solar video testing successful (Blue Mountains)

I wanted to do a trial run, a dress rehearsal, with the TV101, the Hα filters, the MallinCam, video recording, capturing, the whole nine yards, with the Paramount of course, in advance of the eclipse.

This was to test a couple of things. Obviously, that all the equipment was working nominally. To see what the sight lines would be like, particularly down to the horizon. And to also see what the impact of recording video would be. I.e. how much space would we need to record minutes of video. I had brought my WD 1TB external hard, just in case.

So, in the afternoon, I rigged everything up. And started recording. It was hot...

As the video recording progressed, I made note of the numbers...

1.0 GB in 3:45 minutes
1.5 GB in 5:00 minutes

I extrapolated the numbers and estimated 6 GB in 20.

I stopped recording after 20 minutes. Yep, it was around 5.5 GB for 20 minutes.

Happily, there was something like 75 to 100 GB free on the Dell laptop. We wouldn't need my terabyte drive. Well. To record. It'd be handy to transfer... [ed: It was. After I changed the formatting method.]

So, the first part of the test was complete. I knew the kinds of numbers we'd be looking at for recording eclipse (and transit) videos.

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The second major component of the test was to check sight lines. I let the Paramount track the Sun.

At 8:33 PM, I had to double the MallinCam exposure for the air mass.

And I watched how low it would go. And, in fact, it was pretty good. We could see almost to the horizon. This was aided by the fact that the Tele Vue rides above the SCT when looking west. I was very pleased that this result. In theory this means we should be able to record almost all the event, that we can see from this location.

All this in direct preparation for the imminent solar eclipse. And that would be practice for The Big Event, the transit of Venus in June!