Hello,

The FlareCapture program had to be abandoned because the server used to easily retrieve solar flux data disappeared!

Therefore, a new foundation had to be established, still using Delphi 11.

Drawing on my experience with FlareCapture, extensive modifications have been made.

I am pleased to share the free and lightweight program GOESFLUX (version 0.55) which is now available for download on my website:?

This program will allow you (while using minimal resources on your PC) to:

• Instantly see the value of solar activity transmitted over the Internet
• View a dynamic list and record all these values with their timestamps (Local Time, Universal Time, Corrected Time) in text files with no duration limit, which are easily editable
• Define an activity threshold that triggers an alarm, which can be heard throughout a house, helping you not miss a period of high activity (Flare) without constant monitoring!
• Watch the color graph of the activity build up during the session.

*** Control of the FireCapture and SharpCap programs was abandoned because the slight time lag between the event and the reception of Internet data meant that some very rapid flares were not recorded. It is now recommended to consider unattended observation sessions with this in mind:

• Continuous recording of the Sun on an external SSD, with numerous one-minute sequences

• A 2 TB SSD can allow continuous recording for an entire day if a not-too-high FPS (20-50) is chosen and the field is centered around the sunspot.

• The price of 1 TB and 2 TB SSDs has significantly decreased and will continue to drop!

• FireCapture can autoguide on a sunspot for hours or even a day if the sky is clear.

• Warning! Use a programmable power switch on the telescope’s power supply (cut off around 1:30 PM) if a meridian flip needs to be done in the early afternoon to avoid blocking. In this case, reverse the autoguiding movement.

• Quickly determine (thanks to the lists) which sequences to keep and which to discard without reviewing them individually.

Future developments aim to automate this sorting process (file deletion) in real-time to allow the use of smaller SSDs or to record at higher FPS.

Who knows, if cloud passage is well managed by autoguiding, this might be included in the sorting process someday :)

I hope you will enjoy using this program (it runs from morning to night at my place!)

Clear skies!
Best regards,

Sylvain