Ags

I should have mentioned this was with 43 mm aperture - f22.

This is the first picture from my Solar Scout I feel fairly happy with. No blurry bits, no wierd hazy patches. It looks like with my etalon I must position the Sun off center. According to my notes, the Camera USB cable is positioned on top, the Sun on the left of the frame, just before the edge of the image circle. I had to correct with fake flats as I just can't crack the secret of solar flats, so illumination is not quite even as a result.

Maybe it is the etalon. Assuming the weak patch lower right on my first image was caused by the etalon, I tried the relatively obvious solution of positioning the sun off center and avoiding the putative weak patch. I think this result is much better, although you can see a fair bit of vignetting as the Sun is close to the edge of the image circle. Flats should correct this, if I can get flats working - still no luck with that aspect however. My flats don't show the extreme vignetting I can see when positioning the Sun! I did make other changes, I reversed the reducer (more accurately, de-reversed it) and moved it further away from the sensor, enabling a full disk, but more importantly letting me position the Sun further off axis.

That's given me something to think about! The edge of sun artifacts were from AS3! by the way. I needed to place alignment points along the edge.

Thanks Vlaiv, helpful as always! I am almost sure there is a focus gradient issue which I think is related to my 0.5 reducer. I will take more pictures tomorrow without the reducer to exclude that factor. My flats don't quite work yet, will have another try tomorrow.

It's been suggested that my etalon might have some issues. I don't seem to get even contrast across the disk. Do I need better flats or should I contact my supplier? Happy with the big sunspot group though!

My personal experience was that having a (relatively) bigger telescope opened my eyes to the advantages of a smaller telescope!

I have a Zenithstar 66, and under dark skies it shows many DSOs exceptionally well. For example, i was recently viewing M47 and M46 in the same field, or the Leo Triplet. Of course a very low powers it frames a big object like the Pleiades or M31 with enough surrounding sky for context. It has also given very enjoyable planetary and lunar views, and lots of solar fun with a Herschel Wedge. It is also a nice size for a daytime spotting scope. Did I mention is shows off some of the brighter double stars really well? A ZS73 would be similar I expect.

Today's effort at 37mm aperture (f25). Some lovely detail in the proms, and even in the sunspots.

It does a pretty good job of quantifying our uncertainty!

Yes, I made a flat box with some white plastic but the system needs some refinement. I might try white paper instead.

My first attempt at a proper solar image. Solar Scout SS60-DS, aperture reduced to 30 mm (f31), ASI 485 MC, AS3!, ImPPG, GIMP

Here is today's effort. I tried shots at 30 mm, 43 mm and 60 mm, but I feel the contrast was by far best at 30 mm, although larger apertures did seem to show finer detail. If I can get flats working better, I might be able to process more heavily and use a wider aperture. I will try 37 mm tomorrow - that might be a good compromise. Not quite a full disk - need more T2 spacers! At least at f31 (30 mm) I seem to have even focus across the disk.

Gorgeous images. I have been following your solar processing tutorial sticky thread and it has been very helpful.

Tried reseating the lens of the reducer, reversing it and moving it closer the sensor, but the issue is not resolved. I may need to get a new reducer :(.... and some more T2 spacing rings. Sun looks phenomenal today, a couple of spots to admire and loads of proms.

Not serious imaging as I didn't shoot flats, but inverting the contrast makes this scope look sharp!

Yes stopping down will reduce the exit pupil, but I was looking at the proms, so was using full aperture.

Interestingly, I was viewing proms today with an NLV 12 mm and the view held up well, floaters aside. I even tried an SLV 6 mm, but that pushed things a little too far!

Just came in from a session with the Scout. It is definitely best tuned around -2 or -3. Finally I had clear skies and a bright sun, and can now truly say I enjoy the views from this scope. There was some surface mottling but it was very subtle, but the prominences were sharply defined and spectacular. A nice thing about proms is they can be viewed at full 60mm aperture, at least with my scope. It felt like standing on the rim of a volcano, looking down into the lava lake. There is one particularly fiery group just on the eastern limb of the Sun. Took some images but new headaches (imaging huhh?). It looks like my 0.5 reducer needs some aligning as I could only get half the sun in focus - no issues without the reducer, but then of course no whole disk. Here is a quick process of one sequence - sun is a bit bright and low in contrast as I was trying to boost the proms. This Ha processing malarky is very interesting, has features of DSO processing too. You can clearly see something is tilted. Definitely need to learn how to do solar flats!

It all depends on your interpersonal skills... I think I sound like Seven of Nine in these situations: "Your photonic array is impairing the efficiency of my astrometrics lab. Take the photonic array offline. You will comply."

Hopefully tomorrow morning...

😐 clouds....

My home skies are Bortle 8 or 9. It is still possible to have some fun chasing down those targets that are accessible, or doing some EEA or some not very serious astrophotography (my efforts are more accurately known as catastrophotography 😀). But when I come back from a rare dark sky trip, it takes weeks to reacclimatize to Bortle 9. At first it seems a bit pointless.

I am reasonably happy with the NPL 30 although eye placement is a bit tricky with the Scout. The NPL 20 gives a more comfortable view somehow. Looking forward to having a real go at imaging tomorrow. I'll try at full aperture and 30 mm, interested to see the difference. I'll be happy to capture any detail at all after my last shot in the dark. 🤣

I've been using my AZ-GTI in AZ mode for solar observing lately and it has performed perfectly. At one point I was even using it manually with the clutches loosened at it worked remarkably well.