Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

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marktownley
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Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by marktownley »

Bank holiday weekend this weekend, so took the opportunity to head out on the boat again to our usual spot in the middle of nowhere with 360 skies conducive to solar viewing. We got here Saturday, and as usual the weather forecast was wrong and yesterday was cold, windy and showers, so just concentrated on just relaxing and not doing much. This morning was forecast clear skies and by 6am my sunrise detectors were twitching and I was out of bed, careful not to wake the sleeping bride (who doesn't appreciate the morning sunshine as much as I do).

I knew it was going to be a good morning as I peeped, bleary eyed, out of the galley window and a Kingfisher flew past the boat, in the fields opposite I was watching the hares play. Alexandra mentioned in James post earlier today about the birds she saw down her local canal, and I have to say they are a haven for wildlife and birds. These past couple of days i've been sat with the knockers watching all our feathered friends, I don't profess to know them all, but I do enjoy seeing them and hearing their song.

In the mean time there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and a frost on the grass that just melted away in minutes as the sunlight hit it. By something to seven I was out and setting up my kit. It's a lot busier here now as the weather improves, and while we had the whole area to ourselves in Christmas and just a few weeks ago, I counted 14 boats first thing this morning including ours, and in general boaters are all early risers, so even before seven it was quite a bustle of activity. Several boats were setting off, keen to make the most of the weather (before tomorrows rain), most were just taking in the morning with a coffee. I could feel the 'eyes' on me as I set up, and a couple of old fellas made a point of coming by when walking their dogs to see what was going on. After explaining what I was doing the normal response is 'I bet that's expensive', although one gentleman told be to be careful else I would go blind looking at the sun. I guess solar telescopes are not the usual sight on a canal....

ImageP1000857 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

The cherry trees on the far bank were all in full blossom and all day it has been 'snowing' white petals... The green boat immediately behind us had been night fishing and there was no signs of life from them till midday...

I started off in CaK, and the full disk at 60mm. The transparency was excellent and the chromospheric fringe and proms were easy. Seeing was bordering poor, and it was taking lots of frames to get something that worked...

ImageCaK-FD-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageCaK-FD-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Next up, and using the setup in the picture above, still working at 60mm, but using the Airylab 2.8x telecentric and the ASI290mm. This camera at this focal ratio is oversampling hugely, but curiously it works well, and i'm able to use 5ms exposure time with minimal gain. When seeing allows at larger apertures I think this setup has real potential with CaK.

First off the last of the active regions that have graced us these past 10 days or so...

Imagedeparting-ar-CaK-60mm-f28-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagedeparting-ar-CaK-60mm-f28-290mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

In the centre of the disk there were small pair of pores...

Imagebipole-pore-cak-60mm-f28-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagebipole-pore-cak-60mm-f28-290mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

For some reason the north east limb got my attention, but not sure why :lol:

ImageNE-CaK-60mm-f28-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageNE-CaK-60mm-f28-290mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Next up a switch of wavelengths to Ha, first off the full disk taken with the Ds50.

ImageHa-FD-DS-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageHa-FD-DS-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Then as i'm doing this set a Bombardier Global 5000 kindly put in a show at 24000 feet whizzing by at 464 knots.

Imagetransit-SC by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imageplane by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Next up, here's why we prefer double stack to single stack. SS Lunt 50, 2x cemax Barlow, ASI290mm, DS lunt 50 and Quark, IMX174...

Imageplar-crown-ha-ss-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imageplar-crown-ha-ss-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagepolar-crown-ha-ds-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagepolar-crown-ha-ds-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

And a look with the DS of the limb with our departing regions...

Imagedeparting-AR-Ha-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagedeparting-AR-Ha-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Something had caught my eye in the northern hemisphere, but darned if I know what now :lol:

Imagenorth-pole-Ha-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagenorth-pole-Ha-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

That concludes todays set... Raining here now, but is beer and food o'clock so all is good, fire is on. Rain for tomorrow, so are going to head home as soon as get up, to make the most of the last day of the long weekend. Hope everyone has had fun this weekend, hope the sun is shining for you!

Mark


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by JochenM »

Nice set of images, Mark. And quite the place to set up as well.

The eyes on you sounds very familiar. The place where I always set up here at home is close to (and visible from) a walkway running behind the property. I quite often get strange looks as if I'm from a different planet :lol: . The occasional nice conversation as well though.


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by MAURITS »

A beautiful story of the day and an excellent serie images Mark.


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Maurits

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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

A fab set of images Mark and a great capture of N100QS :hamster: (one of the more expensive executive jets)...

You got some of the small proms too.

Looks like you had a good day on the canal.

Thanks for sharing

Terry
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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by Stardust5858 »

Lovely captures Mark and a great insight into your escapades on the water. Thanks for sharing.


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by dhkaiser »

Enjoyed your account of your weekend! And nice set of images to boot.


