Merlin66

No, they are for WL enhancement......

If you eventually use a larger refractor (>100mm) , then with the Quark you may need an ERF (energy rejection filter) - a good UV-IR filter as a basic option.

I enjoy both visual and solar imaging.

Yes, over a period of minutes you can see the development of the proms and movements around sun spots and active areas.

Imaging a sequence with an image say every five minutes over a period of a couple of hours dramatically shows the dynamic nature of the proms and the solar surface in general.

Hmmmm

That’s a little unkind for a $ 2000 investment in Ha solar filters.....

My experience with tilt tuned etalons is slightly different....takes a bit of finesse but the results are just as good as those I saw through a double stacked Lunt.

(I had a "fine tuning knob" on my external double stacked SM60 filters - a Vegemite lid controlled from the eyepiece.)

I ordered a Quark when they first came out and then had to cancel the order when DayStar could not confirm that it would work in ambient temperatures above 40 deg C.

The Quark only has heating to bring it on band (I believe the "nominal" operating temperature is around 28 deg )

The temperature down here in Victoria was 44 deg yesterday!

Just to illustrate the uselessness of the camera frame size....

Not a good frame of reference (excuse the pun!)

Vlaiv,

Glad you found that error....

I think you need to revisit Suiter's "Star Testing Astronomical Telescopes". On p61 he models a simplistic analysis of the Airy Disk based on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and comes up with an answer close to the 1.22lambda/D.

I have yet to see an astronomical image showing the Airy Disk. (On the bench a pinhole optical system is usually used to generate the Airy disk images normal see in the text.) It needs at least a >f30 system and absolutely perfect conditions. Suiter's work is based on VISUAL and high magnifications.

What we record is the PSF of the seeing disk.

Re Sampling (See Suiter, p41) and the MTF Chapter 3.4. Eversberg and Vollmann in their "Spectroscopic Instrumentation" p 76 discuss at some length the issues of effective sampling - starting with the Nyquist criterion - they advocate at least a sampling rate of >3. (This again is based on the PSF rather than the "absolute" Airy Disk)

I'd also refer you to Schroeder's "Astronomical Optics". 

Mike, I agree 100%! I have the one volume edition.

The other ol' favourite would be Chamber's "Astronomy" - 1867

The typical bandwidth of a single stack etalon is 0.7 to 1.0A - this is sufficient to show all the major solar features, the wider bandwidth is sometimes better at showing the proms due to their Doppler shift.

A double stack gets down to around 0.5A and this enhances the surface details and may require some "extra" tuning to maximise the views of the proms.

You can double stack external tilt etalons - I used a double stack SM60 pair for many years on the ED80.

(Adding a double stack filter to a poorly performing single stack etalon will slightly improve things but consider the cost v's benefit)

Not much changed since the 2012 set-up....

The Baader wedge has been "adapted" to just a ND1.6 configuration (temporarily) to allow the Omega CaK filter stack to be tested.

The 100mm Spectroheliograph is semi-operational - the weather has significantly reduced the opportunities to do final testing....

Do you think there are enough users who have a basic Star Analyser grating (or other spectrograph) to justify a spectroscopic challenge for them??

+1 for a Spectroscopy challenge!

When/ if you get serious I can assist.................

I use the QHY5ii and the Lodestar for spectroscope guiding - which is very similar to OAG. This is on my C11 at f10.

No issues so far, either in finding a star or guiding.

Practise........

Spill,

with my semi remote set-up with the 60mm electronic finder on the C11 at f10, I can center the finder on a target star and have it sitting on the 20micron slit gap in the spectroscope.

certainly accurate enough for plate solving......

I only do spectroscopy so the "imaging" camera only sees spectra not the sky.

The built-in guider on the spectroscope has a small field of view ( the C11 at f10) and can generate "double star" images of brighter field stars. Not suitable for plate solving.

My solution is to use a DMK51 camera on the 60mm finder as an electronic finder and use these images for plate solving.

Hope this helps.

OK I'm back home now.....

Connecting my EQ6Pro mount with CdC and EQMod and double checking the ASCOM settings for my camera - I use AstroArt, then configuring ASPS for the focal length/ pixel size of my electronic finder I can obtain a fits image, solve and sync the mount....

Note the "Alignment/ Sync" options in EQMod Tools. Click the small notepad icon and then tick all the sync options....

Works for me.

If you upload (or send me) a typical image which you're trying to solve , maybe we can move forward.

Ken

OK

I should be able to access my computer later today.

I'll verify all the settings I use in Eqmod, CDC and ASPS.

can you confirm that the camera you are using definitely provides a workable image under your ASCOM settings.

If you can upload an example I can run it through the process.

this might help......

Hmmm,

not with my computer at the moment, but a couple of things come to mind.

you can give the file and location anything you want.

unpark the mount to allow for re-syncing.

Tick the ignore option to minimize any conflict and double check the focal length and pixel size.

it should then work IF the camera with the same ASCOM settings shows a reasonable working image with the selected exposure I.e. Enough star images to be identified.

try the camera independently first.......

Hmmmm

which camera and scope were you using to obtain the reference images??

were you obtaining sufficient star images for identification?

what error messages (if any) do you see???

Looks OK....

what camera were you using???

To get best results you need a mono fast frame camera like the ASI 174 or similar.

You can then acquire an AVI of a few hundred frames and use those to provide a detailed image with software like Registax.

Just fit a bit of Baader film over the finder and just use that??

That's what I do.......

Yeah but, It's only one of the polarising elements you need (half of the assembly you show)....rotate the filter/ eyepiece/ camera to see if the reflections are being reduced.

You coupon could try a polarizing filter in front of the camera. This may suppress the unwanted reflections. Seems to work well with some PST mods.

Hmmmm.

if you're not interested in obtaining "Solar Image of the day/ week/ year" then there are a few options available.

For the past ten years the PST has been a relatively cheap option for visual solar work....It will show the prominences  and the Ha filaments as well as being easy to use.

The Lunt 50 when launched was as an alternative to the PST......

Double stacking and larger apertures is always great for solar - but at a cost which may be beyond the average amateur.

Solar observing is unique - seeing the Ha features is absolutely amazing!!! If you can get this experience with a PST or Lunt 50 then think seriously about it.