Sunshine

These are great! in your description it says Lunt60 Coronado DS, two different scopes were used for these images? 

Self collimating telescopes, simply push a button and lasers instantly align mirrors to a degree even the human eye cannot.

That's a beautiful image! colours so subtle and contrasty.

Welcome to SGL, and I love your sauce!

On 12/04/2023 at 05:10, Highburymark said:

The new focuser looks like a big improvement from earlier models. That old GSO Crayford was ok if not too stressed, but not great under heavy loads. Also - as the base scope has moved from using a singlet objective lens to an ED doublet, I wonder if you can push the magnification higher than the old LS60 when seeing allows? I seem to remember about 60-70x was the normal before - worth trying the new scope at 90-100x on a bright prominence when you get the chance.

Good point about trying higher power with these new ED doublets, i tried out my 5mm XO  (85x) while focusing on one particularly bright prom and even though the sun was only half an hour to setting I was impressed with the sharpness.

1 hour ago, RafalT73 said:

from my backyard

 

Iris Nebula

Wonderful image! The blue is beautiful 

It’s worth subscribing to prime for this one documentary then cancalling it if you chiose, it’s fantastic. In the nothingness, he describes the phenomenon as “fluctuations where pairs of particles and anti particles borrow energy from the vacuum and appear then destroy each other in what seems to be akin to a fizzing” making true nothingness an impossibility. @vlaiv you would love this film, i say film because it is more a film at 2hrs or so.

30 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Where does this energy come from?

I wish i could explain to the extent in the documentary, im trying to wuote a renowned physicist but my knowledge is stretched to its limits. In the film he imagines a cubic space where everything is sucked out, all matter in which we know it, yet matter somehow pops into existence and is immediately destroyed as though energy is being borrowed and paid back. He demonstrates that a space woth trully “nothing” seems to be impossible.

There cannot be nothing within a given space. It seems that matter pops into existence then immediately destroys itself in a perceived “nothingness” somehow, energy is borrowed from outside the nothingness and quickly repaid as matter enters and exits the nothing.  Once again I’ll mention, if you have Prime you must see “Everything and Nothing” these discussions may take on a whole new life.

If you have Amazon prime I highly recommend this documentary by well known physicist  Jim Al-Khalili, it is a riveting documentary about the science of empty space. It is called “everything and nothing” a wonderful watch if you have prime, and if you dont have Prime, it’s worth seeking out on some other platform, the question you pose in this thread is explored in great detail.

I love sketches, these are wonderful!

A beautiful image!

That’s an impressive image!

10 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

Looking forward to your reports. I have the older daylight only model.

Thats the one I had about five years ago, I bought it used tilt tuned then i had it sent to Lunt for pressure tune retrofit and sold it a year later, lesson learned.

2 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Excellent. Sounds like you have a keeper. And you can use a binoviewer with that nice B1200 blocking filter to bring out even more detail. 

Funny you mention, a friend of mine said he’s going out of country for a fee weeks and offered me his binoviewer and eyepieces to try out, I’ll take him up on that!.

This is my second 60mm Lunt in five years, the first one I ended up selling to fund another scope, a night scope, leaving me without a solar scope. Omg i do stupid things sometimes, anyway I missed my solar scope enough that I ordered another with a B1200 blocking filter as I have imaging in mind as soon as I pick up a good mono camera. After a ten week wait it is finally here,  at about 1:30 today I set it out in my back yard for first light and I was floored by yhe amount of activity.  My 9mm Morpheus produced a wonderful image scale and as I carefully and slowly cranked the pressure tuner I could see features present themselves. One thing that I immediately found pleasing was the dark background and no ghosting or double limbs, odd reflections or anything anomalous going on, the entire disc across the enire FOV as the sun drifted was uniform. details were uniform with no perceivable sweet spots or areas lacking features, the sharpness and uniformity was impressive, having had a PST I can tell you a liytle about non uniformity but this is not a bash on the PST, i loved my PST and one must not expect it to produce the same image quality as a scope costing several times more. 
 

One thing which was truly amazing about this first light was the amount of promonances and flares on display today, i counted no less than 8 sprouting off the limb, it was like one of those mosaic images where many flares are seen but they’re not exactly all present at the same time. Seeing conditions were not great but well enough to allow me a great, detailed view of two plages and three filaments which appeared like dark snakes, very neat. As I familiarized myself with the tuner again I remembered that its just like a focuser, one must turn it firmly but slowly in increments, its easy to overtune and loose fine detail from one half turn to the next. concentrating on the flares and proms was a joy as there were so many! one particular flare shaped like a palm tree which widened as it rose showed wonderful detail, my eyes were torn about where to look, it was like the sun was welcoming me back to H-alpha and chose to put on a show, I’m overjoyed to see you again! Sun. 
 

As for the scope itself, mechanically, it can be used as a weapon if an intruder breaks in, it is a surprisingly heavy hunk of aluminum for it’s size and the fit and finish are just great, i have yet to try it at night but I suspect it will be a great little scope at night also with its ED glass, it may just make for a great little grab and go. For now I am over the moon..uh sun! about H-alpha, right away i will engage in one of my favorite things to do, outreach, i can’t wait to head to the local park and let others have a look, while talking and making new friends.

Amazing night out! I have to make the short 17hr drive out to your part of the province where dark skies are abundant.

It’s a beauty! can’t wait to get it out tomorrow for first light, well actually first light will be tonight in night mode but does that count for a solar scope? I’m not sure lol.

A new Lunt60! Finally here after an anxious ten week wait. It was cloudy all day but clear now at night, ironically first light for this solar scope will be in night mode for night targets 😂

Wow, what a journey you’ve had, all the wiser for it, a big welcome back and what a super setup you have there! Looks fantastic peering out into the night sky.

Nice report, is that a spa I see in the background? I would have been observing while sitting in the spa, how cool…hot would that be? 😁

Interesting, I have seen a very faint patches of light blue at times when observing full disc with long FL eyepieces.

I have a Vizen counterweight with some marks I would like to paint. I’ll keep an eye on this thread in case you find a suitable match, though you may want to Google “baby poop green” 😂

Welcome to SGL! the purchasing never ends, trust me.

Are there any targets which have been elusive or disappointing for you? that target you’ve tried many times but never quite had a decent look at it based on what others have described. For me it’s both Mercury and Venus, they are always low and extremely bright, a bad combination of atmospheric conditions being so low on the horizon and their brightness doesn’t help. These are two targets which I was never quite satisfied with their appearance.