Kitsunegari

Horrible imaging conditions today, but after looking at how explosive the gong limb was i thought id try to see through the phlegm.

very windy today, but sunny when i got home.  I caught 30 minutes of field play before tree leader kicked me off the team.

1 second delay intervals on this obe,

lower west limb ; whats left  @Ar2777-

operating at 3x here.

colorized.

upper east preview while processing,

unanmed region but is visble on sdo.

I hope you dont mind i squuzed the resolution by 65% to crunch the pixels down.     I dont know if it is my monitor or resolution its set to but i see some digital zoom affect on the original.  Did you drizzle these?  Amazing capture regardless,  That magnetic blossom in the upper left., very remarkable.

my approachis to use an old garbage computer with usb3 for capturing and storing,   then use my nice desktop for processing.   makes a world of a difference with an nvidia gpu on a desktop with more than 3.5ghz on a wall outlet

ssd is a must, but not a requirement.   You can always pickup a drill battery and a voltage regulator for the external harddrives.   

my capture computer is actually an HP allin one desktop with touch screen, and i just mounted it to a cart with wheels.   Its basically a giant laptop but with a screen i dont have to squint on      Can still be 12 volt powered as well.

here is an mkv 1080p video file which was created using "AI", and the software "topaz video enhance".  .  i tired to upload on youtube but their compression ruins the video.

Great app and probably worth purchasing if they could be uploaded to youtube without the digtal blockie compresion thing.

022 promtest.mkv

https://sdowww.lmsal.com/sdomedia/ssw/ssw_client/data/swap_els/proba_swap_east_limb_survey/proba_swap_east_limb_j.html

is this the daystar quantum?   Looks like you are going to have great fun

unforturnatley mark townley has lost all his measurements and cad file for the 3d rings,     His glass base profiler looks like a must have for all pst owners.

2 hours ago, Rusted said:

I've just  been over to the observatory [in the rain and the wind] to dismantle my PST etalon for science.

It seems I have been fooling myself about tilting the inner, tuning ring.
The undersized implements, I have used to tune, have fooled me into believing I was tilting.

The etalon glass sandwich is held firmly in its cell, albeit with some freedom.
Not even enough for electrical tape tape to close the gap.
I would have needed PTFE plumbing tape.

The etalon element is under pressure from a PTFE ring lying very close to the etalon's rim.
So it is difficult to see how one can externally apply any useful tilting.
The pressure is perpendicular, applied at the rim and therefore [probably] self-aligning.

Regarding the sponge ring. This sits squarely in the bottom of the etalon cell.
If it is certainly being compressed, over a long period of time, but so what?

Assuming the sponge took on a memory of being compressed then why would it matter?
One merely adds a slight extra turn on the tuning band to take up any "memory" displacement.
There is no change in the pressure required because the extra space is simply taken up manually.
The centre tuning point might be displaced, but again, is unimportant.

The acid test requires a good dollop of sunshine.
I shall find a rod which fits snugly in an inner ring screw hole.
Then attempt to tilt the etalon's inner, tuning ring while the image is centred on the well-focused sun.

I had attempted gasket replacements , and have had some success actually.   Even replaced the white teflon ring above the etalon with a thicker one with smaller diameter to centralize compression more.   All of the information was removed from solarchat but a bit was left on flickr.    

https://www.flickr.com/photos/163396781@N07/with/48932719731/

the tilting actualy comes from the coarse threads.  The top portion of the filter cell is what has the lateral play.

Yor etalon is designe to operate at 0 degrees to the objective, so flush.       

The thing with the foam memory,   its exactly the same property of carpet under your bed frame or night stand.   Move it, and you will see a divot and impression ring in your carpet.      

That impression ring on the memory foam is permanent until the gravity can release the load.     After all, it is called "memory foam" because it will revert to its original dimension.

The rod method you speak of, i do the same thing.  Infact i never detune my h-alpha etalon anymore.      I use a small eyeglasses screw driver, to rotated.   

this is where things get notable for investigation.  The bottom portion of the filter cell, is much larger than the etalon glass plates;  So take the etalon out and examine the rotation of the coarse threads.  PTFE tape on the threds might do the trick.

The clear aperture of the etalon is 21mm     The etalon glass itself is 33mm in diameter.

This oil gasket replaces the orange ring perfectly, but it has too much resistance so tuning range is eliminated. It will still come on band, but its too tight of a fit because of the rubber density.   The foam ring has almost zero resisitance .  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nitrile-U-Cup-25mm-ID-x-33mm-OD-x-5mm-Seal-HT-Price-for-1-pc/163464651129

Would be awesome to attack this hack again to get the pst "mended" 

This is what i used to replace the white teflon ring.  I happened to have a slip bearing that fit nicely, and it was thicker than the OEM teflon ring.

