperature as it's an EXHad CCD.

My hand in front of the C8 Corrector plate make amazing turbulence patterns when I'm collimation it (bob's Knob's) at -25°C in the winter.

Tonight, I'm going to try imaging with my "new" 10" f/6 Newt.  I built the entire OTA myself, around a mirror that I ground and figured at the Delmarva mirror making class this past March: http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/3739110/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/all/vc/1

You might want to try adding a U/V/IR or maybe a clear filter on the end of the 1.25" Bull nose to seal the camera off.

TTYL..

Milton Aupperle