Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

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Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by marktownley »

Yesterday was the last properly clear day for me as the weather is now breaking, with the blue skies and temperatures up around 30c giving way to hazier (cloudy?), breezier conditions and temperatures in the low 20s. Back to waiting to observe again... Given this I decided to capitalise and get as much data as I could hard drive and conditions allowing...

I'll start off with the full disks, firstly the Ha, taken with my Lunt 50 etalon double stacked with a Quark. The blocker in the Quark was replaced recently, and this is first time i've really used it, I was pleased as it gives slightly higher transmission than the first one. I've also got to the bottom of the issue with my Ha full disks having part of the limb out of focus. I thought it was the failing blocker initially, but now seems the culprit is the 0.7x Baader solar telecompressor, not sure why this would do this, but for this disk I used a cheapo 0.5x reducer in front of the camera and the issue is not there. Ignore the dark blotch mid disk, this a chip in the reducers lens face where i've clearly dropped it on the gravel at some point, anyway, new one ordered from EBay and enroute, the old one will be sacrificed for use as a filter holder in the mod box...

ImageHa-FD-DS-50mm-ICX814-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Next up the overview in CaK, 60mm at f16. Over the past couple of days i've been tweaking the clocking of my CaK filter and some spacings, more tweaking to come with parts enroute in an attempt to reduce scatter in the module. I think this is the busiest i've seen the sun in a while...

ImageCaK-FD-60mm-f16-ICX814-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Now a clockwise tour around the sun in Ha and CaK. The Ha taken at 127mm f26 with the FLIR IMX174 camera and Quark, the CaK taken at 100mm f28 with the ZWO 290mm camera and home brew filter.

AR12842 has put on a nice show over the last week but now is departing:

Imagear12842-Ha-127mm-f26-IMX174-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageAR12842-CaK-100mm-f28-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

AR12845 looked like it was decaying, but then a day or so before pepped up in activity again, now this active region is off again too...

Imagear12845-Ha-127mm-f26-IMX174-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageAR12845-CaK-100mm-f28-IMX174-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

In the southern hemisphere mid disk there was a region of plage that hasn't really been up to much...

ImagePlage-Ha-127mm-f26-IMX174-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Moving round onto the approaching limb and there is plenty coming around to keep us busy in the days ahead... Imagear12847-ar12849-Ha-127mm-f26-IMX174-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagear12847-CaK-100mm-f28-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageAR12849-CaK-100mm-f28-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Next up AR12846, our X flare active region. I got the double stacked Coronado 90mm out with a view to doing a Ha double stack tour of activity, but the bubbling cloud put a stop to this. Notice how the main sun spot is much less visible in the double stack view as is sampling higher in the chromosphere with less photospheric leakage.

Imagear12846-Ha-127mm-f26-IMX174-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageAR12846-Ha-DS-90mm-f16-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageAR12846-CaK-100mm-f28-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Mid disk AR12848 was nicely visible...

Imagear12848-Ha-127mm-f26-IMX174-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageAR12848-CaK-100mm-f28-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Pleased with the booty! Now we're back to a more changeable weather regime imaging is going to be more opportunistic so attentions are going to be turning to some modding. Are going to be having a clear out too, various solar bits to be listed in the buy and sell section, want to generate some £££ for a potential scope purchase...

Hope you like these shots and hope is sunny for you!

Mark


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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by ffellah »

A complete and excellent set, Mark. Glad the weather is working for you.

Franco :bow :bow


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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by Montana »

Oooh very nice, I thoroughly enjoyed going to Flickr for most of these for a closer look. The CaK are absolutely delicious and some stunning detail in the Halpha :bow :hamster:

Alexandra


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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by Valery »

Whoa! That a session, Mark!

You finally catched the seeing for it's tale! The CaK images are really, really great. If only your CaK will be double staked and the aperture will be 150mm - the images, I guess, will be just like Christian posts here.
Too bad no big spots at this moment on the sun face.

As for H-a images. They are great too, very crisp, but look a little too bright with a little lack of a contrast.

BTW. If your CaK images now are at the full potential resolution with 5" aperture, this mean that H-a images should be there too but with an 8" aperture. Do you plan to use your HaT ?


Valery
Last edited by Valery on Fri Jul 23, 2021 2:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by MAURITS »

Excellent and sharp images Mark.


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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by marktownley »

Valery wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 1:11 pm Whoa! That a session, Mark!

You finally catched the seeing for it's tale! The CaK images are really, really great. If only your CaK will be double staked and the aperture will be 150mm - the images, I guess, will be just like Christian posts here.
Too bad no big spots st this monet on the sun face.

As for H-a images. They are great too, very crisp, but look a little too bright with lack of contrast.

BTW. If your CaK images at the full potential resolution, this mean that H-a should be there too but with an 8" aperture. Do you plan to use your HaT ?


Valery
Thanks Valery. It's a double stack filter already, I tried triple stacking it earlier in the year but there was nothing to gain really with contrast but huge drop in exposure - not good!.

I could have used the HaT yesterday, but to be honest i'm falling out of love with it as a scope - not the fact there is anything wrong with the HaT, I just don't like or get on with SCTs. I've had them in the past for night time astronomy and sold them, it always bugs me the lack of contrast compared to a refractor, I hate the focus shift. I'm very much thinking of selling the HaT and getting a large (6"+) frac, it's just finding the right one...

