MalVeauX

Heya,

I woke up to some heavy fog and clouds, but it cleared up later in the late morning when seeing had already deteriorated so I dropped the imaging scale. There are two sets of pretty interesting large prominences on the limb, one is a strange loop like a sideways arch, and the other is a big flame wall. A wee filament persists on the disc's surface. No spots of course.

Colored:

B&W:

From 1730pm Eastern Time, a minor active region opened up and a tiny flare was noted:

Equipment:

120mm F10 Refractor + PST Mod + ASI290MM (HA partial disc)
ED80 + PST Mod + IMX174 (HA Disc)
ED80 + 430nm + IMX174 (Photosphere Disc)

Very best,

Heya,

Had minimal time and there's not much going on, but had a clear sky had to at least look at it. There were a few fairly small proms, but one rather big arch had developed since yesterday and it had some filaments near it too. There's a small bright plage area that has activity going on more so than the rest of the disc lately, interesting to see if anything develops there.

B&W:

Very best,

Heya,

Woke up to a pleasantly clear sky and some ok seeing. Was able to get a little data at a few different scales.

I namely wanted to look at angular resolution differences between two wavelengths, in this case, 610nm and 430nm. 430nm has 41% higher angular resolution than 610nm. The difference is pretty close to comparing apertures of 150mm to 200mm in terms of resolving power, but also balancing angular resolution of the wavelength of light with it, so that they're similar.

Convection cells (150mm F16 at 430nm with 2.9um pixels):

Convection cells (200mm F10 at 610nm with 2.9um pixels):

High Res Spicules at the Limb (200mm aperture)

Prominences and chromosphere features (120mm aperture)

Full disc (52mm aperture)

++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++

Colored:

Earth Scale:

Equipment:

C8 Edge + Aires D-ERF + PST Etalon & 10mm BF + ASI290MM
120mm F10 Achromat + PST Etalon & 10mm BF + ASI290MM
52mm F11 ED + PST Etalon & 10mm BF + ASI174MM

Very best,

Heya,

I was all clouded out this morning so went on with the day. Around noon (Eastern) it cleared up and I got a chance to look at that huge prom on the limb that is changing quite rapidly. Just in the few minutes I was imaging it, it went from a hedgerow to something else as it changed its morphology. Was hoping it would just lift right off, but didn't happen in my time, its still persisting and clinging to the chromosphere, but I expect it will release soon. Hope someone catches it.

Colored:

B&W:

Equipment:

120mm F10 Frac + internal 50mm ERF + PST Mod + ASI290MM
C8 Edge + Aires D-ERF + PST Mod + ASI290MM

Very best,

Heya,
 
I had a productive morning today, seeing was a little challenging this morning as I waited through some clouds and frankly shot through some clouds as a fairly transparent cloud allows better seeing opportunities sometimes despite the brightness shifting. I was able to do some visual this morning and some imaging at various scales for the full disc and some larger imaging scales as seeing permitted. Not much going on of course, a few tiny prims, some wee filaments and mainly looked at convection cells and spicules in high resolution.

B&W:

Colored:

Equipment:

ED80 (52mm F11)
C8 Edge (200mm F10)
C6R (120mm F10)
PST Etalon Module (HA)
Baader 610nm (White Light)
ASI290MM

Very best,

Heya,

Mostly cloudy today, rained off and on, couldn't get a serious session in. I was doing visual with my PST while the kids were playing in the yard. Noticed a fine prom, maybe a deteriorating hedgerow, on the North of the disc that was pretty bright and had a lot of definition and it seemed paired and the second to it looked like it may just lift off at any time so I watched it a while. I tempted fate and took a peak with a bigger scope and managed to see it. Seeing was dreadful since it was 2pm in the afternoon. Truly bad. But managed to get a little bit of something to go off. I didn't have enough clear sky time to use a smaller scale so I had to suffer the seeing. It's still out there and quite nice to see in some binos!

