David Smith

Great set John

Something like astro solar film would be ideal, it even comes with instructions on how to make your own cardboard holder! You can buy the same stuff in a ready made holder if you want to spend the extra money. Have a look on FLO website. 

Awesome John, great captures. 

Interesting stuff which kind of validates what I do / have found but never tried to prove. Keeping the exposure as short as possible keeps the frame rate up which helps in grabbing lots of frames in moments of better seeing. I experimented using the Mono 16 bit captures at one point but could not see sufficient benefit to offset the longer capture times and additional storage requirements. I've also played around with stacking different numbers of frames but find 50ish is about the sweat spot for what I do.

Thanks

Great set. I was watching that prom through the Quark earlier.

Awesome. I've seen a few of this type of event over the years and there is something strangely magical about one celestial body moving in front of the other. Good pics too.

Made the most of your opportunity, nice shot.

Just now, Davey-T said:

...... weather looks to be improving as well.

Dave

Don't say that!!

Well @FLO came up trumps today with a big box of goodies.

Tipping in rain at that point so had a fiddle, put it all together and packed it all away again! Couldn't quite believe my luck when the Sun came out around 3:30 this afternoon.

Pretty windy and lots of cloud still blowing around so I went with the Bresser for a quick taster session. Not the best scope for this really at F/4.8 but with the ES3x telecentric barlow in place it did ok. Visual only for this one just to get a feel for the process and also because I could not be certain what the weather was going to do. So for clarity that's Bresser AR102xs, Baader 35nm Ha, Baader M48 extension, Skywatcher 2" dielectric diagonal, Explore Scientific 1.25" 3x barlow, Quark Combo, Revelation 1.25" single polariser and an eyepiece. Started with the Quark set to the 12 o'clock position which took about 12-13 minutes to "go green". My Revelation 20mm plossl showed a nice chunk of the solar disk and some prominences on opposing 'sides' (don't ask me where, I struggle enough with orientations on my images let alone with new kit). Played around with different setting but not sure I came to any conclusions! I could also see some surface mottling but not much more, mostly I guess because the sun is pretty quiet at the moment - typical!

What I learnt today:-

1. the USB cable I was planning to use is no good, fortunately I had a spare

2. my Skywatcher Hyperflex zoom works well

3. as does the single polariser I use for white light.

4. it's difficult to see the little led colour in the sun

5. I can see proms at pretty much all setting I tried today

6. I can see surface detail to a greater or lesser extent at those same settings.

7. solar cells on my powerpack kept it fully charged throughout an almost 2 hour session

Things to do:-

1. get a longer USB cable, hello Amazon

2. find somewhere to put the power pack, I've some velcro strips in the cupboard that should work nicely to attach it to a tripod leg or similar. Needs to be a sun-facing-surface so it can charge.

3. break out the Evostar (assuming the wind dies off at some point) although this might be a bit tricky until my ES2x barlow arrives.

Can't wait to get back out there!

I have the Skywatcher Evostar 120 which is essentially the same as your Omni 120. I successfully used a 1.25" Lunt wedge with no over heating issues, even on long sessions. The wedge gets warm but not so warm as to be a problem. I switched to the Lacerta about 12 months ago and haven't looked back. Not entirely sure it is measurably better than the Lunt in terms of what I can see or image but it has given me some spectacular views and that's enough to convince me.

Emailed a stock enquiry on Sunday, received a response Monday morning and the item confirmed as in stock. Order placed late Monday, despatched Tuesday and delivered Wednesday morning! Good job, one happy customer who will have no concerns using this supplier again.

Nice, all & here today

Cracking prom shot 👍

Cloudy early this morning but a quick look at Sat24 showed there was a big gap headed my way just after 8am. Consequently I was setup and ready for it when it arrived. The main body of AR12765 has moved over the horizon now but there is / was still some faculae showing this morning in white light and a small plage area in Ca-K. There is also some more faculae on the oncoming limb and a whole heap of proms on show in Ca-K again.

As a side note I usually shoot white lights with using the Lacerta wedge with my Continuum and UV/IR cut filters stacked on top of the built in ND3 filter (camera side of the wedge). Today I put my 2" UV/IR Cut filter at the front end of the wedge and just had the continuum mounted on the camera side. No idea if this has had any impact on my images, certainly no obvious detrimental affects that I can identify and the filter survived the test unscathed! I've orderer a seperate 35nm Ha filter with the Quark so the UV/IR can just stay attached to the Lacerta wedge.

Start off with the full disks, 6 pane Ca-K disk shot in the usual way and a white light FD shot with the Bresser

Close-up of the remains of AR12765 @2500mm FL in both white light and Ca-K

The white light faculae on the opposite side of the disk and some granulation

And lastly all the proms

Last few days at home before starting a new job on Monday so trying to make the most of it!

So that's what a Ca-K full disk looks like Great set Steve

More sunshine this morning, AR still showing, proms to catch! In all the excitement I messed up the Ca-K full disk Still, lots to show for the session including some prom shots taken at 2500mm focal length and some quality time at the eyepiece with some good seeing.

Did get a white light full disk with the Bresser

And some close ups of the AR

Seeing was good enough for some granulation, best seen in full res this one

And there were proms galore today. First one taken @1000mm and the rest with the barlow @2500mm FL

Weather looks iffy tomorrow.

Wow, awesome animation!

Nice 👌

Good start, well done.

Awesome set Stephen, well done.

Great shot Dave

Great shot, love the processing 👌

Clear sunny skies when I woke at 6 this morning, then I went back to sleep  but woke at 7 and skies were still clear. Out and imaging not long after and glad I did as clouds have fully taken over now and moved in not long after I got my white light FD. Lots to see and do today, the AR is close to the limb but still shows nicely and then there was a bunch of faint proms in Ca-k to try and grab.

Start off with the usual Ca-K 6 pane FD

Proms were tricky to capture today, even binning the ASI contrast was very, very low!

Then the AR, close up in Ca-K and WL

Some white light granulation because I like granulation shots  Best seen in full res / glory!

And finally the WL full disk, taken with the Bresser as I still cannot get and FD in WL from the Evostar (mosaics being the only way and are tricky with so little detail, at peak solar activity with a few spot groups to lock on to ICE might have a chance). Clouds were moving in by this time so this was a bit of a rush-job.

Awesome Steve 👌

Today's haul. Rough seeing and breezy just to make things that bit more challenging.