Victor Boesen

Gosh darn it.... That's... Beautiful!!! Hope it will be worth every single penny

I am really interested to hear more about how you get along with this. And so is @badhexmaybe?

Definitely intuitive to understand. Look forward to see some rows being added to it

I almost don't care which scope won, because both images are absolutely gorgeous!! Well done

Thanks Roy! The unedited images show somewhat the same that you describe😅 Just goes to show how good our eyes are at adjusting to what they're seeing. Victor

Thank you Pete, really enjoyed your WL images you posted just recently

Correct! At least when the corresponding velocity is positive

Yes! That bugged me too, until I discovered the plots SHOULD be mirrored. The simulated spectrum is showing the radial velocity whereas I'm showing the doppler. These essentially have opposite signs: radial_vel = -doppler_vel So you spectrum lines up very well with the simulated spectrum Victor

No, I mostly used this simulator, which my observations matched quite well with. https://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/hisurvey/euhou/LABprofile/index.php

Hmmm I'm not sure anything is wrong with the map. It has matched up with my experience/observations and it's the exact same map that Pictor and Virgo uses. How are you measuring the RA position of your antenna? If you can, you could try to receive telemetry from Elektro L2 as a know location in the sky. Its frequency is somewhere around 1690-1700MHz and it's a narrow pulsing signal.

Oh yeah, definitely a great difference in detail and sharpness! Will try that myself next time I may look for some handy counterweight solution at some point. Thanks for the suggestion Stu!

Thank you Malcolm, I'm very pleased with these considering they're captured with a phone! Thank you, and no need to excuse yourself! This is the chromosphere of the sun, eg. the layer above the photosphere consisting of hydrogen gas. I'm using a Daystar Quark Chromosphere for this

I appreciate it Stu!! Yes, H-alpha can be very difficult to capture with a phone:) Like you say, I'm very happy with my Quark and its performance. Receiving a bad etalon was my major concern when I purchased the Quark, but I have to say that I have never been disappointed with it. It can. However, it only does so when shooting in pro mode in which I find focusing and etc. more difficult so I don't use it. Easier to just point, tap-to-focus and then adjust brightness. That said, maybe I should give pro mode another go Would you by any chance have some examples/comparisons between raw/non-raw? It's vertical so the focuser doesn't crash into the dovetail. Finding balance with the Evostar and the Quark/other heavy setups is impossible with the stock dovetail so I'm using an extended one to reach balance. It's a hacky solution, as I also had to drill out the holes in the new dovetail to fit the correct screws through them!

Today I was out observing the active solar disk with my small Evostar 72ED and a Baader 32mm Plössl. I usually use a 40mm TS plössl, but I've found the Baader to work nicely when conditions are slightly above average. I tried taking some images of all the features on the disk and tried processing them in greyscale with the built-in editor on my OnePlus 7 Pro. I think the results came out rather nice showing close to all the features visible through the eyepiece. First up, a full disk showing the proms around the disk and all the features. Unfortunately I couldn't quite preserve the fine filaprom on the top right, however the rest looks quite nice. Next up, some closeups of AR2978, AR2981 and AR2982 showing nice filaments. What caught my eye visually was the glowing filament above the dark umbra of AR2978. It's especially visible in the second last image, and it reminded me of the two tadpoles in the tadpole nebula glowing above the rest of the nebula. I was really pleased spending some time outside and enjoyed the full disk view through the Evostar 72ED and Baader 32mm combo. Hope you all managed to catch the sun in H-alpha or white light during this busy solar disk!! Despite not observing any of the major flares that happened this week I was very satisfied with this session. Victor

Was it the free shipping that convinced her?

May I ask what Artcise tripod you have? Is it rated for 20kg? I know you already mentioned slightly in your post, but how do you find the difference in size and weight for travel? Do you have an image that compares the two? EDIT: And how do you find the Artcise handling the current setup on La Palma? I would probably use it for something similar or my 102mm APO. Victor

(Still) Looks great

Definitely makes sense! Good work;) I think, however, the red data-points are likely from noise as the signal gets weaker. Not much to do about it though!

Don't Gitzo tripods have a hook on the bottom of the mounting plate? I guess it would then only be a matter of lowering the center of mass by hanging some weight on it. However, Matthew from Alpha-Lyrae used a Giro Ercole and his 105mm APM TMB on a Gitzo without mentioning anything about center of mass issues: http://alpha-lyrae.co.uk/2013/09/25/stargazing-in-oman/

I just had a look in both white light and H-alpha with my 102mm TecnoSky. Seeing wasn't great in white light, but I managed to spot some faculae just south of the spot. Observing it in Ha showed a wealth of activity on the limb just around the spot. Small but bright flares, spicules and thin loops of gas rapidly evolving while observing. Not only the new AR was worth the look, the entire disk showed a great number of interesting features: Beautiful filaments, AR2976 centered on the disk, a "Tree" looking prominence on the western limb and so much more! Anyone else managed to observe the disk in Ha today? Been a while since I've seen such a crowded disk! I was able to spot slightly more details than the following picture from GONG, but it shows many of the major features such as the "tree" prominence in the top right of the image. Victor

I would also argue the SW steel tripod isn't as portable as one may seem to think. Yes, you can carry it in an oklop bag, but it's quite heavy and large. Here it is compared to my Manfrotto Xpro 055. Victor

I understand. In that case it seems you have truly fallen for the simplicity and versatility of the Gitzo I'll keep lurking around in the thread;)

To save you some money, how about an Innorel (RT80C and RT90C) or Artcise tripod from Amazon? I have not tried any of them myself, but found quite good reviews online (not astro review all of them though). They do make versions each with a 20kg and 40kg payload capacity. I have also come to conclusion that my Manfrotto tripod won't cut it too much longer and the Gitzo tripods were too expensive for my liking, hence why I discovered the alternatives.

It's difficult to conclude what should be to blame for this noise. One option is to try and locate the noise source with something like a yagi antenna, which you can point in different directions and look for noise sources.

Now stu.... When will you be covering that dob with a full size Baader solar film and stick your binoviewer in the focuser? Would mean serious business!!