Very best,

Hey all,

Had a clear sky this morning and playing around with some new configurations. With some help from members of the forum in the mod board I have tinkered up a little different PST mod that involves a straight through configuration using the stock blocking filter. Anyhow, it works as a standard PST but without the black box, and as a typical PST mod that inserts into another scope, such as my C8 Edge. Tested everything today with an ASI290MM.

B&W

Colored:

C8 Edge + Aires Full Aperture D-ERF
HA: PST etalon + stock 5mm blocking filter in straight-through mod + ASI290MM
WL: Baader 610nm Filter + 2x Barlow + ASI174MM
PST 40mm + straight through mod + ASI290MM (mosaic x 2 panel)

Very best,

Heya,

We had a clear sky last night so we spent some time on the big two gas giants, then finished off the evening with some lunar surface imaging. We did some visual too, wonderful in some binoviewers, then tried to capture what we saw.

Each image is a mosaic.

Partial disc is mosaic made with 80mm F5 (with 2x barlow, F10) achromat + 742nm filter + ASI290MM (6 panel mosaic)

Surface are mosaics made with C8 Edge HD at F10 + 742nm filter + ASI290MM (variable number of panels each)

Was going for a high res mosaic, but I failed miserably doing it manually and missed a spot.... lol, alas, maybe next time.

Very best,

Heya,

Well, hurricane Dorian decided not to completely pummel Florida, so weirdly enough, I have a clear sky this morning despite such a storm off the opposite coast. Seeing was pretty poor from all the turbulent bands of spin off from the massive storm and it deteriorated rapidly. I was able to get a little data in high resolution of the photosphere and then rapidly went down in aperture to get anything in hydrogen alpha and ended up finishing with full discs in extremely poor seeing with tiny apertures and still struggled. Left it at that and packed it in for the day. Regardless it was nice to see the sun again, it's been a nasty weather summer here in Florida this year.

Photosphere:

Chromosphere:

Setup:

C8 + D-ERF + 610nm + IMX174
120mm F5 refractor + Quark + IMX174
PST + IMX174

Very best,

Heya,

I was clouded out this morning, so I tried later in the day when seeing was worse. Really bad for my typical seeing, but managed to get a little bit before clouds took over. I figured a three day stretch was asking too much of the weather-lords. Not much to see. There is a wee bit of activity, interesting, near the limb next to a prom. Not sure what it is but maybe the beginning of a spicule bunch or something.

ST120 + Quark + IMX174
C8 + D-ERF + 610nm + 2x + IMX174

Very best,

Heya,

Woke up to another fairly clear sky again for once, such a weird change from the past 8 weeks of rain. Seeing was not great, still turbulent with all the stormy weather around so kept the image scales course.

ST120 + Quark + IMX174
C8Edge + Aires D-ERF + 610nm + 2x Barlow + IMX174

Very best,

Heya,

I've been rather absent due to weather here in Florida, the last time I saw the sky was nearly June... central Florida has been flooding and it's been storm after storm. I'm thankful I didn't miss out on any lovely sunspots. We truly are in the peak of the minimum I imagine with how infrequent a spot has been lately as we move into Cycle 25. Anyhow, I've yet to see the solar disc as void as it is in quite a while, but there's always something to see in HA and with enough resolution you can see great stuff in white light too. Today's the first day I've had without total storm cover and had a few moments between some clouds. Surprisingly my equipment still works, so I grabbed some data. There's a huge feint prom on the limb. I did a lot of visual observing today too.

Orion ST120 + Baader UV/IR + Quark + 0.5x FR + ASI290MM
C8 Edge HD + Aires Triband D-ERF + Baader UV/IR + Baader 610nm + Baader ND1.8 + 2x Barlow + IMX174

Very best,

Heya,

I was able to get some time on M13 last night, first time attempting it and imaged at a small scale for a wide FOV.

Wide FOV:

Cropped FOV:

ED80 & 0.8x FR (80mm f6) APO + Canon T4i (APS-C)

40 x 180s (2 hours)

21 Flats

21 Bias

Aggressive dithering every sub

Guiding was not great, but better than last time. But, I at least know why now. Before with under-sampling (IMX174 with the 50mm F3.8), it suffered bad. Last night I used an IMX224 sensor with the same guidescope and it worked much better. However, while using it, I realized the scope is out of collimation, pretty bad, so that might be why the thing cannot guide very well. Shrug! At least it kept me good enough to image at 1.85"/pixel, very lax and easy going for such a course scale.

