michael.h.f.wilkinson

I ordered the optional tripod as wel

I will first try the APM 80 mm F/6, and the Coronado SolarMax-II 60 mm. Later I might go for a dual set-up like the APM 80 with a 400 mm telephoto and EOS M6 mk-II

I have just received my HEM15 mount (with iPolar electronic polar scope) and corresponding tripod. It is considerably lighter than even the AM5 I have, and is an ideal mount to travel by air. The mount and tripod weigh in at just shy of 5 kg in total, and can carry 8.2 kg (without counterweight), which should be fine for e.g. hunting solar eclipses in remote areas. On the whole the mount feels solid, but the dovetail clamp does look and feel a bit on the flimsy side. The little plastic lever used to tighten it feels particularly light, but you can tighten it with the Allen key supplied with the mount (and neatly stored under the polar axis. The mount comes in a handy carrying case, and I like the fact it has a hand controller, rather than forcing me to use an app on the phone or tablet. I have yet to use it in anger, and the coming nights aren't very promising, but I will report back as soon as I can get this thing working either for solar or under the stars

AI can have human biases due to data fed during training being biased. I am not saying that that is the case here, but AI being biased is a well-known phenomenon.

I have the slightly larger Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars, and use them quite a bit for a quick look (also to see if there is enough activity to want to set up the bigger solar gear). I did not buy them, but won them in a raffle at SolarChat. They are sturdy, and give good views, but you could get the same result by adding Baader film to any regular pair of bins (although that might not be that safe for use by inexperienced viewers at outreach events).

I have just seen it seems to have peaked at M1.83, and is beginning to subside

Had the solar scope out for a bit of H-alpha observing after lunch. Boy is it active. There is a huge arcing prom at the 4 o'clock position, and another, wider, lower arc around 2 o'clock. Several sunspots, filaments, and plage areas dot the surface, but the show is stolen by a bright flaring region fairly close to the limb at the 8 o'clock position. Spaceweatherlive rates this as M1.55 at 11:20 UTC. Might still be rising

A second-hand Lunt 35 was my first foray into H-alpha. Apparently, it is not suitable for imaging, but I simply ignored that

If you have an 80 mm refractor with focal ratio between 4 and 8, the Quark is probably the best choice. Note that while an ERF or DERF is not strictly needed for both the Quark, adding one keeps the temperature in the OTA down, and thus reduces tube currents. I have a Tri-Band ERF which transmits light around Ca-K, the solar continuum band, and H-alpha, and using it both for white light and Ca-K really improves image quality (neither the Herschel wedge nor the Ca-K module I have require an ERF). Note that there are Tri-Band SCTs in which the corrector plate is coated in such a way it transmits bands around Ca-K, O-III, and H-alpha. Expensive, but can give really high resolution images of the solar surface.

After grabbing the WL and Ca-K data, I switched to the H-alpha combination of a Baader TZ-4 4x tele-centric, Solar Spectrum 0.3 Å H-alpha filter, and ASI174MM. Again, results were better than expected, seeing-wise, allowing me to stack 50% of 1000 frames for each pane. Grey scale: Pseudo colour: Part inverted: Part inverted + pseudo colour: Given the skikes of plasma on the eastern limb, something big seems to be lurking there. Clicking for full-size view recommended.

Set up the scope early, to capture some sunlight, with the usual APM 80mm F/6, Beloptik Tri-Band ERF, ASI178MM and Lunt Herschel wedge for WL WL, grey scale: Switched to the Lunt B1800s Ca-K module. Ca-K, grey scale: Ca-K, pseudo colour: Ca-K, part inverted: Ca-K, part inverted + pseudo colour: Seeing didn't look great, but I still got some decent detail.

The EOS 90D Sigma 150-600 is my favourite birding combo

Nice shots. The 90D is a very nice camera. I have one for general photography, and am very pleased with it. I have used it on noctilucent clouds with good results

Using just a single exposure on an H-alpha target is rarely going to show a lot of detail, except in very bright nebulae like M42, certainly in a non-modded camera at just 30s exposure. However, I think I see some hint of H-alpha emission in the centre, so if you take a long series of 30 s exposures and stack them, you might get a lot more out of this combination

