Woosh! White light with ASI174, 18th Feb

[Luke]

Wohoo, was pleased to get a clear run at a white light full disc today with the ASI174. So this time I grabbed 4,000 frames. Probably overkill at this focal length though it can only help I would think in poor seeing, there's been many a time when the selected frames have been few...

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18th February, 2015
Tele Vue 60, Lunt 1.25 inch Herschel Wedge, Solar Continuum and UV/IR cut filters, ZWO ASI174 camera, 1.6x Barlow

Quite a blank looking disc at first, though I still enjoy the small details. I've tried to big up the spots by including a rough Earth to Scale in the colour image. I also used a 1.25 inch extension between nosepiece and 1.6x Barlow which increased the width and height of the sun in the image by about 80 pixels, I still have a bit of room to spare on the chip. Can't wait to try the ZWO in my 120mm scope on a large spot. Thanks for looking, Luke

PS Extension is this one just in case anyone wants to know:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p580_Baader-1-25--nosepiece-extension-with-1-25--filterthread---18mm.html

[David Smith]

Very nice Luke. Good to catch some rays rather than clouds for a change. Do you get the full disk on the chip of the 174 with the TV60?

[Psychobilly]

Still a month or more away from seeing Sol from home turf...    So I have had to rely on you lot for my fix - you haven't disappointed

I'm  well impressed with the results you early adopters are getting with the new cam... I played with a Celestron Syris274M last year but at the time there were "issues" with the USB3.0 reliability and frame rate -  I think they are probably sorted now... But I think If I buy another cam it will be one of these babies...

Peter...

[Luke]

Very nice Luke. Good to catch some rays rather than clouds for a change. Do you get the full disk on the chip of the 174 with the TV60?

Thanks, David. Yes, it's been a bit cloudy of late! Hopefully March will be better than Feb!

With the 1.6x Barlow and little extension the sun in white light was about 913x913 pixels out of the 1936X1216. The TV60's focal length is 360mm.

[Luke]

Thanks, Peter.

Hope the month soon passes for you. Only a few hours in but I've found the camera pretty stable with the beta driver so far.

Still a month or more away from seeing Sol from home turf...    So I have had to rely on you lot for my fix - you haven't disappointed

I'm  well impressed with the results you early adopters are getting with the new cam... I played with a Celestron Syris274M last year but at the time there were "issues" with the USB3.0 reliability and frame rate -  I think they are probably sorted now... But I think If I buy another cam it will be one of these babies...

Peter...

[Montana]

A truly spectacular blank disc :) I keep observing when the activity is high we get total cloud wipeout, when the disc is empty we get Sun

Alexandra

[Luke]

Thanks, Alexandra! I really miss your SF100 pics, hope you are back with a bang soon and the sun puts on a show, h-alpha was okay on Tuesday despite not that many spots.

I too have noticed the correlation between major sunspot activity and cloud cover   The solar equivalent of DSO observers always getting a clear night at full moon

Though I love the moon myself

[Psychobilly]

Decisions....decisons...  A new modded DSLR  or one of these...

I suppose I will get more use out of one of these over the next few months...

Peter...

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice white light result. Might well try that some time soon.

[Pete Presland]

Not too much happening at the moment, but a nice sharp disc though!