David Smith

Cracking images 👏

More sunshine this morning but seeing had gone off a bit. Managed to get the white light full disk to to stitch though.

Another nice clear sky this morning and on a weekend! Caught some good seeing too, giving some nice crisp white light and decent Ca-K images.

Finally remembered to shoot flats for my H Alpha disk. Probably the vest one yet.

Proms were almost non-existent in Ca-K but looked nice enough in H Alpha

Possibly saved the best for last, certainly the sharpest.

Great capture. Some monster filament!

Skies cleared again today and I happened to be home Had another go at a H Alpha FD using 6 panes as I do for Ca-K plus a WL full disk using the same technique. Always had trouble stitching these in the past but seemed to go ok today. Tried the 0.5x reducer in Ca-K too.

First up Ca-K. Full disk taken using the Evostar but with a 0.5x reducer in front of the 178 camera. Worth a try but I think I will go back to 6 pane full disks in future

Close ups

Some great proms on show today, especially the plasma arch

White light disk and close ups

And finally H Alpha. These 6 pane FD's are still a work in progress, one day I will remember to shoot flats

Some Trees 🌲🌲🌲🌲

And that arch at it's best

Surprised to wake up to clear skies this morning. First opportunity to image in a month or so! Lots going on so quite a few images.

Ca-K FD

And some close ups

And some proms

Some HA with the Quark

And the new spot in white light

Finally, I plugged my Revelation 0.5x barlow in to the ASI174 behind the Quark to see if it would work....and it did! The full disk image below is made up of 6 panes taken in this fashion. Clouds had started to roll in by this point so this one is pretty ugly but as a proof-of-concept it works for me.

Fantastic shots

Seriously impressive stuff

Great shot for a single frame. Nice to see a more complex group on view, I just need the clouds to shift now!

Pushed for time today so a more limited set.Did not really have the time but wanted to get something in before the good weather breaks. Still lots of activity with a nice big spot and some great prominences. I had hoped to try an H alpha full disk mosaic but the laptop battery had other ideas Seeing could have been better and there was a bit of a breeze, on the one hand this helps tame the seeing but brings it's own problems if too strong. All images shot with the Evostar 120 using the ASI178 behind either the Lacerta WL wedge, Lunt Ca-K module or Daystar Combo Quark. Where close ups are taken I added in the Explore Scientific 2x barlow / focal extender. Captured in Firecapture, stacked in AS!3, sharpened in ImPPG and finished in Gimp2.10. The 6 pane mosaic was stitched in AutoStitch.

First up, Ca-K 6 pane FD

Ca-K close ups were all shot using 2x2 binning which helps to keep the exposure time down and speed up the capture

White light images

Tweaked my H alpha colouring today as I was not really happy with the results. Still not happy but will experiment! Some newtons rings showing in this image, usually I take more time aligning the diagonal / barlow / quark / camera before capture but I was aware of the impending failure of the laptop battery so rushed this one a bit. I was just lining up for a prom capture when the battery quit on me.

Great set

Wow, awesome shot!

Good session this morning, some decent seeing too. Prominences were the real show item today in both Ca-K and H alpha.

Nice work Michael

Nicely done. Hoping to get a solar fix this weekend 🤞

Did well to get those!

Awesome, thanks for sharing. Cloudy here!

Clear skies from the start today so had a decent session. Lots of activity to work with but some dodgy seeing too.

First up, some Ca-K. Tricky with the seeing so these were the best of what I got. I took a 6 pane FD with the Evostar and a single pane with the Bresser.

I've got some close-ups to process and will post them later.

White light full disk via the Bresser and close ups using the Evostar

AR12827

AR12829

AR12828

And a couple of shots with the Quark, Evostar and 2x barlow

Nice. Clear skies forecast for tomorrow, fingers crossed for that and some decent seeing!

Clear sky from the start today which meant I could image early. Seeing was up and down but could have been worse. Lots of images!

Start off with the Ca-K. Some nice activity and some faint proms. Start off with the full disk

The some close ups with the 2x barlow. Forgot to rotate the AR for correct orientation

White light full disk. The only way I can get these at the minute is to switch to the Bresser AR102xs. Trying to get a one-scope-does-it-all (without spending the earth) is the holy grail of upgrade paths for me.

The close ups taken with the Evostar and 2x barlow

Then the H Alpha with the Evostar and Quark combo.

Still finding my way with the Quark and spent a lot of time just tweaking the tuning and seeing the effect. Think I found a new favourite setting but maybe I will change my mind next time out!

First sniff of a clear sky on a non-work day for a looonnng time! Thought I best get some practice in and try and shake off the rust before June 10th. Woke to clouds this morning but skies cleared around midday. Seeing was hit and miss, mostly miss but I managed a few shots.

Ca-K Full Disk, 6 pane mosaic. Variable seeing shows itself here with one pane in particular being softer than the others.

WL AR @2000mm FL

H Alpha with the Quark @2000mm FL

Great Start. Welcome to the world of Ca-K!

Great first attempt. How many panes? I always find it really tough getting consistent illumination in H Alpha mosaics, Ca-K is much easier!

Saturday morning, sun is out, Raben shows spots - great lets go get some solar imaging in

Get out, get set up, Quark warming. it's a bit windy

Don't worry, it'll be fine

Quick white light view through the eyepiece - looks good, even the seeing looks decent

Grab laptop, plug in camera - nothing

Restart laptop to get the camera to connect. Ok, good to go

Clouds

Skies clear again, great lets go

Phone rings, daughter needs help with her broadband

20 minutes later, skies still clear lets go

Meanwhile laptop battery has failed and the laptop switched off

10 minutes setting up power to the laptop outdoors

Great, lets go

Lines up for first images, seeing has gone off badly

Waits patiently to see if seeing will improve

Shoots 6 pane pano in Ca-K, ready to plug in the Quark for some H Alpha

Mount refuses to slew in Dec, spends half an hour fixing the mount issue

CLOUDS!

Not the best of mornings but still came out with this.

Wasn't bad in Ca-K either

Seems there was quite a bit of activity that day.