Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
- marktownley
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Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
I was up very early on saturday morning to polar align the mount on the pier and so was surprised to find the sun putting in an appearance by before 9am from my spot - very unexpected, but welcome! The use of MeteoBlue and seeing has been talked about alot lately, so I decided to put it to the test yesterday, It has been saying my values are about 1.4" from friday through to monday, and so I thought i'd try this out, both with the SSM and also (optimistically) by matching the aperture to MeteoBlues forecast. In this case I started off with the 127/1200 frac Mrs T kindly got me for Christmas, stopping the down to give me 120mm f10 and using the Airylab 2.8x telecentric along with a Quark. Just before 9am the SSM was giving me values of about 2" with occasional dips down to 1.5". The better dips were very infrequent and so upped the capture to 4000 frames per file. This came out ok, and was my very first recording of the day:
ar12804-ha-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12804-ha-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
It was crackling away with small micro flares like Marty and James saw. Moving target to the much smaller active region, and the seeing was deteriorating rapidly. SSM was giving more like 2-3" with occasional peaks below 2", this was very visible on the screen and the next image is softer.
ar12805-ha-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12805-ha-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
With this in mind, and sensing the way things were going, rather than waste time swapping scopes, I swapped masks and wavelengths and went for a 72mm/1200mm view in CaK. By now was struggling and post processing was used quite a bit more than I like with this image. Large image so worth a double click to see full size in Flickr.
CaK-disk-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
CaK-disk-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Seeing was dropping off a cliff at this point, SSM was saying 2.5"-4" so stopped down to 60mm with the same scope and used a 1.6x telecentric with the imx174 camera, it was fighting it at this point!
ar12804-cak-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12804-cak-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Notice how you can see the filament in this next image that divides the region of plage.
ar12805-cak-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12805-cak-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
The 127/1200 is a great scope - JAPP swears by it, and I have to agree, one thing that jumped out at me compared to my Meade AR5 that it replaced, was how much more light it lets through, exposure time is so much shorter, I don't know what is different - coatings, glass or both, but it is good and works, I recommend it. The stock Hexlock focuser aint too bad either.
By mid morning the SSM was saying the seeing was 4"-6", occasionally topping out at 10", but with rare dips down to 2.5", I decided to try out the DS90 again, at native 800mm focal length, using undersampling to hide some of the bad seeing at the expense of resolution. Not convinced i've got it on band yet - new scope syndrome means I keep fiddling with the tuning. Visually and on the laptop screen the suns edge was saw tooth so i'm pleased how this came out in the end, gain, heavy handed processing to paper over the cracks.
Ha-fd-ds90-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Ha-fd-ds90-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
By lunchtime, despite the glorious transparency, the seeing wasn't worth the effort, and I came to the conclusion that MeteoBlue, for my home location just cant be believed, which is what I found in the past. Impressed with my polar alignment I decided my pier positioning was good enough to fix in place. That was fun in itself as I encountered a concrete pad with rebar in about 10 inches below the ground that I didn't know was there, the drill bit got snagged in the rebar, and so only brute force and ignorance resolved the matter, still, it does mean I have a better anchor than I thought I might.
Another sunny day again today, and with MeteoBlue promising me 1.4" seeing again my gut feeling is a re-run of yesterdays conditions, still, I can plan for it.
Hope you liked the pics!
Mark
ar12804-ha-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12804-ha-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
It was crackling away with small micro flares like Marty and James saw. Moving target to the much smaller active region, and the seeing was deteriorating rapidly. SSM was giving more like 2-3" with occasional peaks below 2", this was very visible on the screen and the next image is softer.
ar12805-ha-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12805-ha-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
With this in mind, and sensing the way things were going, rather than waste time swapping scopes, I swapped masks and wavelengths and went for a 72mm/1200mm view in CaK. By now was struggling and post processing was used quite a bit more than I like with this image. Large image so worth a double click to see full size in Flickr.
CaK-disk-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
CaK-disk-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Seeing was dropping off a cliff at this point, SSM was saying 2.5"-4" so stopped down to 60mm with the same scope and used a 1.6x telecentric with the imx174 camera, it was fighting it at this point!
ar12804-cak-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12804-cak-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Notice how you can see the filament in this next image that divides the region of plage.
ar12805-cak-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ar12805-cak-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
The 127/1200 is a great scope - JAPP swears by it, and I have to agree, one thing that jumped out at me compared to my Meade AR5 that it replaced, was how much more light it lets through, exposure time is so much shorter, I don't know what is different - coatings, glass or both, but it is good and works, I recommend it. The stock Hexlock focuser aint too bad either.