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by Martin_S »

Mark, thanks for an entertaining post, frost in May? ,I'd forgotten how cold the UK can be after being away for nearly 42 years. Anyway back on topic, the Cak looks great. My B1200 Cak module should arrive next week. I've been actively reading all the Cak posts on the forum to give me a heads up when it arrives. It's Interesting to note in your images that you have captured the spicules and a prominence on the solar limb. Your great imaging has inspired me even more, a great post Mark , well done.

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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by John »

Super session, what a great site! Particularly enjoyed the CaK shots. Good to know that the Solarquest will track OK with what looks like a SW ED80 with a heavy telecentric as well.

John


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Mark,
I really enjoyed your post and can really picture being there with you. I would have gotten up with you imaging even though I would have night fished like your neighbor boaters. I wonder how well they did?

You had a really nice catch of solar images. All beautifully outstanding work. the resolution on all is nice. Good filament detail in Ha and I see spicules, prominences and supergranulation in CaK. The colors you use are very nice too.

I want one of those dern canal narrowboats! How long is yours? :lol:

James

P.S. I am a fan of planes too!


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by Carbon60 »

A beautiful day on the water and excellent images, Mark. Superb CaK images in particular with spicules and proms. I never see anything like that with my current setup. Actually, I think I've only captured a single, bright prom, once.

Looks like today will be really horrible weather-wise, but Wednesday is looking promising if the forecast is to be believed.

Stu.


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by Ivan »

Good catch. If I didn't know that it was done on the river between freezing and rain, bird watching and beer drinking, I wouldn't believe it.
Great table, by the way.
Have you tried shooting on the Lunt 50 with the 290 camera?


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by ffellah »

Hi Mark: I always enjoy your posts, specially when you travel with the boat. You have a second career as a writer: I was drawn into the story… well told and very nice images. I like your grab and go set up, very well thought out and put together. Glad you had a nice and relaxing weekend with good solar on top.

Franco


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by marktownley »

Thanks everyone for your your kind words, glad you like the images.

I think frosts are quite common late in the season, more so than people think. A few years ago we were away on holiday in Wales at the end of may / beginning of June, and most mornings there was a frost first thing. I think the key at this time of year is being up at sunrise to see them, as soon as the sunlight falls on the frost it melts within minutes.

The solarquest just about handles the ED80 with the telecentric, the 100mm Tal is just too much (although it does have several kilos of Moonlite focuser on the back). Key with the solarquest and pushing it to the limits is balance in the altitude axis, in the absence of clutches to free the axis it is a bit of trial and error, but as I use it more i'll find the balance points. What I find is while the altitude axis doesn't slip if imbalanced, but when you try and use the paddle control to move it then it doesn't move. I'm guessing all the gears are plastic so I don't want to strip them. Got back early this morning to avoid todays rain - not good for boating(!) and have just set the solarquest head on the pier round the back of the house. If it's clear in the mornings now around 6am I can image then, so, should be able to explore the balance issue with the larger scopes more. I can see index marks appearing on the dovetails.

The boat is a 50 footer James, they go up to 70 foot, and down all the way to 20-30 foot. It comfortably houses 2 people (and cats), and has pull out beds in the lounge that you can sleep another 2 people if needed. I've got just under 10 years till I can retire, and my plan is to trade up to something another 10-15 foot longer, that would give another bedroom and slightly larger galley, lounge etc. Another bedroom would give storage space for telescopes etc and would also make it a bit more spacious when people join us on it, a larger galley would allow for a washing machine. That would allow for 'excurisons' that last months, rather than at the moment couple of weeks (governed by Mrs T work holiday rules). Till then we are fortunate where we live is a real hub of canals, so plenty of places to go and not get bored.

Ivan, the single stack image is taken with the Lunt50 (external etalon) and the 290mm.

In other news, i'm eagerly awaiting delivery of an 'alternative' blocker for my sodium Quark. I'm 'modding' it to allow me to use it more effectively with my f10 scopes using the excellent Airylab telecentric. Vainly it will allow me to image at the same scale in CaK, Ha and Na. It's one of my cycle 25 experiments to try and get a better idea what Na is actually capable of.


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by pedro »

fantastic images Mark, glad you had some Sun.


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by eroel »

Mark:
Fantastic way to have an unforgetable weekend with beautiful landscapes, solar sessions and images.
Best wishes.
Eric.


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by Montana »

Loved the story and would love to know what birds you saw which you weren't sure of :)

These are fabulous images and I love the plane transit the best, I am missing these as not much traffic into Manchester anymore. I love the canals but have never stayed on a boat, we have always walked them, we also have a lot of canals around here.

The weather today is horrendous, full storm force so I am glad you are back home.
:bow :hamster:

Alexandra


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Mark,
I love the narrowboats! We have nothing like them in the US. They are specifically tailored to the UK canal system.

Do you have a residential mooring? Surely you don't bring it home every time you use it.

And yes, you gotta have room for the cats too!

I also have around 10 years before I can retire too. I can't afford to retire early.

I have rain today too, and probably tomorrow. So probably no solar from me either.


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by christian viladrich »

Looks like a very nice place, and the image collection is superb !


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Re: Bank Holiday Weekend Sunshine 2nd May

Post by marktownley »

Thank you everyone for your kind comments!


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