Dave Smith

The H-alpha image is the first I have published using a double stack unit on my 80mm Lunt. Dave

There's a nice group of Sunspots coming into view and I rather like the filaprom just East of South in the Halpha image. Dave

Lovely Ha images. You are making me wonder about saving my pennies for a double stack unit. Dave

Nice to see the Sun again. Dave

Dave

From today's images. Wednesday 27 September 2023 Dave

A lucky break in the clouds today but much cloud dodging. I find PIPP is excellent for removing frames with cloud intruding. Dave

Dave

Firstly you need a mono camera. I have have used both the ZWO ASI174MM and more recently the ZWO ASI178MM cameras. The difference being pixel size and speed. The smaller pixels potentially give more detail but are slower. Others may be able to advise which is better. For my 80mm Ha scope and 90mm Megrez for white light, the 178 gives better quality but there is not a lot in it. A faster camera is useful when cloud dodging. A continuum filter will give a little more surface detail. A barlow lens is great for zooming in on some the fascinating sunspot groups. Dave

Other days can be seen on my website. Dave

Thank you Michael. Dave

It was your images Ibbo! that started me looking at the 178. Thank you. Dave

I'm rather liking the ZWO ASI178MM camera. Dave

Thank you both very much. I now seem to get between 80 and 90 frames per sec having changed the USB traffic and a crop. That is perfectly acceptable to me. By the way, I have been away for just over a week and have just tried the new settings. Even with full frame I am getting ~60 f/s Dave

Thanks Alan. I do have an SSD. Dave

Thank you. That is interesting. In that way there is plenty of room to crop and have a decent overlap. Dave

Thank you Alan. Very helpful. Next time out I will give it a try. Dave

Thank you Nicholas. I did try a square ROI but it made little difference. I don't know how to do the the other two. My scope is a single stacked 80 mm Lunt. Dave

Seeing some lovely images on here using a 178MM made me look into choosing the right camera for a scope and concluded that with my 80mm Lunt that I would benefit using the smaller pixels of the 178 for full disc images. There is one snag. My 174 will run at 110 frames per second whereas the 178 only does around 18 per second. For a clear sky that is not a problem but when chasing gaps in the clouds it is a different matter. Another snag is that I can only capture around 90% of the full disc and so two exposures are needed. These two images are with a 178. Dave

Thank you very much IB20, laudropb and Sunshine. Your comments are much appreciated. Dave

Thanks Jeremy. Dave

Dave

Thank you. I noticed that there is quite a difference between that region on the full disc image and the one with the barlow even though only minutes apart. There was too much cloud to investigate further. Dave

More images can be seen at https://mysolarpics.co.uk Dave

Very nice. I didn't have any chance today. Dave