Rusted

In my early days with DIY, solar, H-a visual [last year] the surface detail would suddenly "pop out" of nowhere as I tuned the PST etalon. I likened it to suddenly seeing the coals in a well established fire bed. Later on, the coals were always visible. Familiarity breeds contempt? Slowly educated eye or ongoing mods? Who knows? I really tormented myself over my poor, early results but went on to almost constant delight. My PST etalon had a distinct, ring like, sweet spot at first. Later it focused evenly across the entire surface and showed the proms at the same tuning spot. Will patience be rewarded for others? I would certainly hope so. Particularly given the considerable investment involved in a complete, commercial, H-a, solar instrument. I'd strongly suggest becoming completely familiar with your own instrument. It sounds as if some telescopes are a little recalcitrant to show what they really have to offer. The entire sun should look evenly but finely textured. Like a big bonfire which has finally burnt down to a flat bed of coals. Proms were clearly visible [yesterday] around much of the limb. Even during this quiet stage in sometime truly awful seeing conditions.

Love the delicacy of Charl's curtain prom in his first three images. We have overcast and rain here so I'm pretty "quiescent" myself.

I could never understand why anyone would quote "CNC machined" as a sales point. What would they use instead of CNC these days? A hide mallet and an anvil? Grubby apron optional? I have owned a 6" f/8 achromat for years. It was nose heavy from birth. So I machined an iron doughnut to go inside the tail piece to balance it more [or less] "cosmetically." It was okay lifting it above head height onto my old MkIV on its massive welded pier. Getting it back down afterwards, when it was coated in ice, was quite another matter! In the end I mounted it permanently so I never had to lift it off again. Now what was the question?

Thanks. I would never have guessed a CNC router. Getting back to your OTA: How does the additional tube pass through the mounting? Doesn't it need to pass right through the dovetail? If you extend the mounting arrangements, to compensate, then your OTA's moment increases dramatically. Requiring far heavier counterbalance weights. Doesn't it?

Stop teasing! It looks rather like a sander or polisher. Or a very large table with a microscope in the middle. Or a very large table with a mirror tester in the middle. Or a... thingamajig?

That is a pretty amazing OTA! Including the light weight. Can you explain the large object in the garage, please? It looks like it wants to be a vertical panel saw but it has an odd round bit in the middle.

Just noticed I have Newton's Rings. That's a first. I had removed the tilt plates but I think it is more likely to be the D-ERF. I'll give it a nudge tomorrow and check the results. Some dirt on the camera sensor too. I tried the short ZWO nose and a 1.25 IR filter. Whoops! It could be the new filter causing the rings.

Stripped the whole OTA and gave it a good spring clean. Moved the D-ERF towards the PST etalon to bring the circle of light inside the 90mm aperture. Tried different processing approaches for a more subtle effect. 150/8 [120/10] 5% of 1000 frames ZWO120MC. Registax, PhotoFiltre.

Just sharing what has been passed onto me. Liked your astro galleries.

Check Gong Ha to save time searching. I always look first for the practice. Then at Gong Ha to confirm what I may have missed. The images are updated frequently. It is not uncommon to find more proms than Gong shows. Some of the observatories seem to be better at showing subtle surface detail than proms. http://halpha.nso.edu/index.html

Same here on the seeing. Violent thermal agitation from early morn [7am] right through to lunch time. Both moon and sun results were a four letter word beginning with... p.. for poor. Is it the wind or the weather system stirring it up? Worst I've ever seen it.

A wonderfully even rendition. Never an easy task in my own very limited experience.

Amazing subtlety and finesse to your captured proms.

An excellent collection by the master!

Brass only gets into that state if it hardened by hammering. It can be softened again by heating and dunking in water. Which would harden some steels but not brass. Restoring such a damaged tube would probably require a matching mandrel and lots of experience. For a useful repair I'd seek a new main tube in yellow brass. If it can be found in the diameter just behind the cell. The original looks tapered. You'd need to take a wedge shaped slit out of the new [parallel] brass tube and solder the joint. Do check that the objective has survived the fall from the top of the lighthouse before spending any time or money. EDIT: DO NOT heat old brass indoors. It can be toxic and causes symptoms like collapsed lungs when I have done it in the past.

Nice images! I just saw the proms on Gong and thought I'd give it a try. Blue skies here for five minutes had me dashing across the yard. Now we have gales and heavy showers. I'm sitting here in the dome. Freezing my proms off at 46F! With the shutters closed but all set up. Hail is now crashing on the dome! Am I having fun yet?

An afternoon image showing a detached fringe [just visible] at lower right. The seeing conditions will not allow fine detail and high contrast. My efforts to bring out the detail are detracting from what I can see on the monitor. Basically a boiling mess with only occasional clarity.

Struggling with cloud, bad seeing and a milky sky again. Tried the tilt plate and changing the tilt of the internal D-ERF. I'm a martyr to off axis glare at the moment without obvious cause. Lots of scattered proms at 2 and 8 o'clock on the limb. Close-ups are with the WO 2x Barlow on the ZWO 120MC nose. CR150HD 150/8 [120/10] 90mm internal D-ERF. Stage 2 PST etalon and filters.

Ideally you want parallel pins rather than points for such mechanical work. Points may just lever themselves out of the holes if the ring is stiff. I use circlip pliers when the job suits. These come in several varieties. Straight and offset. Internal and external action. Sometimes I can get away with using long nose pliers or tapered, round jaw, wire forming pliers. An old and knackered pair of vernier calipers can sometimes work but don't ruin quality tools. If you could drill the jaws of an adjustable spanner for pins you would have a really solid, adjustable tool. Drilling hardened steel is [er-um] hard work. The hardness of an old adjustable spanner could be let down with lots of heat. Let it cool slowly. Or make your own tool with mild steel, drill a large hole and then halve it to fit around the projecting axle. Then drill smaller holes for the pins. Use a piece of paper, like a brass rubbing, to get the exact size you need. Power tools often have pin spanners for their grinding and sanding disks. You might be lucky if the pin spacing is just right. I often spend hours going through a shed full of tools. Usually when it's Sunday afternoon and I'm desperate to find something to fit a job. With all such tools you should be very careful about damaging the workpiece if the "pointy" tool slips. Lenses, in particular, don't like metal tools being scratched across their surface! Extreme care is required with these!

I [almost] hesitate to embarrass myself with this effort. But post and be damned! Milky overcast with teasers. The French would probably call it Malteasers. Non?

53° N is hardly Svalbard! Besides, you've got your hat!

It is long overdue giving you a knighthood Sir Peter!

Remarkable workmanship!

I have just added an Omegon 2" helical focuser to my H-a PST stack. Nice! 150/8 [120/10] internal 90mm D-ERF, PST, ZWO120MC 5% of 3000 @ 120fps. Seeing a bit "thermally" today. Occasional cloud. Breezy from NW.

If you build yourself an equatorial platform you can put the telescope on top. Then follow the sky for long enough to capture the moon and planets with a webcam type camera. You can find details of motor driven, equatorial platforms online. No great skill or expense required. Just a synchronous, gearbox motor for a drive. They used to have these little gearbox motors in washing machines. To run the wash programmes using microswitches and cams. A local washing machine repairer might have one of these motors. Or eBay is a good source if you don't have any locally.