I know what you mean about the Ha images, they are always a bit pale and pasty, I need to look at alternative ways of processing and presenting...

Mark


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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by Valery »

marktownley wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 1:18 pm

Thanks Valery. It's a double stack filter already, I tried triple stacking it earlier in the year but there was nothing to gain really with contrast but huge drop in exposure - not good!.

I could have used the HaT yesterday, but to be honest i'm falling out of love with it as a scope - not the fact there is anything wrong with the HaT, I just don't like or get on with SCTs. I've had them in the past for night time astronomy and sold them, it always bugs me the lack of contrast compared to a refractor, I hate the focus shift. I'm very much thinking of selling the HaT and getting a large (6"+) frac, it's just finding the right one...

I know what you mean about the Ha images, they are always a bit pale and pasty, I need to look at alternative ways of processing and presenting...

Mark
Understand you about SCTs. They really of mixtured results. Refractors always win, but they often lack in aperture! And aperture wins handsdown! We always can rise the contrast when processing our images.

About refractor. Please, wait a bit and I will know where exactly we will move in refractors making. May be there will be an 8" F/5 or F/6 with optional color corrector prior to focuser or with possibility to insert in a focuser. In this case such a beast can be used for solar works as well. If we deside to not make them, then you can buy a lens from iStar or complete OTA like Valtori did. His images with such a refractor are spectacular, both in H-a and Cak.

About your H-a images. Just start to use a gamma when you record the movies. The contrast should be pleasant for your eyes. It will rises then when postprocessing. Using gamma allows to record more shades within 8 bit data.
Then use curves in PS or in AstraImage. No problem at all. I have copied your images and played with curves and images come out nicely. With some gamma contrast increasing during recording will make the results even better.

If this CaK already DS, then, I guess, the CWL is not exactly at the CaK core. May be shifted blue?
This was the case with my CaK DS when I tried PST #1 filters at too fast light cone.


Valery


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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Really nice images Mark, especially the CaK. I love the 2nd full disc one. It shows the plages so well!

I gotta agree with Valery on this one. A large refractor would be great given good seeing. An 8" would be incredible. I plan myself in time to get a 6". On solar I believe a refractor would win against an SCT of the same size.

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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by Rusted »

Superb set of images Mark. :bow

I can tell you've done this before. ;)

iStar are offering a 170mm f/7 APO if their H-a achromats don't appeal.
Bung in a couple of Lunt internal 80mm etalons and you're ready to go. :D


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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

These are excellent captures Mark and thanks vm for sharing.

Tip:- if you are going to drop more items on to gravel or concrete, some old carpeting surround the area, could well save some damage.

Cheers
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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by marktownley »

Valery wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 2:37 pm
marktownley wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 1:18 pm

Thanks Valery. It's a double stack filter already, I tried triple stacking it earlier in the year but there was nothing to gain really with contrast but huge drop in exposure - not good!.

I could have used the HaT yesterday, but to be honest i'm falling out of love with it as a scope - not the fact there is anything wrong with the HaT, I just don't like or get on with SCTs. I've had them in the past for night time astronomy and sold them, it always bugs me the lack of contrast compared to a refractor, I hate the focus shift. I'm very much thinking of selling the HaT and getting a large (6"+) frac, it's just finding the right one...

I know what you mean about the Ha images, they are always a bit pale and pasty, I need to look at alternative ways of processing and presenting...

Mark
Understand you about SCTs. They really of mixtured results. Refractors always win, but they often lack in aperture! And aperture wins handsdown! We always can rise the contrast when processing our images.

About refractor. Please, wait a bit and I will know where exactly we will move in refractors making. May be there will be an 8" F/5 or F/6 with optional color corrector prior to focuser or with possibility to insert in a focuser. In this case such a beast can be used for solar works as well. If we deside to not make them, then you can buy a lens from iStar or complete OTA like Valtori did. His images with such a refractor are spectacular, both in H-a and Cak.

About your H-a images. Just start to use a gamma when you record the movies. The contrast should be pleasant for your eyes. It will rises then when postprocessing. Using gamma allows to record more shades within 8 bit data.
Then use curves in PS or in AstraImage. No problem at all. I have copied your images and played with curves and images come out nicely. With some gamma contrast increasing during recording will make the results even better.

If this CaK already DS, then, I guess, the CWL is not exactly at the CaK core. May be shifted blue?
This was the case with my CaK DS when I tried PST #1 filters at too fast light cone.


Valery
Thanks Valery. The CaK filters are being used in a f28 telecentric beam in this instance. They are housed in a tilt tuner (starbender from Apollo), maybe when the clear skies return I will try them in a native f10 to see any difference.

Realistically it will be a 6" frac, but nowhere seems to have any stock at the moment.

Perhaps you could share some screen grabs of the curves you used on the Ha images?


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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by Carbon60 »

Cracking images, Mark, particularly the calcium ones.

Stu.


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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by MapleRidge »

There are all excellent images Mark...excellent work and photon harvest :bow

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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by arnedanielsen »

What a fantastic session all the way from FD to high-res closeups, Mark!

Please let me know if you decide to part with the HaT.

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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by eroel »

Mark:
Beautiful set of images, super CaK shots.
Best wishes,
Eric.


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Re: Thursdays Tour of The Sun - 22nd July

Post by marktownley »

Thanks everyone for kind words :)

Arne, I will.
arnedanielsen wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:44 pm Please let me know if you decide to part with the HaT.


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