Luke

Just been enjoying the large prom again this morning. It is quite faint with my ED100 and Quark and popping a towel over my head certainly helped with this one! To me it looked about six to seven times as tall as the bright prom, and was sort of a triangle shape bending in a nice arc. Maybe a fusion of the Leaning Tower of Pisa with the Eiffel tower The active region is still showing a nice collection of small spots, but it's the prom that's the star at the mo for me. I'm very interested to see how it comes out on camera if anyone is lucky enough to grab it, how much the cam can see of a faint big one! It's been a lovely month for me, a few decent proms and my fifth night session last night - focused mainly on the lovely globular clusters. But of course it's extra special to see a star close up! 😎

It could be my eyes are not as good as they used to be, but our skies don't look as dark here as they used to. We are in a small village but there's been lots of houses going up in several places around us, some in our village and a good few in the next one, which I think might be affecting things. And there are plans to build many more. On the plus, I like lunar and solar!

It took its time to clear here and at first in the little gaps I could see the bright prom only. Then as the bigger gaps came, I got to see a nice big sort of arc-shaped prom - a bit faint and it took me a mo until I could see it more clearly. I would guess it was about four to five times as tall as the bright prom. The AR looked interesting too. I had a look in white light after and it was sweet, some nice little sunspot "fragments". Hopefully bigger and better spots to come this summer!

Well done getting some captures despite the difficulties! Thanks for the view. My scope is out here but not much luck so far, a fleeting view of a prom. I wanted to see if there was a big faint prom, I wondered if there was something showing up on Gong at 9 o'clock, partly cropped off.

Very nice shot! Is the camera fixed in place? I'm not 100% sure on how your setup looks. If it is fixed so you can get consistent same photos, I'd suggest take multiple shots over the course of a minute or so, then stack them using a program like AutoStakkert (https://www.autostakkert.com/), and sharpen up the result. The stacked image will probably look a bit blurry but should have much less noise, enabling you to push the sharpening. For sharpening, you could try ImPPG (https://greatattractor.github.io/imppg/). There's a nice little write-up on ImPPG here: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/astrophotography-tips/a-free-tool-for-lucky-imaging/ Good luck with your lunar imaging!

+1 for GIMP. I knew Photoshop pretty well having used it for 20 years and GIMP is a very capable replacement. You can also use many Photoshop plugins with it, and you can get a very nice free plugin directly for it, G'MIC-Qt (https://gmic.eu/), which has a mix of tools including for contrast, detail and sharpening. The main downside I think to GIMP is that so many tutorials are for Photoshop. But the price point is sweeter!

Meteors never get old to me! I saw a lovely one just two nights ago.

I don't have one myself. Does saguaro's suggestion on cloudynights for the Lunt 50 work?: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/681443-cant-focus-my-lunt-ls50-using-zwo-asi178/

Congrats! Nice to see world firsts over here on SGL. Do you think we are near the peak of what's possible for amateurs? Could e.g. better cameras in time do even more or are we already towards the limit?