First etalon 1 with white ring inplace,  You can see it in there.

second etalon with the white ring replaced with the slip bearing.   ( white ring is no longer present.)

Welcome to the darkside,       if you bought the lunt CaK b600 second hand,  take the erf's on the nose out to examine them.    They become totally degraded and rusted after just 2 years.

Lunt will  ship you a  new one if they are degraded.     Secondly if you are usning the aries d-erf you totally do not want the lunt erf on the nose or its gonna kill transmission.

looking forward to the future and your rc8 timelapse!

Tadpoles as seend from SDO

and something similar seen on my calcium filter.   The dark down drafts are coming from the solar coroooooona, and become visible in the chromosphere..

7 hours ago, Rusted said:

Thanks.

My etalon is already, half exposed. i.e. Without its usual metal or rubber band.
I adjust the etalon tuning and tilt frequently with a rod in one of the usual screw holes.
But I have always suffered the same off axis "illumination."
There is one setting where the entire field darkens and becomes more even.
That is my preferred setting but it is not very stable.

I have previously removed the etalon element, examined it and its sponge support ring.
Sadly I was none the wiser over what could actually be done to improve matters.
There is no separate packing piece. Which is mentioned occasionally in solar circles.
Just a plain, sponge rubber ring.

Any specific advice would be very welcome.

okay, i think i know whats going on.

You have lateral shift (up and down) of the glass in its cell due to the rod.   If you gently push forward on the pin;   i bet you  can move that sweet spot.      If true you may be able able to just add some paper sheets to the side of the glass plates so it cant "up or down angle"   

Dont give up!

Man that etalon you have is begging to be fixed!   open it up and let  foam gasket expand.   It has taken memory shape, and the etalon has sunk to the left or right.  This is why your sweetspot is so offset!

Easy fix,  and you will be quite pleased and amazed once you get it shifted to the right.      Just be careful removing the etalon /    I use a film canister to pop it in and out.   Just flip it over gently, so it falls onto the canister lid.  (anyone remember film?)

Your etalon , where it IS  onband ;  clearly -  extremely well performing , 

 easily in the half angstrom range,   this is a phenomenal pst etalon=-  it just needs a tender moment with your hands.

very cool

My days for solar imaging are coming quickly to an end due to winter.

This may be my last image of the year,   (hopefully not!!)

A very spectacular prominence!!!  (unprocessed with 300 stack)

(sloppy process)

I think it may be slight;y appropriate to create a sticky page with all the software out there that is designed specifically for image enhancement.  I spent my telescope downtime researching some processing theories, and it is very clear to me; that software exists out on the web which is extremely valuable;  but is rarely or seldom ever spoken about because of all the other software that has gained popularity over the years and basically strong-armed  its way into the field.  (pixinsight) (sharpcap)

Paying a monthly fee to use photoshop, is never going to happen on my watch so alternatives are required.  Afterall, we are not making money on our solar images-

First an abstract, which clearly labels algorhithms that have specifically been designed for optical studies and image resotration.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2Fb102215    (sorry if you cannot read some of these, the full document requires student access)

 Imppg is a great piece of software developed by ;Greatattractor;    i have used religiously for the past few years and it is indeed amazing.  It does still have limitations or features that are not yet implemented.  However, it is highly recommended.

So far IMPPG is the absolute best software out there for sharpening, 

https://greatattractor.github.io/imppg/

Kindly add more software links that you may know about, or that you find resourceful.

Virtual dub is a great tool for pre processing some of your raw video files, for things like false color addition/ and levels adjustments.  You can also do cropping and apply image overlays

http://www.virtualdub.org/

pipp is also very valuable,   with this app you can make new video files that are "Stable" , and have had some of the worst frames removed.   It is very powerful for writing a very stripped video file,   forcing autostakkert to only use what you want from your data..

https://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/

Here is an apps that i find to be the fastest solution for batch file cropping/ resizing.      Cropping is a feature that is not available in ImppG; and mass cropping / saving of images in not a feature in Gimp;  so  when processing timelapse animations   ; image cropping is absolutely vital to the final image size.   

https://www.xnview.com/en/apps/

thanks for the sun,   i believe my imaging time has officially ended this week due to winter.

Lol@ steve.  man i know the feeling.    I think i setup my scope 5 times, in 2 hours in fear of rain just for a glimpse..       

those are definitly sunspots!   I am plaged by wild fire smoke out in the states again. 

thanks for the comments,  here is one more addition.  I find this color combo interesting with the inverted monochrome.

poof

Todays notable feature was a large prominence in the south east quadrant.