From: Alan Friedman <alan@greatarrow.com>

Date: August 23, 2014 1:56:49 PM MDT

To: "Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com" <Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com>

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] 22 Aug 2914 1540 UTC AR2146 C6.2 Flare

I’ve not experienced any problems running the 2MP or 6MP Grasshopper cameras through the thunderbolt-firewire adapter on my new 13” MacBook Pro.

Alan

On Aug 23, 2014, at 3:42 PM, Milton Aupperle maupperl@gmail.com [Astro_IIDC] <Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hi Paul;

Nice catch. And congratulations on retiring too :)

A couple of questions on your set up.

I can't find any reference to the "GX-FW-60S1M-C" at all. The closest
PGR Express camera to that would be "GX-FW-60S6M-C" - which does match
your indicated CCD and frame sizes.

Also, you should easily be able to capture 8 bit 2736 x 2192 frames
in Format 7 mode at ~11 fps to an internal SSD. That only amounts to
about 62.9 megabytes per second recording to disk, and pretty much any
fairly modern Mac (i.e. 2010 on) with a stock 7200 rpm Hard Drive
should be able to keep up. Even If you are running the camera in 16
bit mode, you would get ~5.5 fps max rate. So I don't know why you
need to go to a memory drive is a baffling.

Lastly what Mac OSX version and Mac model are you using? The only
frame rate limitations might be if your using a Thunderbolt to
FireWire adapter (I am not sure how well they perform, how much stress
Apple actually put them under for testing or how closely they follow
the Spec - they are barely compliant with power draw) and / or running
Mavericks with it idiotic "App Nap" enabled - which cripples all real
time performance applications. Unless an App is playing audio, Apple
knee caps the performance of it using "App Nap" (an all threads too) -
which you have to turn off in the "Info" window for an App using the
Finder.

Thanks for sharing..

Milton J. Aupperle
206 - 6414 Travois Place NW
Calgary Alberta T2K 3T2
Phone: 403-453-1624
maupperl@gmail.com
http://www3.telus.net/maupperl

On 23-Aug-14, at 12:15 PM, Paul Gaylord pgaylord@cox.net [Astro_IIDC]
wrote:

>
>
> Hi All,
>
> It's been a long time for me to post anything, let alone be doing
> amateur astro....
> Been retired since December, so hopefully I can start getting out
> more!
>
> Anyway, since July, I've been practicing with my new (used) Lunt
> LS100THa and new PGR camera.
>
> Discovered that I had captured the flare. The gif is terrible, I
> used some frames that I should have trashed (along with the far
> worse ones) but, it's my first flare, so I'm kind of jazzed up about
> it.
>
> Link:
>
> http://www.astropg.com/amateur_astronomy/solar_system/the_sun/201408221540utcflare.html
>
> TinyURL for just-in-case:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/oljt2pz
>
>
> There's more solar images that I've taken between Jul and now in the
> Sun section (right arrow at top right or menu to the left of it) in
> case your interested.
>
> Thanks for looking,
> Paul