tooth_dr

Superb John, I like this version with the pronounced Ha areas.

The microlensing effect on a KAF8300 is nothing like the artefacts produced by the 1600.

I was guiding with a finderscope and slightly modified bracket. A lot of folks do it this way. The adapter is about £25 and that’s really all you need to spend extra if you already have the finderscope. Plus pretty much any camera will get you a star to guide on. With an OAG you end up starting to need a sensitive camera to find stars which can cost more money again.

I'm sorry cant answer that, but I see no difference in my camera, although it's only 8MP and has a slightly smaller sensor than the DLSR sensor. Any vignetting I get is corrected easily with flats. I've attached a comparative FOV below. As a no cost option, nothing to lose trying it.

Depends how far out you are. As Merlin suggests you could move the mirror forward. I did that on my own 250 scope and that gave me just enough inward travel. It's free so nothing to lose trying it (apart from your current collimation!)

Yes. I thought I also saw something two days ago, a dark filament running down the surface, starting from the edge. I’ll see if I can find the data and get it processed.

Thanks Stu. Just setup after reading this, and it’s a lovely spread out prom

I found a link to a solar ruler by Guy Buhry and added it to my solar disk image. The Earth to Moon distance really brings it home to me how big the sun is.

Typically it was a hazy day

A few from just last night:

I am only throwing out a suggestion based on my recent experience. I have a heavy load on my focuser, and in certain orientations, this causes tilt, which is visible in my OAG stars. If I take a short or long exposure I have oval stars in the main camera image. I track fine via PHD2 (not as good as yours but 0.6" or less), but because there is a tilt, it appears in all the images despite good guiding. Once I flip to the other side of the pier, the stars are round again. I guess the heavier camera might be an issue here? Can you try comparing some short exposures? Even post the image you have here along that you mentioned in the first post. If I press my ear on to the scope (yes I did this) I can feel/hear the fan running, but it depends on your definition of 'significant' - if you set something light onto it can you see it move?

@festoon Thanks for posting here - that is a nice capture. I also enjoy seeing the MW in the ASC images. It is starting to creep in more and more now

I’ll definitely need a few more tips off you lol. That’s a really great job for a slowish scope and only 200 minutes of data.

Aborted.

I've been doing more solar imaging recently, due to being at home more and the weather being good. Before it was once in a blue moon, and therefore I didnt really mind much if the images werent great. However now that I'm doing more of it, I'm starting feeling like I'm missing a few tricks, and getting substandard data and or processing. I've attached the stack and my processing of it, along with the capture details, if anyone wants to have a look at it. FireCapture v2.6 Settings ------------------------------------ Camera=ZWO ASI290MM(57777461) Filter=L Profile=Sun Filename=Sun_133700.ser Date=260520 Start=133647.895 Mid=133700.859 End=133713.823 Start(UT)=123647.895 Mid(UT)=123700.859 End(UT)=123713.823 Duration=25.928s Date_format=ddMMyy Time_format=HHmmss LT=UT Frames captured=1116 File type=SER Binning=no ROI=1000x1000 ROI(Offset)=0x0 FPS (avg.)=43 Shutter=21.40ms Gain=0 (0%) Gamma=100 HighSpeed=off AutoExposure=off USBTraffic=100 (off) SoftwareGain=10 (off) AutoGain=off Brightness=0 (off) AutoHisto=75 (off) FPS=1000 (off) Histogramm(min)=13 Histogramm(max)=220 Histogramm=86% Noise(avg.deviation)=n/a Limit=3000 Frames Sensor temperature=36.0°C Sun_133700_lapl4_ap4193_Resample20.tif

Thank you. ZWO recommend zero gain in their website for the 290MM for solar imaging. But if I used a bit of gain I could lower the exposure and increase the fps rate. They suggest adjusting the exposure time then to get the right histogram. Gamma should be at 50 but I had no differentiation in the grey shades so thought it would be better turned up. Maybe that can be developed in post processing rather than capture? I tried another Barlow yesterday and it was the same. You could be right on that, it’s just I thought I remember it being different in the past, but perhaps just on a more distinct flare or sunspot. Thanks again Adam.

I am using 2” Optolong Ha Oiii and Sii filters. I have two mono cameras and have Baader filters in the other one. I can’t see any difference in the two. I only shoot one NB filter per night so not sure if they are parfocal.

Sorry not sure why they post so large. If you click to open in new tab they arent as in your face!! Here is another one: prom-1-timelapse-crop.mp4

The prom today was something that I've never seen before since buying my solar scope 3 years ago. I grabbed as many images throughout the day as possible, and spent a few hours this evening processing the data. Hope you enjoy Adam. part animation prom2-1.mp4 part-animation-prom2-2.mp4

This is a two panel mosaic, exposed separately for surface and proms. Taken with Lunt 60mm and ASI 290MM. Processed in AS!3, ImPPG, and PS. Bit of unevenness in the disk, and some joins around the margins. AS!3 didnt want to stack the top part of the disk proms, so I use planet mode and it worked ok but then I had to deal with a dodgy background. New found respect for the solar imagers. Here it is:

I agree, unfortunately patchy cloud ++ today so scant data. Incidentally I tried another barlow, and TBH not much difference. So for the time being I'm sticking with native FL, and will look into it at a later time.

I dont have a warm room on my dome so thats not option. In my current config, I indeed run only 12v into the open bit, and keep 240v in a sealed warm room. I have separate ducts in my dome, one for power and one USB etc.

NRs arent causing me trouble now with the tilt adapter, it's the loss of contrast using the barlow.

@Highburymark hi Mark, dont want to clutter this thread but thought it was easier to reply here! The prominence is still there, and I've been doing some testing. I've tried the 290MM and the 120MM, and the same result as before. Changed the tilt adapter, still the same issues. Removed the 2x barlow - voila - totally different view. Is that possible that the barlow is reflecting light inside it and affecting the view? When I try to up the exposure or gain with the barlow the black background becomes white very qiuckly. This is from now, using no barlow.