August and September Sun - longest post ever

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August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Montana »

OK, I am going to go for the world record of longest post ever. This last week it has rained and rained so unable to do anything in the evenings or do anything at the weekend other than catch up with processing. Rather than break it up into little posts I will give you one huge one and well done if you get to the bottom :lol:

First off my prom animation from August 25th. I think this animation carries on from where Stuart's lovely animation stopped. Solarscope DSF100 / 2x Barlow / Grasshopper 3 10:15 - 11:09 UTC (63 frames)

Image2019-08-25-prom-animation by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Then I went on holiday and drove to the Pyrenees. We watched a beautiful sunset over the Chateau Saumur and the Loire river on the first night travel

ImageSaumur (River Loire) by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

We then arrived at the Luz St Sauveur and had an instant friend for the next 2 weeks
ImageBaby Robin by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Purple sunsets nearly every night
ImageLavender sunset by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

and early on before the moon rose I had a lovely dark sky. This region of France with Pic du Midi being at the heart valued their dark skies which was good, so all street lights were turned off from midnight to 6am.
ImageMilky Way by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

So a trip to Pic du Midi was in order, fantastic view, lots of telescopes and even free solar viewing for all through a PST. After using their PST and then going back down and using mine I realised that mine isn't that good. I saw loads of proms and the lovely active region with theirs and mine was dim and could barely see any proms. Or was this altitude 700m vs 2181m?

ImagePic du Midi - Pyrenees by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImagePic du Midi - Pyrenees by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImagePic du Midi - Pyrenees by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

It is amazing what living in France is like, I had more days solar viewing on this holiday than I did all year in Cheshire. 8 days of solar observation out of 10 and really it was 9/10 if we hadn't walked to the top of a mountain one day. All taken with the PST DS Halpha and a DMK41 and taken with OaCapture on an AppleMac. Sadly the prom videos wouldn't analyse in ASK3 and the files don't seem to be compatible with Registax 5 or 6 which I would normal use. So I had to enhance the surface to see the proms. I was badly out of practice first day so I do apologise, date and time is in the titles.

ImageoaCapture-20190903-120755 lapl4_ap1377 f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190904-145833 f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190904-151208 apl4_ap1394 a by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190905-145244_f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190905-145433 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190906-143047 f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190906-142655 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190907-123236_f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190907-123427 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190908-150808_f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190908-151052 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190911-133156_f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageoaCapture-20190911-133516_a by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

By bye France
ImageGoodbye France by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

and back across the English Channel. I had heard via Facebook (Pete Lawrence) that he had seen the green flash the day before so I went to see the sunset mid channel. I wanted to view with my own eyes so balanced the camera on the hand rail and just clicked away without looking through the camera.

ImageSunset over the English Channel by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageSunset over the English Channel by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Then, WOW!!! split second bright intense diamond of green flash. Best experience since the solar eclipse and like the solar eclipse the sparkle is not done justice for in a photograph.

ImageGreen Flash by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

a closer view in case you missed it

ImageGreen Flash - crop by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Then moonlight coming into Portsmouth harbour
ImagePortsmouth by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Then back home and a week later we had a wonderful blue sky Saturday (I think we brought the weather with us). I had high hopes for good seeing and left the C11 in the greenhouse to cool overnight. I tried with the CaK module / Aries ERF but this was the best of the bunch, the seeing was the worst ever experienced so I gave up.

ImageSun_084644_21_09_2019 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageSun_084644_21_09_2019_f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

So I changed to the TEC140 (100mm) and could only manage 1x

Image2019-09-21 CaK full disc f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

So changed to the Solarscope DSF100 and Grasshopper 3 at 1x

Image2019-09-21 Halpha full disc f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Image2019-09-21 Halpha full disc proms by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

and I tried some proms at 1.6x

ImageSun_102917_21_09_2019_f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageSun_102710_21_09_2019_f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

and that was September. I hope the Sun shines in October.
Congratulations, you reached the end :band

Alexandra


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by MAURITS »

Oh Alexandra, such a lovely trip to France.
Beautiful images and a great story, thanks for sharing with us. 😀

Alexandra, if you once back in France, the "Sévennen" belong to the darkest places in France.
Last edited by MAURITS on Mon Sep 30, 2019 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Radon86 »

Wow, thats a long but very interesting post. Thank you Alexandra.
You are right! I bought my Quark in mid March 2919, and I have only been able to image on less than 14 days!! I try to avoid imaging on days with boiling heatwaves as my AsI120mm-S is not cooled, and I don't want skin burns!!

I was wondering in your full disk with the Solarscope DSF100, is that a single image without combining several into a mosaic?

