Recent successful Sodium captures since August'21

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Recent successful Sodium captures since August'21

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Currently using the Orion ED80T-CF scope and the Sodium Quark from the mini-observatory, there certainly seems a snag with that layout. :mad:

Looking back in my archived Sodium images, shows that with the new SkyWatcher 80ED "Esprit" Apochromatic-Triplet scope and the newly-acquired Sodium Quark, gave no obvious issues in imaging through that setup and using a new ZWO ASI120MC-S USB-3.0 Colour Camera, as well as new UV/IR 2" & 1.25" filters (as recommended) the 2" in front of the 2" SW Diagonal..

So knowing that the Sun is now very low-down at around 17-degs at the Meridian (and getting lower) this could well affect the seeing/imaging conditions for Sodium through Earth's polluted atmosphere and/or currently trialling through the Orion ED80T-CF (also an APO triplet), might also be an issue.

I guess that the only other way to prove and gain some better images, will be to remove the SW 80ED "Esprit" from the main-obsy and use the same set-up in the mini-obsy to see what benefits show-up.

(The current setup in the main-observatory as a Tri-Scope assembly (Ha/CaK/WLor Sodium) requires all three scope to be accurately aligned, which is not an easy task, but perhaps now has to be done again - when the Sun is much higher in around March'22)...

The only other differences in the setup are:- SKYWATCHER AZ-EQ6GT mount in the Main-obsy and Vixen GP-DX mount in the Mini-obsy.

Certainly to show what has been achieved from the main-obsy, the attached images do show the Sodium can work well..

Enjoy and any comments always welcome :?:

Terry :movie
Attachments
24-8-2021 0738z SODIUM+TV2.jpg
24-8-2021 0738z SODIUM+TV2.jpg (82.83 KiB) Viewed 288 times
27-8-2021 0928z AR2860 SODIUM.jpg
27-8-2021 0928z AR2860 SODIUM.jpg (154.19 KiB) Viewed 288 times
29-8-2021 0741z latest_4096_HMII.jpg
29-8-2021 0741z latest_4096_HMII.jpg (1.49 MiB) Viewed 288 times
29-8-2021 0925z SODIUM AR2860 + NR's.jpg
29-8-2021 0925z SODIUM AR2860 + NR's.jpg (40.5 KiB) Viewed 288 times
5-9-20211205z SODIUM AR2866 & 2868.jpg
5-9-20211205z SODIUM AR2866 & 2868.jpg (195.36 KiB) Viewed 288 times
24-10-2021 1220z  SODIUM.jpg
24-10-2021 1220z SODIUM.jpg (53.96 KiB) Viewed 288 times
24-10-2021 0953z SDO latest_4096_HMII.jpg
24-10-2021 0953z SDO latest_4096_HMII.jpg (526.61 KiB) Viewed 288 times


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Re: Recent successful Sodium captures since August'21

Post by marktownley »

Very nice Terry! You're way oversampling with that 2.5x powermate, the Quark is already giving you 4.3x amplification. The low sun this time of year will benefit from the shorter effective focal length.


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Re: Recent successful Sodium captures since August'21

Post by Montana »

A very nice collection of Sodium images Terry :bow :hamster: but yes, I think the 2.5x is a bit too much, the ones without are much clearer and more detailed :)

Alexandra


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Re: Recent successful Sodium captures since August'21

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Thank you for the advice as usual Mark and I realise that amplification x4.3 is included. Time hasn't realised for enough playing with my 2x Barlow
and still much more to try out.

Between about October and the beginning of November, I had to concentrate on getting the mini-obsy up and running before the winter-months (and was only just done in time)...
Now of course the lower Sun and shorter exposure-time available doesn't help to get better images.

Hey Ho, there's always 2022 !!

Terry


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Re: Recent successful Sodium captures since August'21

Post by Carbon60 »

You'll get there, Terry. Nice early images, but practice in 2022 will certainly give you the opportunity to hone your skills.

Very fine focussing (using the zoom function on screen) and fast exposure times really help capture those crisp frames that can be stacked and gently sharpened. FYI I capture 45 seconds of data (several thousand frames) and stack 1%, 5% and 10% of these for further processing.

Stu.


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Re: Recent successful Sodium captures since August'21

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Hi Stu, thanks for the comments and yes, really I will be more than happy in two+ months when much more time is available to improve by learning and the useful advice from SC.

I have good methods of focusing accurately, which I know is all important for starters, as the ED80T-Cf has a fine-focus capability and as you say, I also get SharpCap to zoom in to the limb, as well as the pc can also zoom-in, but SC is sufficient for that.

I've started taking long AVI files and some SER files of at least 1000-frames and certainly will do as you suggest for percentage-stacking.
I will be trying in about 30-mins for some more..

Regards
Terry


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