Acquisition was APT and plate solving, again, I cannot stress how comfortable and easy it is to plate solve and it works so well out of APT with AllSkyPlateSolver talking via ASCOM to my mount.

Very best,

Heya,

I wasn't planning on getting up this morning, was up late doing DSO, but figured I'd take a shot at it and to my surprise the seeing was rather excellent. I already had my C8 on the mount, so straight into fine imaging scale I went at 0.29"/pixel in HA & 0.20"/pixel in Gband and managed to get some data. The HA was steady enough to do a 4 panel mosaic. Included some course scale in HA, Gband and CaK to show those features, including faculae lines, grannulation, mottling, filaments, prominences and plages.

B&W:

High Resolution Mosaic:

Astrobin for full resolution: https://astrob.in/full/408745/0/?nc=MalVeauX&real=

Colored:

High Resolution Mosaic:

Astrobin for full resolution: https://astrob.in/full/408749/0/?nc=MalVeauX&real=

Alternative Presentations:

High Resolution Mosaic:

Astrobin for full resolution: https://astrob.in/full/408756/0/?nc=MalVeauX&real=

High Resolution Mosaic:

Astrobin for full resolution: https://astrob.in/full/408754/0/?nc=MalVeauX&real=

Equipment:

C8 Edge + Aires Tri-Band D-ERF
* Baader UV/IR Block Filter + Daystar Quark Chromoshpere + 0.5x Focal Reducer + IMX174 (HA)
* Baader Blue CCD-IR Block Filter + E.O. 430nm Filter + Baader ND1.8 Filter + 3x Barlow + IMX174 (Gband)
ST80
* Quark Chromosphere + PST Etalon + 0.5x Focal Reducer + 290MM (HA)
* Masked to 40mm + Baader blue CCD-IR Block Filter + E.O. 430nm Filter + Baader ND1.8 Filter + 2x Barlow + 290MM (Gband)
* Masked to 40mm + Baader blue CCD-IR Block Filter + PST CaK Filter + 2x Barlow + 290MM (CaK)

Very best,

Heya,

Was all doom and gloom this morning, but managed to attempt some this afternoon in the heat that Florida is right now, spiking 100F each afternoon. Ugh! Anyhow, the region with some activity is pretty extended and is churning out filaments so it's fairly active, be it new or a remnent of a previous active region I'm not sure. Interesting areas none the less along with some new prominences. I didn't have much time to get data, so I did a small FOV mosaic of the entire region near the limb.

ST80 + Quark + PST etalon + 0.5x FR + ASI290MM

Very best,

Heya,

I had enough of a decent sky last night to get a little time on Markarian's chain. My FOV counts around 34 galaxies in the cluster making up the Virgo cluster. I used APT for acquisition and its plate solving routine calling in AllSkyPlateSolver which put me on the subject with ease (I targeted M84 and then slewed for FOV from there). Plate solving has made this a much easier task. I was struggling with guiding last night. I had everything balanced and happy, but I was using a smaller scope. I was using a 50mm F3.8 guidescope with my IMX174 for guiding and it was not happy all night. I dithered each frame, so it was even less happy with that trying to recover. I think the combination of my old tiny guidescope and this sensor (grossly undersampling) and scale and PHD2 settings were awful compared to what I'm used to doing with a longer bigger guidescope setup. It had me thinking of getting another larger guidescope, or finally considering adding an OAG to my kit... not sure where to go with that for now. I don't know how I used to survive on that 50mm guidescope, I really don't like it, I much prefer a longer focal length with more aperture for sure. Would it be odd to have two F6~7 80mm's stacked, one imaging, one guiding? I'm done the 80mm F5 guiding and liked it, but maybe I'll go even longer? Or, just go OAG and stop all this...