By mid morning the SSM was saying the seeing was 4"-6", occasionally topping out at 10", but with rare dips down to 2.5", I decided to try out the DS90 again, at native 800mm focal length, using undersampling to hide some of the bad seeing at the expense of resolution. Not convinced i've got it on band yet - new scope syndrome means I keep fiddling with the tuning. Visually and on the laptop screen the suns edge was saw tooth so i'm pleased how this came out in the end, gain, heavy handed processing to paper over the cracks.
Ha-fd-ds90-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Ha-fd-ds90-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
By lunchtime, despite the glorious transparency, the seeing wasn't worth the effort, and I came to the conclusion that MeteoBlue, for my home location just cant be believed, which is what I found in the past. Impressed with my polar alignment I decided my pier positioning was good enough to fix in place. That was fun in itself as I encountered a concrete pad with rebar in about 10 inches below the ground that I didn't know was there, the drill bit got snagged in the rebar, and so only brute force and ignorance resolved the matter, still, it does mean I have a better anchor than I thought I might.
Another sunny day again today, and with MeteoBlue promising me 1.4" seeing again my gut feeling is a re-run of yesterdays conditions, still, I can plan for it.
Hope you liked the pics!
Mark
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
- solardave
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Re: Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
nice mark you liking the filter ok having nice weather up here to my ds hasn't arrived yet so was disappointed on Saturday
tak 102fs solarmax40 ds es ed80 cornado 90mm filter bf10 bf 30 skynyx 2-2 mono camera lunt 2inch wl wedge lunt b1800 cak mod
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Re: Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
Good shots there Mark....
Call me Geoff.
I do what I do because I want to, and because I can....
Doesn't mean I know what I'm doing, though!
I do what I do because I want to, and because I can....
Doesn't mean I know what I'm doing, though!
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Re: Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
You were able to get very good results given the conditions, Mark.
Franco
Franco
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Re: Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
A superb series of images Mark...well done
Brian Colville
Maple Ridge Observatory
Cambray, ON Canada
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281@N08/albums
10'x15 Roll-off Roof Observatory
Takahashi EM400 Mount carrying:
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Planetary Work - SBIG CFW10, ASI462MM
2.2m Diameter Dome
iOptron CEM70G Mount carrying:
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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
ASI1600MM, ASI432MM, ASI294MM Pro, ASI174MM, ASI462MM
Maple Ridge Observatory
Cambray, ON Canada
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
ASI1600MM, ASI432MM, ASI294MM Pro, ASI174MM, ASI462MM
- MalVeauX
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Re: Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
Nice images! The recent additions to your scope and etalon collection seem to work brilliantly, the DS90 has a very even field. The CaK looks great at full resolution. Looks like you are well prepared for the solar activity to get going!
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Re: Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
Looking good there, Mark, in challenging seeing conditions. I struggled in Ha and CaK with my mosaics looking very patchy as the seeing varied so much with each pane.
Looks like your combinations are winners.
Stu.
Looks like your combinations are winners.
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: Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
Very nice Mark! A new 5” refractor. Awesome!!
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Meade Coronado SolarMax II 90 DS
Meade Coronado AZS Alt/Az Mount
Astro-Tech AT72EDII with Altair solar wedge
Celestron NexStar 102GT with Altair solar wedge
Losmandy AZ8 Alt/Az Mount
Sky-Watcher AZGTI Alt-Az GoTo mount
Cameras: ZWO ASI178MM, PGR Grasshopper, PGR Flea
Lunt, Coronado, TeleVue, Orion and Meade eyepieces
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- marktownley
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Re: Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
Thanks everyone for the kind words! Foggy today, which isn't a bad thing as i'm at work
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
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Re: Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
A very nice series of images, Mark!
Best regards,
Arne
Best regards,
Arne
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Re: Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
Wow!! very nice images
Can I ask where you get the information about seeing on Metroblue? I have looked several times and all I get is a weather forecast, am I missing something?
Alexandra
Can I ask where you get the information about seeing on Metroblue? I have looked several times and all I get is a weather forecast, am I missing something?
Alexandra
- marktownley
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Re: Saturday Sunshine and Another New Scope - 27th February
My graphic shows below... I'm not sure I rate what they say for my location...
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!