Sunshine and tinkering continued 25/6/2020

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Montana
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Sunshine and tinkering continued 25/6/2020

Post by Montana »

Hello, another sunny day yesterday and more tinkering, AND a mini active region today!!

I started with the C11 and PST mod again but seeing was very slightly worse than yesterday and I didn't find the mini AR till it was a bit too late. I haven't quite processed all these yet but will post later. So I tinkered with the Solarscope instead.

After the chat about Solarscopes with Highbury Mark over the past month or so I thought it was about time I remember what the Solarscope was doing. I don't think I have used the single stack unit on its own for about 8 years now (well whenever I bought the double stack and it was a long time ago). I decided to investigate the tuning wheel as this has never been quite the same since changing to the double stack. Originally to get centreline the maximum tuning was about one third in to twisting outward. Once back from Solarscope for the doublestack it was now maximum outward as far as it could go. This can cause problems in cold weather as you physically can't twist it any further round. I also get the feeling it is not quite as on band as it was.

So just like testing the tuning dial settings of a Quark I tested the tuning of the Solarscope. Instead of 2 hrs it only took 10 minutes :lol: Here are the results, you might have to click into Flickr and magnify up. Doublestack is top left, the panel on the right is single stack only.

ImageSolarscope tuning wheel by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

So the centreline on band is still there when the wheel is tuned all the way inwards, so next time I get cold weather I should reverse and go back inwards to find the other one. The inwards centreline is more uniform and better contrast than the outer centreline (unless that was seeing). I wonder if the double stack unit has two centreline settings as well. Next time I will completely reverse them and use the inward centreline on the single stack and try and find the outer centreline on the doublestack unit (if there is one) and see how it compares. I have only ever done what Ken told me to do which was inwards for double stack unit and outer for single stack unit. Interesting! I now understand why Ken said the etalon can only see blue wing and centreline. It goes from centreline to blue wing to centreline again. Sorry to bore you but it was a learning exercise for me :)

Here is the full disc in normal configuration, it looked a bit off band to me but maybe it is the way the Sun looks at the moment as I have no double limb.

Image2020-06-24 Halpha Solar disc f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Image2020-06-24 Halpha Solar disc by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

More later with the C11

Alexandra


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Re: Sunshine and tinkering continued 25/6/2020

Post by ffellah »

Nice job checking out the workings of the Solarscope, Alexandra. Great images and FD.

Franco


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Re: Sunshine and tinkering continued 25/6/2020

Post by JochenM »

Interesting analysis. Disk looks great as always.


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Re: Sunshine and tinkering continued 25/6/2020

Post by dhkaiser »

Thorough analysis, nice images.


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Re: Sunshine and tinkering continued 25/6/2020

Post by Highbury Mark »

Interesting post Alexandra - particularly seeing how your SS etalon effectively doubles back on itself. Mine appears to behave differently. I’ve achieved best results with my single stack tuner dial turned fully to the right (any tuning in the other direction quickly loses all detail), and double stack dial most of the way to the right, just so far that the shadow disc is not affecting the fov at all. Am thrilled with the results I’m getting from the double stack set up.

Have to say, your SF100 images look glorious! But I also know that experiencing perfection in solar observing is a very dangerous thing indeed. I once worked with someone who had looked through an exceptional ha scope at an astronomy event 10 years before - guess it could have been a Coronado 90DS, pre-Meade? Anyway it put him off buying one ever since as nothing else he tried came close....


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Re: Sunshine and tinkering continued 25/6/2020

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Alexandra,
I am so glad to see you get some sunshine so you can tinker!!

HM,
The Meade Coronado 90 is still an excellent scope. I can attest to that!

James


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Re: Sunshine and tinkering continued 25/6/2020

Post by Derek Klepp »

Boring I highly doubt it.That is a very informative post and goes to show that with Solar it’s an ongoing experiment.Interesting that f seems to me to lie somewhere between a and c .It will be good to see what the DS unit achieves with each of these setting. A lot of configurations but worth it.
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Re: Sunshine and tinkering continued 25/6/2020

Post by marktownley »

Interesting post and nice images Alexandra. It will be quite possible to adjust that tuning wheel; it's only going to be a basic lever that imparts the tilt so will be adjustable. That would require taking the housing off the etalon, which i'm guessing is not on your options list :D Myself on the other hand would have had it in bits on the day it was delivered. I remember as teenager getting into big trouble one Christmas day; I had a 'hi fi stacker system' as my big present from my parents, after lunch I decided I was going to take it all apart to see what was inside and how it worked etc. My bedroom was on the ground floor and nearly jumped out of my skin as my father hammered on the bedroom window, he'd gone outside and must have looked in and I was all distracted and hadn't seen him there with said stacker system neatly laid out in bits on the bedroom floor. My father was shouting away, my mother ended up in tears, and my argument that the hifi was working fine after I had it reassembled was going nowhere. I've always been into my tinkering ;)


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Re: Sunshine and tinkering continued 25/6/2020

Post by Montana »

Thanks everyone :) Mark, if I was your mother I would be in tears too ;) For the price of the Solarscope nothing in the world could touch it apart from it's maker :shock: I would die of a heart attack otherwise, probably the hubby would too :lol:

The reason the tuning is cast to each end is so that both are totally opposite and the ghost is absolutely nowhere to be seen. I'm very interested to see if the double stack unit has an opposite end too but I can only test that with the single stack unit on as it doesn't have an ERF.

Alexandra


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Re: Sunshine and tinkering continued 25/6/2020

Post by marios i. »

Nice presentation and beautiful images!


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