Calcium Sunday 2nd August
- marktownley
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Calcium Sunday 2nd August
I was nearly caught out by our lovely weather today. Whilst enjoying a lie in following maybe one drink too many last night, my good lady wife woke me saying I better not stay in bed all day as it was clear blue skies. This was not what the weather forecast had suggested the day before so stumbling and bumbling I got dressed and headed outside. Sure enough, the sky was deep blue without a cloud in the sky, but this is a regular vagary of the weather round here, and I knew that oh too soon the instability due to the warmth of the morning would kick in and clouds would bubble up.
I knew from my observations of AR12768 in CaK with the 118mm scope that I felt this objective was marred with spherical aberration, so I decided to get my trusty 100mm Tal refractor on the case and see what I got to compare. Running at f27 at the filter, and straight away the difference between the 2 scopes was huge, the Tal is sharp with oodles of fine detail, the 118mm Meade is just soft, it's like there isn't a focus spot rather a focus zone, and despite the larger image scale of the Meade there was more resolution of finer detail with the Tal.
I'll start off with the full disk for the overview, but this was the image taken last, probably a couple of hours after the close shots due to the cloud. Taken with the Tal stopped down to 60mm this gives ~f16 at the chip, and it's 1000mm focal length nicely fills the chip without having to use any barlows etc to boost image scale (without robbing light and introducing SA) - less is more in CaK!
CaK-FD-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
CaK-FD-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
I was talking about the 'weather' before, and when imaging these closeup images I really did only have enough time to capture 5 runs on each target before the weather collapsed. On the very last run the seeing just collapsed; going from a crystal clear static view on the laptop screen to one that lost all fine detail and resolution. I don't have hard data, just good ol' gut feeling and experience, but in a minute it went from 1" seeing to 2" seeing, which, means half the detail goes - hence the full disk later... I looked up from the laptop when the seeing change occurred, and, sure enough very small scudding cumulus clouds were beginning to form. 15 minutes later the sky was completely overcast! Anyway, enough wiffle, here are the close ups, be sure to view all images full size in Flickr as they're shown greatly reduced in size here...
ar12767-CaK-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12767-CaK-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12768-CaK-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12768-CaK-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Pleased with these, if only the seeing and clear skies had stayed around I would have done some Ha too. Still, can't have everything, it's afternoon now and hot so I reckon the seeing is probably 3-4", so, i'm not even bothering getting the scopes out. I hope tomorrow and the coming week bring me some more clear skies!
Mark
I knew from my observations of AR12768 in CaK with the 118mm scope that I felt this objective was marred with spherical aberration, so I decided to get my trusty 100mm Tal refractor on the case and see what I got to compare. Running at f27 at the filter, and straight away the difference between the 2 scopes was huge, the Tal is sharp with oodles of fine detail, the 118mm Meade is just soft, it's like there isn't a focus spot rather a focus zone, and despite the larger image scale of the Meade there was more resolution of finer detail with the Tal.
I'll start off with the full disk for the overview, but this was the image taken last, probably a couple of hours after the close shots due to the cloud. Taken with the Tal stopped down to 60mm this gives ~f16 at the chip, and it's 1000mm focal length nicely fills the chip without having to use any barlows etc to boost image scale (without robbing light and introducing SA) - less is more in CaK!
CaK-FD-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
CaK-FD-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
I was talking about the 'weather' before, and when imaging these closeup images I really did only have enough time to capture 5 runs on each target before the weather collapsed. On the very last run the seeing just collapsed; going from a crystal clear static view on the laptop screen to one that lost all fine detail and resolution. I don't have hard data, just good ol' gut feeling and experience, but in a minute it went from 1" seeing to 2" seeing, which, means half the detail goes - hence the full disk later... I looked up from the laptop when the seeing change occurred, and, sure enough very small scudding cumulus clouds were beginning to form. 15 minutes later the sky was completely overcast! Anyway, enough wiffle, here are the close ups, be sure to view all images full size in Flickr as they're shown greatly reduced in size here...
ar12767-CaK-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12767-CaK-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12768-CaK-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12768-CaK-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Pleased with these, if only the seeing and clear skies had stayed around I would have done some Ha too. Still, can't have everything, it's afternoon now and hot so I reckon the seeing is probably 3-4", so, i'm not even bothering getting the scopes out. I hope tomorrow and the coming week bring me some more clear skies!
