michael.h.f.wilkinson

I had the TMB Paragon 40mm and that listed a "true" AFOV of 68 deg (as measured from the effective field stop, i.e. how much of the sky do you actually see), and an "apparent" AFOV of 69 deg (the angle of the image you see looking through the scope). This means the Paragon has negligible distortion and can as such be named orthoscopic (as it said on the barrel). I sold the EP because it got little use after I got the Nagler 31 mm T5, but I must say I regretted the sale, and got the Vixen LVW 42mm when one came up secondhand. The LVW has a true AFOV of 65 deg, and an apparent AFOV of 72, showing much more pincushion distortion. Great EP, nonetheless.

Nice results for such conditions. My attempt last night was scuppered by clouds and approaching rain, alas

I use my 80 mm F/6 triplet for most of my solar imaging. In this case I used a Beloptik Tri-Band ERF (no longer made, but also not essential for Ca-K), and a Lunt B1800s Ca-K module (18mm free aperture which is overkill, but also future proof, straight through rather than as diagonal), and an ASI178MM camera.

Got a load of H-alpha data as well, three days running now. Grey scale: Pseudo-colour: Part inverted: Part inverted + pseudo-colour: There seems to be some flaring going on in one of the ARs on the eastern side of the disk. I took some longer SER files of that region: 12:58:51 local time: 12:59:40 13:06:40 It does not perhaps look like a lot, but at the eyepiece it was really brighter than the surroundings

The sun is showing some nice activity these last few days, and I have had time to image it as well. I love the way the two bands of ARs show up so clearly, in particular in Ca-K. WL: Ca-K, grey scale: Ca-K, pseudo-colour: Ca-K, part inverted: Ca-K, part inverted + pseudo-colour: H-alpha coming up shortly

Nice crisp disk

Had a stab at imaging Saturn for the first time in quite a while. It was still less than 20 deg above the horizon, but I hope my ADC would counter the worst of the problems. Seeing turned out to be very choppy indeed, with heat radiating off the hills to my south-east. I had set up the Celestron C8 long before starting to image, so any thermal problems were definitely external. I used a small ROI on my ASI183MC to image, and after faffing around with the ADC took two sets of 10,000 frame SER files: one at prime focus, one with my Siebert Optics 1.3x tele-centric Barlow. I stacked 20% of the data using AS!3, and sharpened with Registax, with some final tweaks in GIMP. The result are below. F/10, no Barlow: F/13, Siebert Optics 1.3x Tele-Centric Barlow The latter shows the Cassini division is much clearer in the second image, so I think I will be using the Siebert Barlow more often. Jupiter rose above a nearby house as I was about to finish, but the view was truly attrocious, so packed in the stuff (had to get up at 7:30 for an early morning cycle through the hills here with my son).

All set for some planetary imaging. All I need now is for Saturn to rise above the trees.

Great stuff. Very crisp images

Really lovely results

Here are the H-alpha results of today. Pretty steady seeing, I must say. Ended up stacking 50% of each of the 1000-frame SER files. Grey scale: Pseudo-colour: Part inverted: Part inverted + pseudo colour: A very small strand of detached material can be seen on the 9 o'clock position, but not as clearly as in Ca-K, oddly. I also grabbed a 4000 frame SER file of the activity in the lower right of the disk. Grey scale: Pseudo-colour: Rather pleased with the overall results.

Sunny again in southern France, so more solar data grabbed. WL: Ca-K, grey scale: Ca-K, pseudo-colour: Ca-K, part inverted: Ca-K, part inverted + pseudo-colour: Some big proms visible, with what looks like a detached prom at the 9 o'clock position. H-alpha data to follow

Absolutely lovely

Shot a longer SER file in H-alpha (4000 frames rather than 1000) to see how much detail I could extract from one of the more active areas. Grey scale: Pseudo-colour: Part inverted: Part inverted + pseudo-colour:

After the usual Wl and Ca-K disks, I grabbed a series of 1000-frame SER files for a 15-pane, full disk H-alpha mosaic. Seeing was a bit up and down, which meant I re-shot a few before I was content. I stacked 25% of each in AS!3, sharpened in ImPPG, and stitched in MS-ICE. Final postprocessing in GIMP. Grey scale: Pseudo-colour: Part inverted: Part inverted + pseudo-colour:

Got the rig out in the sun again, and landed a decent set of WL and Ca-K disks. Seeing wasn't too bad, once the thin cloud that plagued me earlier in the day had dissipated White light: Ca-K, grey scale: Ca-K, pseudo-colour: Ca-K, part inverted: Ca-K, part inverted + pseudo-colour: Will post H-alpha results shortly

Given all the ARs on the southern hemisphere, I decided to take a 4000-frame shot of that area. Grey scale: Pseudo-colour: I then gave two of the proms a similar process, but rendered them as part inverted for more detail: Grey scale: Pseudo-colour: Grey scale: Pseudo-colour: Hadn't spotted the big proms on the southern hemisphere so didn't get a similar SER file for those.

After grabbing Wl and Ca-K, I got some H-alpha data for a mosaic. I made 13 SER files of 1000 frames each, stacked 25% of the best frames with AS!3, sharpened in ImPPG, stitched in MS-ICE, and postprocessing in GIMP. Grey scale: Pseudo-colour: Part inverted: Part inverted + pseudo-colour: Clicking for full-size images highly recommended. I got a few more longer SER files to bring out more detail in the proms and the most active areas on the southern hemisphere. Will post these later

Had another bash at solar imaging with the usual rig. Seeing was fairly good, so quite some detail captured. WL: Ca-K: grey scale: Ca-K, pseudo-colour: Ca-K, part inverted: Ca-K, part inverted + pseudo-colour: Some prom activity coming through in Ca-K. H-alpha to follow shortly

Got the C8 out yesterday, and despite rather jittery seeing grabbed 8 1000-frame SER files with the ASI183MC. Stacked 25% in AS!3, stitched the panels in MS-ICE, then sharpened the result in ImPPG (which turns the result into 16-bit grey scale). I loaded the original colour mosaic and the ImPPG result in GIMP, blurred the colour version with a Gaussian, decomposed it into L, A, and B channels, recomposed the result with the sharpened grey scale as L channel, and the A and B channels of the blurred colour version (blurring the colour version reduces noise when increasing saturation). I am quite pleased with the result, given the seeing. Result after slight contrast stretch: Increasing saturation slightly yields this Clicking for full resolution highly recommended

Made a 14-pane mosaic using the APM 80 mm F/6 with Baader TZ-4 tele-centric lanes, Beloptik Tri-Band ERF, Solar Spectrum 0.3 Å, and ASI174MM camera. Grey scale: Pseudo-colour: Part inverted: Part inverted + pseudo-colour:

Got the APM 80 mm F/6 out with Beloptik Tri-Band ERF for some solar fun First WL with the Lunt Herschel wedge and Solar Continuum filter Then Ca=K with the Lunt B1800s Ca-K module Grey scale: Pseudo-colour: Part inverted: Part inverted + pseudo-colour: H-alpha mosaic to follow

I like to have the two screens available, and didn't want to have two instances of APT squabbling with each other

I only used H-alpha as lum because the stars in the RGB data were lousy in the corners (will add a couple of spacers). I am still working on my own star exterminator code. I will add more RGB data with L filter, and more H-alpha and O-III, and see where this gets me.

I only have rotation as degree of freedom, it seems to be enough