“Shall we sell the Equinox 120?” I asked my wife Sarah. “I’m not using it for solar imaging any more, and I really like using the ED100 for visual h-alpha anyway.” “You can sell your cameras, but the Equinox stays!” So out came the ED120 last night, looking for a new purpose in life, rather like I am at the mo and perhaps some of my fellow stargazers are too. The first bit of good news was that my giro dual mount didn’t tip over when I put the 120 on it for the first time – the Equinox lives on the HEQ5 normally. Phew! My wife would be suspicious were I to come back with the Equinox in pieces! And since it can indeed go on the giro, maybe the scope can do some solar white light visual for me too this year, with the Baader Herschel wedge. My default is ED100 and Lunt 1.25" wedge, but let's up the resolution while still enjoying the low-tech giro! And the next bit of good news: I’d forgotten that I had a posh red dot finder, a Baader Sky Surfer V. And the battery still worked! I set the Sky Surfer to “Stun” and aimed its ominous red dot at Alberio. Initial focus was way out, but that big ball just had to be Alberio. Sharpening confirmed the kill. No need to adjust the finder, I must have used it in the Equinox before. Off we go to M51! Gulp! This first view has a lot to live up to... I’d had a spellbinding view of the Whirlpool recently in my 10" dob. And then I was rewarded for giving some TLC to my 8" SCT, which seemed to show me some spiral structure in M51! Or was it down to two Curly Whirlys I’d eaten earlier? The Whirlpool was dim but nice (as my wife likes to think of me) with my 17.3mm Delos, not as bright as with the dob and SCT, though it could do with more mag. So I go to fetch my 10mm Delos, and as I come out, possibly the best meteor I have seen catches my eye! Below the big dipper, burning up in a calm, graceful manner, it’s there for about 2 to 3 seconds of glory. Surely I am not in for another special night? But I only have until 11pm! I’m teaching my son Matthew to program in the morning, though sometimes it feels the other way round. In goes the 10mm Delos – we have a complete set of Delosses, or is it Deloi, Delli? And we are very happy with them. I’m hoping to get away without using the mighty 21mm Ethos tonight, just to be lazy and use 1.25" eyepieces only. The view of M51 is much more pleasing to me at 90x mag. Very satisfying! I’m using a chunky Baader diagonal with two click-locks. I could probably play a mean beat with it. The click lock is working well – as I change over eyepieces through the night, the scope stays on target. I spy with my little eye, H. I head to M13 in Hercules. The view is sweet. Not as bright as with the fatter telescopes, but I can resolve many stars. This could do with more mag! I go to 200x with the 4.5mm. And the view is really lovely with a bit of averted vision. Off to M36, M37 and M38. Though I think I might only have viewed two of the three! My navigation was wonky, with Alnath I think having dipped behind our roof. And I must see the Owl Cluster! I’m not sure the view of the Owl was quite up there with the SCT the other night, but it’s a fine view. The stars are nice and sharp, and I enjoy using my poshest focuser of all, a FeatherTouch 2.5” rack and pinion. So howz about trying to split a double? Theta Aurigae is conveniently placed, and my dog-eared Collins gem Stars book from 2004 tells me I need at least 100mm of aperture and high magnification to distinguish this tight double. I fiddle around with the FeatherTouch for a few minutes at 200x mag. No joy. Pfffft! The M92 globular cluster near M13 looks nice at 10mm, and is much nicer with the 4.5mm! The minutes whizz by, I need to finish up soon! But I have to split something with the frac first! Nothing too taxing. Castor proves easy peasy at 200x – two nice white stars. Success! And I wanna see M3 as well before I pack up. But to a novice explorer like me, the globular cluster looks like it's in the middle of nowhere. Here goes, let’s point the deadly dot at about 45% between the rather far apart Arcturus and Cor Caroli... It’s been a lovely night so far and I’m a bit tired and time is ticking. I don’t suppose there is any chance the M3 glob will be in the view first time? Gosh, it is! And the view is good with the 10mm, and fab with the 4.5mm again coming out to play. I’m really enjoying the 4.5 tonight! I can get the stars decently sharp and don't feel like pushing it higher tonight. I have to tear myself away from the view. The globs have been so fantastic this month. Yikes, 11.15pm! I’ll need two coffees first thing in the morning at this rate! Just one last target, I promise. What will it bee? I switch to the 17.3mm Delos and M44 the Beehive Cluster looks very good. I could do with a wider view, though. Looks like the 21mm Ethos is coming out tonight after all! Accustomed to my Delos eyepieces, I try to twist and extend the 21mm Ethos! As if it isn’t big enough already! The giro mount doesn’t seem to groan as the Ethos lands. And the Beehive is majestic. A sparkly hive of activity, the stars seem to have a bit more buzz, but it could be I am just getting carried away by the wider view of one of my favourite clusters. The 10" dob can’t take in its full glory. I stay on the Beehive a minute longer than I should, and it’s been another brilliant night. A much shorter one than recently, but I am buzzing. It's been so nice to get out with different scopes this month. It reminds me of being able to look through various scopes at star parties that fellow stargazers kindly let us do, it’s so nice to see these jewels in different ways. It felt like it freshened things up. It also reminded me of something that seems to be an all-to-frequent occurrence. My wife was right again. The Equinox stays!

