Orpington Astronomical Society

Astronomy => Technical => Topic started by: MarkS on Apr 26, 2015, 19:23:14

Title: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: MarkS on Apr 26, 2015, 19:23:14
I experimented today with a slit (two Stanley knife blades mounted at the end of a cardboard tube) plus a diffraction grating (StarAnalyser 100) at the other end.

I was pleased to see that the Fraunhofer lines are clearly visible.

(http://www.markshelley.co.uk/webdisk/cloudydayspectrum.jpg)

Imaged with the Canon 600D (unmodified) with a zoom lens at 200mm.

Mark
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: JohnP on Apr 26, 2015, 22:22:41
Wonder how many people Googled Fraunhofer Lines after looking at this post... ☺ ;)

Did you mod your camera this weekend. ..?
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: MarkS on Apr 26, 2015, 22:34:44
Quote from: JohnP
Did you mod your camera this weekend. ..?

No, I may end up selling it instead.  My tests show it appears to suffer a "star eater" hot pixel suppression algorithm similar (or identical) to the infamous Nikon algorithms.  I'm still investigating this issue in detail and I won't mod it until I'm sure I'm going to keep it. 

With a bit more processing here is my spectrum of the today's cloud cover:
(http://www.markshelley.co.uk/webdisk/cloudydayspectrum2.jpg)


Mark
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: Rick on Apr 27, 2015, 07:37:37
Interesting. Going to do a sunny day one (if we get one...) for comparison?
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: Mac on Apr 27, 2015, 12:24:14
the sunny one will be interesting, just to see what lines are added by the compounds in the clouds if any.

QuoteMy tests show it appears to suffer a "star eater" hot pixel suppression algorithm similar (or identical) to the infamous Nikon algorithms.
Why cant they just add an astronomical mode which gives you warts and all.

Mac.
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: Fay on Apr 27, 2015, 12:46:36
That diffraction grating has worked out well Mark
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: The Thing on Apr 27, 2015, 13:09:52
Very interesting. Maybe once you have a sunny day spectrum you could prepare a Frauenhoffer 'dark frame' to subtract cloud added lines from future cloudy day spectra :)
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: Carole on Apr 27, 2015, 15:02:24
QuoteMy tests show it appears to suffer a "star eater" hot pixel suppression algorithm similar (or identical) to the infamous Nikon algorithms.
What a bummer.

Quoteyou could prepare a Frauenhoffer 'dark frame' to subtract cloud added lines from future cloudy day spectra
:lol: :lol:
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: Roy on Apr 27, 2015, 21:29:46
Some cutting edge science?

Roy
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: MarkS on Apr 27, 2015, 22:13:32
Hardly cutting edge. 

However, next time there's a comet I'd like to do a spectrogram of the coma to identify the elements therein.

Mark
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: The Thing on Apr 28, 2015, 11:41:23
Now that sounds like an interesting project.
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: RobertM on Apr 28, 2015, 12:09:01
Quote from: MarkS on Apr 27, 2015, 22:13:32
Hardly cutting edge. 

Were the Stanley knife blades blunt ?

Other than that, it's a very interesting topic.  I did a project on stellar spectra at the OU and vowed to do more when I have time; that and photometry.

Did you use vertical binning cleaned up version ?

Robert
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: The Thing on Apr 28, 2015, 15:01:50
BTW PHD 2.5.n has a spectroscopy slit guiding function.
Title: Re: Cloudy Day Spectrogram
Post by: MarkS on Apr 28, 2015, 20:44:40
Quote from: RobertM
Did you use vertical binning cleaned up version ?

Yes, IRIS has a number of very useful functions for spectroscopy.

mark