4.5.2020 ASI Camera woes!

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Monday 4th May 44/45F, bright sunshine but thin, high and low cloud moving in. I have removed the cable from the computer monitor and returned to HDMI.

7:50: Set up for solar imaging. Back to the weird, fuzzy results from the ASI174. Several coarse and grainy captures later I moved the camera USB3 cable to the other side of the laptop. This seemed to cause a marginal improvement. 

I have only three USB3 ports and a 4x "SuperSpeed" USB3 hub. I wondered whether the AWR drives weren't the cause of the fuzzy images by producing mains "noise." The next step would be to turn off the drives while I captured a video. 

I have wasted half an hour on unusable captures. Now I have moved the ASCOM[AWR] serial cable to the USB3 hub. The hub doesn't work well for the camera. It freezes the Logitech wireless dongles I need for the mouse and keyboard!

8.35 51/45F. Now the ASCOM drive is unhappy. It keeps disconnecting and then unable to find server. Now plugged it straight into the laptop. Next capture is crap too. Fuzzy and over-sharpened without any sharpening. More captures between streaming clouds. Still ridiculously over-sharpened by AS!3. I zoomed in on the AS!3 image and it is already showing over-sharpening fuzz. It looks like a wool carpet! Send it to ImPPG and it becomes a coarser carpet. Totally unrealistic!

8.51. 52/45F.  Still no sensible captures. Perhaps I should try the ASI120MC?It produced the same fuzzy images at the AS!3 stage. The images still look stippled! As if they have been through ImPPG on steroids. The live capture screen in SharpCap is showing the same minute simmering effects.

9:10 I pulled the PS on the DC focuser controller: No difference. Pulled the ASCOM drive serial plug: No difference. Pulled the AWR PS plug: No difference. Pulled the PS on the desk lamp: No difference. Pulled the laptop PS: No difference. The SharpCap live image screen still shows the weird shimmering mask on the 120MC which had forced me to buy a new camera. Except that it is in colour instead of B&W with the '174.

9.30 Back to the '174 with still the same fuzziness.

10:30 Still no progress.Tried FireCapture in desperation: Still the same, blind ignorance of HD screens and daytime viewing colours! Microscopic text and symbols. The damned thing also marks every image with double arrows or PIPP! Deleted FireCapture again! Moved the camera cable well away frpm everything else: No difference.

11.37 Still soft and fuzzy. Tried some proms using flats. Still grainy but almost acceptable.


Afternoon: Made a new Baader Solar foil filter for my 90mm. Used a 102mm baking tin.

17.00. Back to imaging. Magnificent pillar prom! If you have the H-alpha gear and are reading this then look now! 4.5.20 18.00[CET]

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