SolarChat!

wjlee

Is this still available?

wjlee

Are these still available?

wjlee

Wow! I have to get back to solar imaging after a long winter's rest. Plus Bob Antol's talk on hi-res solar imaging at NEAIC this year has got me amped up to do more hi-res Ha and CaK images.

Time to get the Powermates out of their winter cocoons.

wjlee

This is going to be great for outreach. I won the new Daystar Calcium Quark at NEAIC. 10+ years of attending NEAIC, and I've never won a door prize this big. And who knew there was a Calcium H line? Now I have to figure out which refractor to put it on, and whether I need an ERF. This will make a gr...

wjlee

The Hα is from a Lunt LS60THa B1200 double-stacked telescope, calibrated with a flat field. The CaK is from a WO Megrez 102MM Apochromat, 700mm FL with a Lunt CaK B1800 module.

wjlee

I'm pretty sure it's Globalstar M015. It passed right over the sun at the correct time, the transit time is right, and the shape looks the same.

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wjlee · Re: Transit In Front of CaK Sun, 7/2/14 Square birds.

Square birds.

wjlee

Great detail!

wjlee

Another clear day. (Surprise!) Ha (click for larger image): http://i.imgur.com/GgV5d7Ql.jpg CaK (click for larger image): http://i.imgur.com/YHutwsRl.jpg Hi-Res closeup of CaK active regions (click for larger image): http://i.imgur.com/fos9ggjl.jpg Hi-Res closeup of CaK active regions, labeled (clic...

wjlee

Right, Stephen. I just assumed it was the ISS since it had the wings and such. Since I've never actually seen a transit, I'm probably wrong.

I'll have to look it up.

In the meantime, I've changed the title of this thread so as not to confuse anyone.

wjlee

I didn't even plan this.... If I had, I would have been barlowing the shot....

https://vimeo.com/99733935

wjlee

Thanks, Swisswalter!

I like the comparison of the two.

wjlee · Re: Full disk for 1 July 2014 in Ha and CaK Thanks!

Thanks!

wjlee

Today, we had an unexpected brief time of clearing around 8-9 AM. I managed to collect data today.

North is up.

Ha:

CaK:

wjlee

Today's Ha and CaK full solar disk images.

North is to the upper-left.

wjlee

Wow! Great!

wjlee

WELL DONE, first class images. A small plywood disc, with a slightly smaller aperture may help. Kind regards, John. Well, I could have also played with the gamma and exposure settings too, but I only 1/2 hour to get both the Ha and CaK data, which included a scope change. Plus, I didn't do any real...

wjlee

swisswalter wrote:Hi Bill

thanks. You may use a simple aperture cut in order to get a tad more contrast

Unfortunately, I don't have anything smaller with a two inch focuser.

wjlee

swisswalter wrote:Hi Bill

nice shots. What was used for the CaK pic?

Thanks!

WO 105mm F/6 Megrez Apo, Lunt CaK B1800 module, Flea3 mono 2.8mp GigE camera, Nexstar SE mount.

wjlee

It was mostly clear, with a high haze this morning, so did some quick imaging from 9:30 to 10:00 am.

Hydrogen-alpha:

Calcium-K:

wjlee · Re: Proms, 2014-06-01 Thanks!

Thanks!

wjlee

Todays proms, with no real processing (except unsharp mask):

Lunt LS60PHa, Celestron SE mount, JMI Megapod tripod, Televue Powermat 2.5, PointGrey Flea2 2.8 MB GigE mono.

wjlee

Sorry, Stephen. I haven't joined CBSA yet, mainly because I work 10 hours a day, 30 miles away in downtown boston and a 3 hour round-trip commute as the CTO of a startup. Working weekends brings it up to 60-70 hours a week. Anyway, I didn't want to promise something I can't do. A nearby high school ...

wjlee

Thanks, everyone! We had a great time! Although the vendor next to us couldn't believe how many times people asked if it was safe. (The first thing we always said to everyone was that "these were special scopes to look at the Sun safely".)

wjlee

Yesterday, another member of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England (ASSNE) had a solar outreach at the Bridgewater (MA) Autumn-Fest. The weather was clear and beautiful, and about 170 people stopped by to look through our four scopes set up: [ul] [li]A PST[/li] [li]A 60mm Lunt Double-Stac...

wjlee

Very nice!

wjlee

You can always take the gradient out in post processing in photoshop - I used filter > render > lighting effects. Mark, what Photoshop do you have? Because I don't have a lighting effects in the filter > render menu. Thanks, Bill UPDATE: Oh never mind, it's because I'm running PS 5.1 on the Mac, an...

wjlee

So, does that mean there's no way of preventing it?

wjlee

Thanks, let me try it!

Do you think I should concentrate on the tilt tuned double stack etalon or the pressure tuned internal etalon?

wjlee

Thanks, Mark!

wjlee

Can anyone help with avoiding gradients? Would playing with gain/exposure/gamma help? This is the raw, stacked image: I'm using a Flea3 2.8 megapixel monochrome camera on a Lunt 60mm double-stack. The exposure is manually set to avoid saturation, average histogram level was 35% of max value. Thanks,...

wjlee

Wow, great as always, Alan!

You're the inspiration! (Literally, got excited over solar imaging after hearing your talk at NEAIC a couple of years ago.)

wjlee

go for GigE, I'm very happy with that system (Basler CCD's)

I did! I ordered a Point Grey Flea3 2.8 MP GigE with the Sony ICX687 mono this morning.

wjlee

Welcome Bil I have like others suffered " dust bunnies" when using a Barlow they are more evident and are caused mostly by dust or dirt on the cameras chip glass cover. I have tried many methods of removal and found he best way is to first use a blower to remove any loose dust then use th...

wjlee

Stephen, yes I do. And, yes I would.

wjlee

FireWire 800 using ASTRO IIDC...by far the best capture/ stack/ false color live preview program ever written for astronomy. Im Mac only. you're not gonna like the rest of the story.....He went out of business due to lack of sales. Yeah, I saw that. I'm thinking of going GigE Vision. Both IS and Po...

wjlee

Great stuff!

What kind of interface on the Flea3 cameras that worked with the Macs? Firewire?

Bill

wjlee

Pays not to skimp on reading - Didn't realize you were using a colour camera! So it's not out of focus then? I'm not sure! Nice work nonetheless Bill, of course. I've just received much the same scope so should be fun with the learning curve.. Well, I'm trying to figure out this whole focusing thin...

wjlee

Hi Bill welcome to that wonderful site. Congratulatins on the first pic. That is a good start. What I do not understand is that you can't take a run of say 30-40 sec. isn't the mount motorized? Yes, it's motorized, but I was worried about a) drifting out of field of view due to poor alignment. (I'v...

wjlee

Thanks, Rob!

wjlee

Thanks for the kind words, Stephen.

wjlee

Oh, yes. I'm very aware of it. That picture is very far from good.

wjlee

Thanks, Jim.

Yep, I gotta do some cleaning! The Barlow is definitely dirty....

wjlee

Hi everybody! This board is great! I just received my Lunt 60 about a week and a half ago, and the skies have finally cleared. I took a couple of 10-20 second runs using my Opticstar PL-131C planetary camera, with the Lunt mounted on a Celestron NexStar SE alt-az. I was taking short runs because day...

wjlee

Hi Shelby, I'm a newbie (to both this board and to solar), but I've been using my new Lunt LS60THa and have been playing around with it. (Of course, it's mostly been cloudy!) I mounted my on on a KB Systems Mini-Tripod with a Stellarvue M1 mount. That works fine, although the 4 inch dovetail is a li...

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