Solar Overview: 26th June

[markt]

Well sunday proved to be the hottest day of the year so far for me, and once some low level morning durge had burnt off transparency was actually pretty good, even if seeing was variable because of the heat.

It's actually the first time since Easter when i've been able to get enough time at the scope to image in 3 wavelengths...

Starting off in Hydrogen Alpha... It was quite difficult to get an image that I was happy with; i've been fiddling with the setting on the hinge plate on the TMax tuner on my setup and one side isn't exactly parallel and as such the panes in this mosaic showed some differences in brightness from the top of a pane to the bottom. I've made a gasket today at work and plan to level it up properly later on, this should eliminate the variability in brightness i'm experiencing. Anyway, here's the image...

ha full disk by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Full Size Image Here!!!

I've been having a dilemma of late; the 1.6x nosepeice i'm using on the DMK for these images is brilliant but the image scale is slightly smaller than I would like, however the 2x nosepeice I have from an Orion Shorty Barlow demonstrates terrible spherical aberation and makes stitching panes generated from this a pain bordering on impossible. The solution: I ordered a 2.5x powermate today Anyway, the pic below is taken with the 2x nosepeice and shows a closeup of a nice crown shaped prom of the new feature coming over the limb. This prom was very dynamic, changing on a regular basis, and as such i'm glad I managed this frame...

eruptive-prom-sml by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Then I switched over to CaK, and as usual at this wavelength there was plenty to see. First off full disk:

cak full disk copy by Mark Townley, on Flickr

MUCH better full size version here!!!

I went for a couple of closeups of the various active regions using the 127mm frac, though at these shorter wavelengths boiling seeing was never going to be on my side:

cak0016-11-06-26-13-25-32-sml by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Original Version here

cak0021-11-06-26-13-39-04-sml by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Orginal Version Here!

Finally in white light, there wasn't a huge amount to see on the wider scale, but made for a nice disk anyway...

wl full disk by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Full Size Version Here! Much Better!!!

Then, zooming in with the 127mm frac I was pleased with the results:

cak0007-11-06-26-13-08-42-sml by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Hi Res Version Here...

cak0010-11-06-26-13-12-42-sml by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Hi Res Version here!!!

A bit slow getting these up, took time to process, then work rudely got in the way. In the mean time, I hope you like them!

Mark

[markt]

The powermate arrived today, so, that should herald cloudy skies for the foreseeable future...

[armicheal]

I use a 2x Celestron Barlow head on occasion but don't really see an issue with it. However, on a few occasions I've noticed the brass retaining ring that holds the lenses in was loose. I check it now every other month or so. I am curious about how your 2.5x powermate works for you. The one I got a few years ago has a tapered front end where the lense is. The barrel on it is so long that if you put it in a prism diagonal, there is a chance the tapered end could scratch your diagonal if its a prism type. I think the newer type though are not tapered. Good luck with your new setup. Clear Skyz,

[markt]

Hi there. The issue I have with my 2x barlow is that it suffers from spherical aberation and field illumination drops off towards the periphery of the field, this wouldn't be an issue if I was only doing single pane shots, like the one of the surge prom at the top of the page, or the white lights at the bottom; however I want to be able to stitch panes together to make full disk mosaics - the 2x gives me areas of uneven brightness, areas of varying contrast and sharpness in the overlap zones. The optical properties of the barlow plays havoc with mosaic making with objects that demonstrate small scale features, eg the sun! The 1.6x I used to make the above mosaic still demonstrates these properties (as do all barlows to a greater or lesser extent), however being a lower magnification it is less noticeable. Trouble is at lower power you are loosing detail that could be snapped at a longer focal length (eg spicules). The powermate OTOH is a different design optically and as such is not susceptible to these flaws.

The one that I have is the new variety so fingers crossed shouldn't be hitting any glasswork upstream.

Must say, I can't wait to be able to give it a try!

Mark

[Merlin66]

I use the x2.5 TV Powermate with a DS SM60/ED80/BF15/DMK41 combo. Gives me good results. ( with the DMK21 I occasionally had problems with the Newton rings....)

I'm sure you will be impressed - BTW I use the T thread adaptor and then a T to C adaptor on the powermate.