Mark
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Hi Mark,
Excellent images. Perhaps today I get some Sun again after more then 8 ? days with no Sun ... I already forgot how to use my equipment
Excellent images. Perhaps today I get some Sun again after more then 8 ? days with no Sun ... I already forgot how to use my equipment
regards Rainer
Observatorio Real de 14
San Luis Potosi Mexico
North 22° West 101°
Observatorio Real de 14
San Luis Potosi Mexico
North 22° West 101°
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Thanks Rainer, you always seem to have sun, 8 days without sun must seem an age!
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Mark:
Beautiful clean crisp images.
Here is clouded, hope the Sun shows a bit.
Good day,
Eric.
Beautiful clean crisp images.
Here is clouded, hope the Sun shows a bit.
Good day,
Eric.
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Cristal clear images, Mark, with superb definition. Long focus achromats have very low spherochromatism and are perfect for CaK. More difficult is to find suitable seeing conditions for those wavelength, however the weather is quite variable in the UK so you can have more chances than here, where bad conditions can last for weeks and not necessarily end with better ones.
Raf
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Looking good, Mark.
We've got a potential heatwave coming in here, starting at the end of the coming week. It it's somewhat similar in the UK, there'll be plenty of sun at least (seeing will be a different story though).
We've got a potential heatwave coming in here, starting at the end of the coming week. It it's somewhat similar in the UK, there'll be plenty of sun at least (seeing will be a different story though).
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Nice to see someone else still using the Tal for CaK- several people have told me its cheap Russian junk. Good job we know better!
What camera are you using now........... you have obviously increased/exchanged the imaging hardware collection since we last met.
What camera are you using now........... you have obviously increased/exchanged the imaging hardware collection since we last met.
.
.
.
Mike Garbett
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.
.
Mike Garbett
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Hi Mark, some excellent images of today's events and hopefully my observatory will be fully operational again after much improvement-work to the PC gear, screens and cabling...
Thanks
Terry
Thanks
Terry
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Very good Mark. I may have said this in the past, I prefer the mono. Keep it up.
Dan
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
HI Mark...
These are a superb set of CaK images
Brian
These are a superb set of CaK images
Brian
Brian Colville
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Maple Ridge Observatory
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Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281@N08/albums
10'x15 Roll-off Roof Observatory
Takahashi EM400 Mount carrying:
C14 + Lunt 80ED
Deep Sky Work - ASI294MM Pro+EFW 7x36/Canon 60D (Ha mod), ONAG
Planetary Work - SBIG CFW10, ASI462MM
2.2m Diameter Dome
iOptron CEM70G Mount carrying:
Orion EON 130ED, f7 OTA for Day & Night Use
Ha Setup: Lunt LS80PT/LS75FHa/B1200Ha + Home Brew Lunt Double Stack/B1800Ha on the Orion OTA + Daystar Quantum
WL, G-Band & CaK Setup: Lunt Wedge & Lunt B1800CaK, Baader K-Line and Altair 2nm G-Band filter
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
The plage to AR12768 is huge in CaK!!
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Lovely detail as always!
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Thanks everyone for the kind words, going to get out observing in the next hour or so when the sun is high enough in the sky.
Hi Raf, have you had any experience with the Technosky 152/8 fpl-51 triplet? there's one here in the UK going at a good price...krakatoa1883 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 4:22 pm Cristal clear images, Mark, with superb definition. Long focus achromats have very low spherochromatism and are perfect for CaK. More difficult is to find suitable seeing conditions for those wavelength, however the weather is quite variable in the UK so you can have more chances than here, where bad conditions can last for weeks and not necessarily end with better ones.