Wide FOV:

Cropped FOV:

50 something galaxies noted in the cluster with plate solving:

Lights 40 x 180s @ F6 & ISO 800

Flats x 21

Bias x 41

Dithering every frame, aggressively (PHD2 scale 3, APT value 5)

Bortle 4 Sky

Canon T4i (unmodified) APS-C

ED80 + 0.8x FR (80mm F6) APO

50mm F3.8 Guidescope + IMX174

Orion Sirius + EQMod

Astrophotography Tool (APT) + AllSkyPlateSolver

PHD2

Very best,

Heya,

Terrible weather lately, have't been able to do much and missed a lot of the big prominence the past few days. It still persists but it's a little less grand. There are some large feint ones around the limb, but weather didn't allow me to capture them. I did get some data on the little region with some activity swirling around generating filaments and the two largest brightest prominences this morning between clouds with the 120mm refractor before the rain began.

Celestron Omni XLT 120mm F8 + Quark + 0.5x FR + IMX174

Very best,

Heya,

I was trying to install and use new software and get it a trial run to get some experience with, switching over to APT (Astrophotography Tool) from BackyardEOS for my limited DSO imaging that I do from time to time with an unmodified uncooled dSLR from my fairly dark skies (yellow/green zone) in the country side in west central Florida. My main reason of switching to APT was similar interface, simplicity, inexpensive and has easy to use plate solving with AllSkyPlateSolver (ASPS) which worked like a charm. I tried it on a few targets and it literally dead-centered each subject, it was such a refreshing process and so simple and fast to get onto a subject. So, I just put my kit together, didn't even bother balancing so it was off-balance significantly but at this imaging scale and weight, my mount doesn't mind too much as long as I'm guiding (which showed it was not happy, but managed to keep it together long enough to get some data on a subject last night). I've never imaged M81 & M82, so this is a first for me in general as I'm looking at the galaxies in my Northern hemisphere through the summer, before I start looking at the core of our galaxy and the tons of DSO in there later this summer. Just never enough time right?

Wide uncropped FOV:

Cropped FOV:

Lights 38 x 180s

Flats 21

Bias 21

Dithering every frame (still working on how aggressive to be with number of pixels)

Orion ED80 + Orion 0.8x FR (480mm F6) + Canon 650D (T4i)

Orion ST80 + ASI174MM (Guiding)

Orion Sirius on the pier (EQmod, ASCOM, Stellarium, PHD2, Astrophotography Tool and AllSkyPlateSolver)

Guiding was bad, but I didn't balance it. I literally took my C8 Edge off and put this setup on top in the saddle and took a weight off. I'm surprised I was able to even get it to work doing this. I originally planned to test it just to learn to use APT and plate solving together for future sessions, but it was so easy that I had time to go ahead and get some integration time on M81 & M82 so I figured, why not... It was enough to keep my 1.85"/pixel scale happy and keep things round and fairly tight. The mount was not pleased with it though, but it suffered through it....

And of course, my yard lions kept the spiders and bats at bay in the rafters of my observatory's roll off roof...  

Very best,

Heya,

Had some ok seeing this morning and was able to tinker around in various wavelengths to test things out. The little plage is still present near the limb, but it's activity seems to have already gone down a bit and the large proms from yesterday are gone, but a small bright prom is on the other limb that is interesting.

B&W:

Colored:

C8 Edge + Aires D-ERF
ST80
Quark 656nm Filter
E.O. 430nm Filter
PST CaK 393nm Filter
ASI290MM
ASI174MM

Very best,

Heya,

Low activity, but a little more than the past few days at least. There's a little plage that formed the other day and is still persistent with some tiny filaments around it and spicule bundles here and there. Some fair prominences are near by on the limb that have lasted the night so far. Seeing was poor today, I couldn't do much beyond HA and getting anything other than small scale was a struggle, go figure, days of clear skies and the seeing is really poor.

B&W:

Color:

Very best,

Heya,

We are back to a `minimum' disc, but there was at least a good sized curtain prominence this morning that has mostly gone away since then.

80mm F5 + Quark + PST Etalon + 0.5x FR + 290MM

Very best,