The first time I viewed the sun it was a bit disappointing. I just needed to wait until there were some decent sunspots around! Here are a few other options for checking what's out. Have a look at the SDO/HMI Continuum: https://spaceweather.rra.go.kr/observation/space/sun Direct link to the image: Or e.g. go to helioviewer.org and open up the Data Sources panel on the left edge, and set Observatory to SDO (I think that's the default), Instrument to HMI, and Measurement to continuum. When conditions are good you should get some ace views with 10 inches of aperture! I'd start off with not much power - enough to see the full disc with some decent space around it so you don't have to nudge too often, like if you were observing the whole of the moon. Then up the mag to get in closer to any sunspots you want to have a look at. Hope a decent group of spots shows up soon for you! It's tiddlers at the mo. With no solar finder, you could try to use shadows cast by something on the scope to line it up. E.g. I sometimes use the shadow cast by two knobs on the mount head to try and line it up, casting the shadow onto a chair or my shirt.

I think sometimes you just have to cut your losses, unfortunately, and put it down to experience. I was going through my old solar captures over the weekend and I came across this capture (and several others over a few days) taken with a Quark that was a replacement for another Quark. I think it very neatly summarises why I would be tempted to buy the Quark but wouldn't. The detail around the spot is to my eyes fantastic and better than could be expected from a £1000 filter! Yes, I want a Quark! But hang on. What's all that smearing? Running right through the centre?! Over much of the field? For me, it is unusable for imaging and doubly disappointing given that it was a replacement. Imagine you buy one from a good supplier like First Light Optics. You know that if you have a pants one you can return it for a refund. That sounds to me worth a punt, I'd be happy to pay return postage too even if it sucked, it's worth a shot! But what if you like it and keep it and it serves you well for a bit, then develops a fault? You are then without a Quark for some weeks. Then what if the good unit you sent for repair or replacement has been replaced with a unit you are unhappy with? Send it back again, lose more weeks, and hope the replacement for the replacement isn't even worse? We've had at least two develop faults after a period. My wife's developed a fault I think still within warranty but we decided to write it off rather than deal with them again. My one is still going though has numerous marks in the view, I would not be happy to sell it to anyone. So that's quite a chunk of investment we'll never get back should we feel like making a change. Whereas we were able to sell our two SolarMax 60's. I know of several folks who have sent Quarks back, some here on SGL, and I don't know that many solar astrophotographers. I get that the Quark is cheap for what it is, but £1000 is still a lot of money for many amateurs and one wonders how a filter like this one ends up in a customer's hands.

I'd go for a 100mm refractor if it was me. Lots of good options here. I have the Skywatcher ED100 DS Pro (F9). It's a bit long but very light for its size and is a joy to use on a giro mount. It's very good for white light solar and nice on the moon. It's not a bad time to be getting a solar option, nice and early in the new cycle. Solar is lovely as you can just do five or ten minutes and be happy. I have four refractors from 60mm to 120mm and I would probably keep the 100 over the others. It's just a nice balance of aperture to weight and for my taste shows plenty of lunar and solar detail. My wild alternative suggestion is get a solar h-alpha scope, possibly second hand. Something like a PST, Lunt 50, SolarMax 60. Although it can only observe one object, it's different every day and sometimes changes a lot in a matter of minutes or hours. It might be compatible if nights are a problem and may see a lot of use. Good luck picking the right option for you.

Welcome to SGL, Alvin!

Welcome to SGL, Max!

