nicoscy

Can you please expand on that?

Just remembered I have a Borg 50mm f5 achro in storage!!!! I could just toss in the mix a 2x barlow before the CaK module and I am there! Still at 500mm which allows me to enjoy a full disk with my ASI178MM

Aperture mask time then! I think I'll just scoot over to a 3D print shop and have them make something simple!

Nice images by the way! I think it will take me quite a lot of work to get there, but I am eager to try!

Even with a Lunt CaK module? Instructions do not mention such re f`10, but I'll try it! I use a 76mm f6.5 achro, which means I have to stop it down to 50mm, but it's worth a shot! Thanks for the tips!

Nah, I'll take it up again in autumn, unless there's a flurry of interesting sunspots of course !!! Cool setup!

Probably going to dabble in CaK as well. Any hints and tips for acquisition and processing? Seems as if CaK is more difficult (shorter wavelength and all) to do... Thanks in advance! Nicos

Certainly was no fun under the blistering heat and humidity of Cyprus. Solar imaging is postponed until autumn swings around. It's also the contrast-robbing heat plumes, not just the relentless heat! Not one of my best attempts, but still, can't be missing sunspots - a rarity during solar minimum. Lunt LS60SS, ZWO ASI178MM, Firecapture 1,500 frames, AS3! 20% of frames, a sprinkle of IMPPG and a dash of Photoshop! CS, Nicos

Bit more fun with the Comet, I went by a dam in the mountains because I wanted to get the reflection on the water. Plus the views from a dark site beat city viewing every time!

Problem is that the proposed scope is without diagonal, eyepiece, RDF and / or finderscope. The weight does add up eventually...

The Lunt should be quite superior to the PST, as it has an "External Full Aperture Lunt Etalon with tilt-tuning adjustment allows for a 0.65 Angstrom bandpass" Vs the PST which has "1.0 angstrom hydrogen-alpha (Ha) bandpass". - External vs Internal etalon - score Lunt as external etalons perform usually better - Bandpass - score Lunt by wide margin - BF - score Lunt. Both come with 5mm, but Lunt can be upgraded to 6mm or 12mm - Focuser - Even, as the helical focuser on the Lunt is bad, but the PST is hard to use for imaging due to weird internal focusing mechanism. However, one can upgrade to a 1.25" FTF (and probably equivalent Moonlite) on the Lunt I had the PST and now have the Lunt 60mm; and I have played extensively with the Lunt 50mm. They are all lovely scopes, but just the bandpass difference is enough for me to know which I'd buy

Nice! I took one with my 10.5 fisheye, but not that wide a field. At least Venus and the Pleiades are in there

Got up at 2:30 yesterday morning, travelled an hour by car, but it was an awesome sight, totally worth it and the most lovely binocular object!

IMPPG is a software to do post-processing. I find it much easier and comfortable than Registax Wavelets for example. Link is here.

Alan, I sincerely hope activity picks up, as I prefer above all, viewing sunspots at high magnifications! Soon I will get a CaK module as well, to round up my setup, but there is so much to learn re processing! I am a huge fan of Alan Friedman but miles and miles away from that level of work. Still, one can aspire to something more!

Guess we all had some fun as ol' Sol was quite busy this past weekend. Lots of great topics and photos - here's my humble one...

Use gain to reduce exposure time and thus increase frame rate. Read noise also drops dramatically with this camera at a gain of 50. If possible, use ROI to only get the part you want (plus framing) and again, this will help speed the frame rate. Have you tried stretching your images in say IMPPG? What you may consider dark, hides probably a wealth of information which can then be coaxed out in any image editing software

Maybe so, best to ask TS re thickness of base of Polarscope base. Re guiding, it should be able to do so to some extend, but I have no idea of the % of rejected frames you'd get. There's a price to pay when using such a mount for long focal length imaging. Mine is set up with a 72mm f6 refractor, but I do EAA so different animal! Best of luck with your endeavor and do post details as you are building and testing the setup

First bit: yes, it will work but guiding will definitely help, especially due to loading close to the limit and having a long focal length scope. Second bit: You CAN use the Star Adventurer wedge - I replaced the huge knob with a hex screw. Not optimal, but works and I am sure if one looks around, one can find a smaller knob. Alternative wedge of truly better built, would be the William Optics, this one. Not cheap, but cheaper than the alternatives (excluding the SW wedge). Cheaper than the WO, but not sure about how much improvement you'd get, would be the TS wedge, this one. All other options are in a different price bracket....

🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 The Vamo is more known in Europe and the M2C in the USA, so it's a bitt of a challenge to find someone who has actually used both...

😃🍿

I need to desaturate a bit ;)

More playtime :)

Note: There are two swallows transiting - the one on the right side coming down is way off focus so it appears as a slight shading crossing the disk!

Animated GIF coming up. Did a bit of resizing to keep overall size manageable. Equipment used: Lunt LS60 Tilt Tuned + SkyWatcher AZ GTi + ASI178MM Software used: Firecapture+ IMPPG + Photoshop