Kirk Bender has tested the input voltage to the camcorder and found it is slightly lower when some of the Watec output data is split to provide an external monitor. The camcorder supposedly automatically bumps the voltage back up, but there's still the question of whether splitting the signal causes lower signal-to-noise on our recordings. So, after the 2999WN152 event on June 27 from my place, I kept the telescope on target and tracking (47 deg altitude) and then did about 45s with the external monitor attached, and then while still recording, unplugged the power to the monitor and the RCA connection, and kept recording for another ~45 seconds.
The light curves for 4 different stars are shown below. Note that the disconnection causes a glitch on the signal, but after disconnection it settles down. On casual glance, the signal-to-noise looks unchanged, or if improved upon disconnection, it is almost impossible to be sure
You can see the moment of disconnection, from the sharp glitch midway through the interval.
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For this star, it looks a tiny bit quieter after monitor disconnection |
For this star, I see no change |
This star, turned out, has some saturated pixels and should not be used in this test. The other stars did not show saturated pixels. |
For this star, it looks a bit quieter BEFORE disconnecting the external monitor. |