Glorious sunshine, and pretty decent seeing, so I got out the APM 80mm F/6 on my Vixen Great Polaris mount, with Beloptik Tri-Band ERF, and first had a look in white light with the Lunt Herschel wedge and Baader Solar Continuum filter. Quite some spots around, and loads of faculae, so I replaced the EP with my ASI178MM for quick WL image. Seeing was good enough to stack 50% of 2000 frames. WL, grey scale I then switched to Ca-K, and was again pleased with the rock-steady seeing. Ca-K, grey scale: Ca-K, pseudo colour: Ca-K, part inverted: Ca-K, part inverted + pseudo colour: I then switched to H-alpha with the ASI174MM, Baader TZ-4 tele-centric, and Solar Spectrum 0.3 Å H-alpha filter, and proceeded to make a 16-pane mosaic. H-alpha, grey scale: H-alpha, pseudo colour: H-alpha, part inverted: H-alpha, part inverted + pseudo colour: Clicking on the images for full resolution recommended

Best of luck. The brightness is still much the same, and the SN is a lot easier to spot than the galaxy itself, so even if you cannot spot the latter, you may well bag the former

I have an ASI183MM-Pro and use it on my Meade 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newton. Slightly different beast from the 190MN, but shares one important characteristic: no diffraction spikes. Very pleased with how this OTA performs with this camera. This one below is one with the 183MC (non-cooled)

Magnitude is actually a bad measure for brightness of a DSO. Surface brightness is much more important. M101 is magnitude 7.9, but is far harder to spot than M82, at magnitude 8.4 or M57 at magnitude 8.8. Many planetary nebulae are very easy, even from light-polluted areas, partly because of a high surface brightness, but even more because narrow-band filters allow picking them out easily, while effectively reducing light pollution. Most globular clusters have good surface brightness, as do quite a few elliptical galaxies. Narrow-band filters do not work under these circumstances.

Took a longer, 2000-frame SER file of the sun this morning, stacked 25% in AS!3, sharpened in ImPPG, and added pseudo colour in Gimp. Lots of detail both within the AR and its surroundings. Images taken with the APM 80 mm F/6 triplet, with Beloptik tri-band ERF on Vixen Great Polaris mount, using an ASI174MM camera, Baader TZ-4 4x tele-centric, and Solar Spectrum 0.3 Å H-alpha filter. Grey-scale: Pseudo colour:

Had a go at imaging the sun this Whitsunday morning. Seeing was really great, allowing me to stack 50% of the WL and Ca-K full-disk data, and 25% of the H-alpha data used for the full-disk mosaic. All images taken with the APM 80 mm F/6 triplet, with Beloptik tri-band ERF on Vixen Great Polaris mount. WL with ASI178MM, Lunt Herschel wedge, and Baader Solar Continuum filter; Ca-K with ASI178MM and Lunt B1800s Ca-K module, H-alpha with ASI174MM, Baader TZ-4 4x tele-centric, and Solar Spectrum 0.3 Å H-alpha filter. WL: Ca-K, grey scale: Ca-K, pseudo colour: Ca-K, part inverted: Ca-K, part inverted + pseudo colour: H-alpha, grey scale: H-alpha, pseudo colour: H-alpha, part inverted: H-alpha, part inverted + pseudo colour: Stacking in all cases in AS!3, sharpening in ImPPG, postprocessing in Gimp. Unusually for me, I stitched the 14 unsharpened panes of the H-alpha mosaic, and then sharpened the result in ImPPG. Usually I get better results stitching the sharpened panes, but not this time.

Nice capture! I started out with a little LS35THa, which people say isn't designed for imaging, but I went ahead and it worked. Your set-up clearly worked

Thanks, I think the previous SN I spotted in M101 was brighter (SN2011FE, mag 9.9, easy target in my 15x70mm binoculars)

Just got home from salsa lessons, to a beautifully clear sky. I printed out an AAVSO chart for SN2023ixf in M101, and set up the Celestron C8. After a quick star-hop, I got to the right area and could clearly spot the supernova, even though the galaxy itself was very hard, even in averted vision. There was no doubt about the supernova being visible, roughly on a par with a mag 11.1 star in the same FOV, clearly fainter than a mag 10.5 star. Pleased with my 17th supernova catch.

Excellent stuff! I hope I will get a chance to spot this in the coming nights.

I have a Coronado SolarMax-II 60mm with a double-stack unit. Visually it is a nice instrument, although with the double-stack unit in place the image is rather dark. I do not like the central obstruction the scope has, in particular at lower powers. I have also struggled imaging with it, not so much at prime focus, but with any tele-centric lens added for higher resolution, where I got some seriously weird internal reflections. Might be different on newer scope like the SolarMax-III 70 (it still has the central obstruction, however). Below are comparison images with the Lunt LS35THa, Coronado SolarMax-II 60mm single stack, and APM 80mm F/6, with Baader TZ-4 4x tele-centric, Beloptik Tri-Band ERF, Solar Spectrum 0.3 Å H-alpha filter, and ASI174MM. (click on image for full resolution)