Decent Solar and Imaging setup?

[keramos]

Gents,

What would you recommend as a good solar set up? Ok that was a bit ambigious....

I have have a Celestron SCT 6 SE, Thousand Oaks Type 2+ glass filter (only get Sun spots and Orange Image). Have a Ha filter and ERF (Thousand Oaks), waste of money as I cant get it to work (i'm a numpty).

I need some advice for a solar scope + camera, so that I can look at the sun (proms and/or granulation) and take images so that I can prove to my Mrs that I'm not peeping into neighbours house

Hopefully I can use the same camera for night time astro imaging.

I was thinking of getting the Lunt 60mm B1200 but have not got clue on camera ( I've posted on the camera subject before, so pardon me)

ps: I struck a deal with the Mrs where I've signed my life away and all previliges for a year (not a bad deal)..hehe

[ronin]

As far as I am aware to see the granulation, flares /prominences etc you need a dedicated solar scope like the Coronado, Lunt or the Quark.

A white filter and a Ha filter does not make the same, otherwise we would buy the film and a Ha filter instead of a £1000 scope.

Camera, not really a clue but ZWO have some new ones out that they say are for Solar and Planetary imaging.

The ASI 174, 175, 185's seem to be the newer items.

And we all know the truth about peering into the neighbours house. :eek:  

What makes you think the deal ends at 1 year?

[Pete Presland]

I dont think you will go far wrong with the Lunt 60 b1200, the reviews are excellent as with all the lunt products. The ASI174 camera as certainly been making some wavws on here as well. this thread shows what the two can produce together http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/248173-full-discs-lunt-l60-ds/?hl=%2Basi174 a search of the solar forum will show what a good camera it is but, there a quite a few cheaper other mono cameras as well that are very capable.

[Stu]

To clarify Ronin's answer, you can see granulation with a decent white light setup. The best option would be a good refractor of 80 to 100mm aperture with a Herschel Wedge. A continuum filter helps to bring the granulation out more. Note that you can't use the wedge on anything other than a refractor.

Shame about the Ha filter, it would never work as the bandwidth is not narrow enough. As Bunnygod says, a proper Ha scope or a Quark are what is required to properly view and image these. The Lunt 60 is a great scope, although if you get yourself a refractor and Herschel wedge, you could add a Quark to give you Ha capability as well as excellent white light.

What sort of budget do you have?

[LukeSkywatcher]

My white light set up is as mentioned above: small 70mm refractor,Hershel wedge,Continuum filter(also ND3.0). I get really good views of sunspots,granulation,faculae (area around sunspots). I dont get to see any proms of flares. Thats what HA brings out. Camera wise, i dont use one but in the future i will be thinking about adding a Quark. The results are amazing.

[Davey-T]

If you do get a Lunt 60 don't forget you will need something to mount it on with solar tracking for imaging, I use mine on the SW Adventurer.

Dave

[Stu]

Shame about the Ha filter, it would never work as the bandwidth is not narrow enough.

Having seen your other post, my comment above is incorrect. I assumed you were talking about a simple Ha filter rather than one designed to show solar features.

It looks like your issues are focus related rather than a problem with the Ha filter itself, although I've not seen any reports on this particular setup so don't know how good it is.

[paulastro]

I have a Lunt 60mm etalon and B1200 blocking filter I use on my Equinox 80ED scope. I'm delighted with the images, especially using a binoviewer, and presumably if you buy the same spec Lunt solar scope it will give similar views.

Regarding imaging - and let me say I'm not an imager but like to take the odd 'snap' to have a visual record if I haven't done a drawing.  Last evening I took some images by attaching my Olympus E-M5 (macro 4/3 format) at the prime focus of my setup for the first time.  The pic below was one image taken at 1/30 or 1/40th second at asa1600 (imagers would probably say, quite rightly, not to use such a fast asa setting).  I then spent a maximum of around 5 minutes processing it.

As I said, I'm not an imager but post it to show that a basic image showing the main features is possible with a basic solar scope with many types of still cameras  - almost any SLR would do the trick I would have thought, I just pressed the camera I have into service.  I say this on the basis that if I can do it, then anyone can.  Of course, if you want to take some stunning high res images like many contributors to this forum do, than different equipment and a higher skill set than I have will be required.

My only requirement for my images is as basic records - though hopefully I will be able to tinker with my method and improve the output to some degree.  If the whole process takes more than snapping away at the scope and a few mts processing I probably wont do it

[paulastro]

Oops, sorry, forgot to mention something.  To mount my setup I use a sturdy photographic tripod with a Manfrotto 393 head - basically an altaz fork mount.  So, no tracking, just pushing it around the sky!  It works extremely well as a grab and go mount and the whole rig can be carried in one hand.

Paul.

[keramos]

Thanks for all you replies and suggestions,

I'm still deciding between a Lunt 60mm B1200 or getting a 80ED refractor + Quark.

I'm leaning towards the 80ED (SW Evostar)  + Quark as its cheaper (than Lunt) plus I get a frac. However as I understand for a full disk image of the sun I need < 450 mm fl with the Quark.

But I'm assuming images can be combined to form full disk?

[Davey-T]

Doing Solar mosaics is really fun  plus you get more detail. 

Dave

[pmlogg]

For most of my kit I've had to wait and build it up, buying second hand.

I started with a Coronado PST and really enjoyed the views through it. My first attempts at imaging though, using a Canon 450D and a Meade LPI, were frustrating due to the back focus limitations of the PST. That was resolved when I bought an Imaging Source DMK41 (plus a short nosepiece), a much better camera altogether for solar imaging.

I then picked up a Solarmax 40 etalon which allowed double stacking. I have found that I prefer seeing the extra surface detail but it's not very easy to image both the surface and prominences in the same sequence.

When another used SM40 + blocking filter came up for sale the PST went and I mounted the two etalons on the front of a 60mm refractor that I already had - that reduced the number of telescopes in the inventory and the focuser on the refractor is much better than the PST's.

Finding post-processing a chore I've stuck with full disk imaging but that brings limitations too - not just less image detail, but also the need to use a barlow or focal reducer to best match the image to the frame size. Other, better photographers than me may comment on the impact on the final result of adding those devices to the imaging chain.

The Quark looks really exciting and great images seem to be being made however the barlow that forms part of the system would force me to use mosaics.

Instead I've begun upgrading again. I managed to pick up, at a sensible price, a Lumenera camera that uses the same Sony ICX274AL imaging chip as the DMK51 - more pixels and it can take 12-bit sequences instead of 8-bit; so more contrast. Only just got that though and with a lack of sun I've been concentrating on getting the image scale sorted (as above). So too soon to know whether my imaging attempts will improve.

The next project is to increase aperture to 60mm - half way there but the 60mm etalon is a monster compared to the 40mm, so potential weight issues for portable use. Balance more of an issue too, i.e. hanging 2kg of filters onto the front of a 1.25kg telescope!