Is your Quark working? I have a Quark chromosphere which I like but need to learn more.

Thanks.
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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Montana »

Thanks guys and well done for getting to the end :)

Magnus, the Solarscope image is about 6 or 7 panes put together in Photoshop Photomerge. Sadly my Quark is no more, after 2 unsuccessful fixes I got my money back.

Alexandra


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Radon86 »

Really nice story and imaging, Alexandra. I liked all your pictures, especially the milky way in France. The full disc images of the sun were fantastic! 😀
I will have to learn how to move my camera to get the various frames required, but I might get the ZWO174mm when I thinks its worth it. I get Newtons rings with the ASI120mm, and can't get the tilt adaptor to work its magic yet.

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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Montana »

Magnus, if you get Newtons rings with your ASI120 you may very well get them with the 174, I get them bad with the 174 using a Barlow. You need to practice with the tilt adapter. It is hard work, I know cos I've tried very hard with the 174 and I just don't get it. I have them reduced down but use a flat to finally get rid. Keep tilting until you get there.

Alexandra


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Radon86 »

Thanks Alexandra. I appreciate it.

Magnus


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by ffellah »

I loved your longest post ever, Alexandra ! From the beautiful animation to all the great images after that, it was a blast. Sounds like you had a great time in France, and plenty of sun... Please keep these long posts coming, you keep us interested and engaged in this period of minimum

Franco :bow :band


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Valery »

Very very nice post! Thanks for sharing.


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by eroel »

Alexandra:
A beautiful trip experience and also very good home sessions.
Wish you and hubby the best.
Eric.


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by MalVeauX »

Awesome series Alexandra! Great discs!

Mind sharing how you handle your discs with the gradients or are they gradient free?

Thanks!

Very best,


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by atlguy »

Thanks for sharing your French "sun tour"


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Montana »

Thanks guys :)

Marty, for the PST I descibe what I do in Jordan's post viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26618
For the Solarscope I do exactly what you do, find the centre of the disc, put a plastic fruit bag over the front, take a flat and then process in ASK3. I then stitch the panels with Photoshop Photomerge https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexandra ... 535593245/ however, when we go plastic free what do we use then? my supermarket has already stopped these bags, it is now a precious piece of equipment ;)

Alexandra


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by robert »

Brilliant post. Thanks.
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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by krakatoa1883 »

Thank you for your report, Alexandra, a joy to read.
Montana wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:52 amOr was this altitude 700m vs 2181m?
I can't say nothing about your PST, of course, however every summer I take my solar equipment from Milan (200 m) to my home in the Italian Dolomites at 1600 m, I can assure you that the difference in terms of sharpness and contrast of Sun' s details is really noticeable. There is a good reason why solar observatories are often located on high mountains.


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by marktownley »

Great post and lovely images Alexandra! Maybe the ITF in you PST is rusted if you noticed your view was much darker than up the mountain? Wouldn't be out of the question, how many years old is it now?


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by george9 »

Wonderful shots, and really wonderful green flash. Glad you caught an image, even if it doesn't do justice to the view. George


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Starry Jack »

Alexandra,
Asides from the lovely trip, photos and narratives, I stole your Green Flash image and texted it to my boss. I work overlooking the Pacific Ocean and took him outside several nights hoping to catch the Green Flash by chance. Of course we did not so I teasingly sent him your image saying, "See! My friend photographed it...it is real!"

:)
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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Alexandra,

I am jealous. I would love to go to France and indeed to Pic Du Midi observatory. I love your pics. the detail is phenomenal. Thanks for sharing!!

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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Martin_S »

Great post Alexandra , I'll have to put Pic Du Midi observatory on my bucket list.

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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Montana »

Thanks guys, I'm glad you liked the post, I thought it might be boring.

Mark, I bought my PST in 2008 so I guess I have been solar observing for 11 years!! no way! I saw lovely proms on their PST and couldn't find them on mine even with single stack because I did think maybe it was because theirs was single stacked.

Jack, you made me giggle about your boss :)

Martin, you can actually pay £300 (or something like that) at Pic du Midi and spend the night there and do some stargazing through the telescopes. A bit too expensive for me.

Alexandra


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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by MapleRidge »

Hi Alexandra...

A great post that highlights so many of the experiences you had during the previous 2 months...beautiful set of images :bow

No worries about the length of it either, it's worth the read all the way through ;)

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Re: August and September Sun - longest post ever

Post by Carbon60 »

Wonderful post, Alexandra. A lovely record of you visit to France. What a fantastic observing site that must be. Maybe one day I’ll get to visit there, or a similar site, to try my RCT in excellent seeing. I guess the challenge would be getting all the necessary equipment up the mountain.

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