Welcome to SGL, Stephen! Coffee and stargazing sound like a perfect fit! Buying second hand and possibly selling it on later sounds like a solid plan. Some of the gear out there has barely been used. And once you have more experience you might think something else fits better or maybe you get the bug and may be willing to up the investment! The only thing I can think of advice-wise is just to be a little cautious when buying second-hand as there have unfortunately been a few scammers around. Oh, and if I did it again I would get warmer clothes for my first year! Good luck with your star travels!

Welcome to SGL, Dave! The Orion Nebula is one of my favourites too. Best of luck with the new scope.

Sorry, I forgot about your point re: matching scopes to seeing conditions. From where I observed I found that the ED100 was almost always fine with the Quark (I would guess 95% plus) and that on the rare occasion it wasn't, I tended to leave it for a while and come back later, and it usually improved enough for me. Maybe my location affects things. When the seeing wasn't okay for my ED100, it tended to be choppy and I could still see little chops at 60mm and didn't enjoy it. For imaging I remember that I did sometimes step down from the 120mm to 85mm because of seeing conditions. Although I regularly used four scopes, for me it was not so much to match the seeing. I mainly used my scopes like this: The Tele Vue 60 was my grab-and-go scope and saw a lot of use during lunch and on holiday. I used it for visual and imaging (undriven - letting the sun drift over the ASI174 chip). I also used the 60 for full disc imaging at home (as four tiles, I think) The Tele Vue 85 and ED100 are my default visual scopes at home. I put them both on a dual-mount giro and start with the Quark in the ED100 and white light in the 85. Then I swap them over (capping the scopes first and pointing well away from the sun!), mainly so I can sneak in a bit closer on the sunspots in white light. The Equinox 120 was my favourite to image with from home, being the largest aperture I could use. Here's an image with the Quark and Equinox 120: Now that I am not imaging, I might rethink things a bit. I'm very happy with the ED100 for visual h-a, but for white light I'd ideally like to be using the Equinox 120 and the Baader Herschel wedge regularly. The problem is I think the Equinox 120 is a bit heavy dual-mounted on the giro, so I have to get the HEQ5 out, which I am a bit lazy to do for solar visual!

I was surprised, Stu! I was expecting the Tele Vue 85 (F7) and Equinox 120 (F7.5) to be better with the Quark and its 4.2 Telecentric and recommended F30. But for me the view definitely "pops" best in the Skwatcher ED 100 DS Pro (F9). My wife Sarah agrees. The least "poppy" scope for me has been the lovely little Tele Vue-60 (F6). To me the contrast is clearly a notch lower with this one versus the 85 and 120, though it's still a nice view and has served me very well - I am happy enough with it. I give all four a big thumbs up for white light. Is a Tele Vue or Tak overkill for h-a? Well I think I paid three times more for the Tele Vue 85 than for the ED100, never mind versus non-ED! But I like well-made things and also use my scopes for night time. It's always a joy to use the 85, and the optics are very sharp. I like using quality items! And the 85 is built like a tank. The package it arrived in was squashed, but the scope looked in perfect nick. The ED100 is light, and I love that, but I wouldn't fancy throwing it about too much.

Dave, can I ask, did you use the UV/IR cut in the 152mm as well, and was the Quark tuning the same / similar as when using the 35nm? I'm curious why I had problems with the Baader 35nm H-a filter! The view was similar to when the Quark is warming up - more like white light, and I tried the other tunings but they made little difference. I gather the 35nm should block even better / light passing through should be cooler. So if the Quark was getting more heat from the UV/IR cut in my 120mm scope, that might explain different tuning. But then I used the same tuning for that Quark in all my scopes including my little 60mm , which I presume would not generate that much heat. So if heat was affecting the tuning in the 120mm, then wouldn't the Quark have needed different tuning in the 60mm? I also used a UV/IR cut with the 60mm, just to be extra cautious! After trying the 35nm I switched to my usual UV/IR cut and things were fine again, i.e. the only difference was the filter.

Very nice proms indeed! Thanks for the amazing views!