Mike, the Tal is an excellent refractor, based on a Zeiss design I believe. I wish they made a 150mm f10 version too! I'm using a FLIR (PGR) IMX174 chipped grasshopper for the closeups, and also another grasshopper, the ICX814 chipped version for the full disks.grimble_cornet wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 7:37 pm Nice to see someone else still using the Tal for CaK- several people have told me its cheap Russian junk. Good job we know better!
What camera are you using now........... you have obviously increased/exchanged the imaging hardware collection since we last met.
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Good to see you back, Mike.grimble_cornet wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 7:37 pm Nice to see someone else still using the Tal for CaK- several people have told me its cheap Russian junk. Good job we know better!
What camera are you using now........... you have obviously increased/exchanged the imaging hardware collection since we last met.
Stu.
H-alpha, WL and Ca II K imaging kit for various image scales.
Fluxgate Magnetometers (1s and 150s Cadence).
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More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
Fluxgate Magnetometers (1s and 150s Cadence).
Radio meteor detector.
More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
An excellent set of images, Mark. Beautifully crisp. You got lucky with that window of blue and excellent seeing
Stu.
Stu.
H-alpha, WL and Ca II K imaging kit for various image scales.
Fluxgate Magnetometers (1s and 150s Cadence).
Radio meteor detector.
More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
Fluxgate Magnetometers (1s and 150s Cadence).
Radio meteor detector.
More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
yes but not for solar, I looked into the scope of a friend of mine, cant' tell nothing about H-alpha or calcium. However I wouldn't consider it unless you can look at the longitudinal aberration diagram to evaluate spherochromatism at short WL. Why don't consider the 125 mm f/7.8 FPL-53 instead ? based on Stuart's images it should be excellent for CaK.marktownley wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 5:31 amHi Raf, have you had any experience with the Technosky 152/8 fpl-51 triplet? there's one here in the UK going at a good price...
Raf
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Mark, some more early-rising I suspect for you, as at the moment the forecast is for much clear-skies till next weekend and AR276(9) is on the N.E. fringes,so hopefully more action...
Cheers
Terry
Cheers
Terry
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Correction to my last Mark - which should have read AR2(770) for the newbie...
Terry
Terry
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Hi Raf, I had thought about the 125/f7.8, however my reason with a 152/f8 is that it forms a gap plugger with what I have already. I'm good at 100mm and below, and, have the 200mm HaT. With a 152/8 I can stop down to give me 120mm f10 for CaK, which, realistically I think is my aperture limit at this wavelength, and, also use it at 152/8 with the Quark as the middle ground when seeing won't let me use the HaT.krakatoa1883 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 8:09 amyes but not for solar, I looked into the scope of a friend of mine, cant' tell nothing about H-alpha or calcium. However I wouldn't consider it unless you can look at the longitudinal aberration diagram to evaluate spherochromatism at short WL. Why don't consider the 125 mm f/7.8 FPL-53 instead ? based on Stuart's images it should be excellent for CaK.marktownley wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 5:31 amHi Raf, have you had any experience with the Technosky 152/8 fpl-51 triplet? there's one here in the UK going at a good price...
I would love to have an APM triplet 152 but somehow I think the bank manager has other ideas about that. I definitely wouldn't get anything without seeing some spot / aberration diagrams - if you do come across one for the tecnosky let me know. Another option i'm thinking about is the new Skywatcher Ed150...
Priority has to be performance at 393 and 656nm, however I would like something lacking chromatic aberrations for the brief times I do a bit of moon or planet gazing. I'm not bothered about deep sky, too much light pollution!
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
I understand, Mark. The owner of Tecnosky is a good friend of mine, I'll ask him if can provide further details on that scope.
Raf
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
The close ups are a delight to view Mark what a difference 2 days make! Cheshire seems to be rain capital of the north, there always seems to a patch hovering over us at the moment. I am glad I took Friday off!
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Hi Mark,excellent images . It's great when our wives embrace our interests, my wife has her own telescope for birdwatching, last week she asked if it was suitable for astronomy.
Martin
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Re: Calcium Sunday 2nd August
Thanks folks! I think solar is appreciated because it makes me get up early in the morning which has the consequence that it means I don't stay up all night watching TV
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