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Mercury transit with 1930 equipment

perfrej

By perfrej
in Imaging - Solar

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perfrej

perfrej

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I imaged the sun yesterday and I was looking for the 10Micron badge on the mount. but all I could find was a "Carl Zeiss, Jena" thing, or rather lots of them as they produced the mount, the 400mm f/5 astrograph tube, the 200mmm f/12 manual guide tube and the 70mm f/whatever finder tube .

Luckily, a meeting that would have prevented this was cancelled, so I actually had the time to run up to the Observatory, which is right next to where I live. Currently, I am involved in some restoration work on this stuff, and it is the same scope that I had access to in the 70's and 80's. Got my own keys (back) Saturday :) .

Note that this stuff was manufactured in 1929 or 1930 and stood ready for work in 1931 when the Stockholm Observatory in Saltsjöbaden opened. It tracked the sun perfectly for several hours, albeit with the old clockwork thing replaced by a "modern" (1984) stepper driver unit with nice TO-3 transistors and a NEMA stepper motor. I used a Baader ASTF 120mm solar film filter and my trusted old Nikon D3s with built-in intervalometer set to one frame every two seconds. 70% of the shots were blurred, and I think it was because the Nikon bayonet adapter is a bit lose and I didn't lock the camera mirror.

I just picked image one at random - one that was reasonably clear. Weather was perfect all the time, and in fact we've had blue skies for two solid weeks now with temperatures in the mid 20's!

Here's the scope - you can see the 120 mm Baader ASTF filter I used taped onto the 200mm diameter objective of the guide tube:

Sol 04 small - Klar.jpg

Sol 03 small - Baader Planetarium ASTF solfilter.jpg

Sol 02 small - Objektiv.jpg

And here's the sun with Mercury:

2016-05-09 Mercury 1 small.jpg

 

/per

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perfrej

perfrej

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Thanks, guys,

It is wonderful to have access to and be part of making it even better. The optics, even though not in perfect shape, are very good but suffer from quite a bit of chromatic aberration. This fall I will see if I can get my proposed auto-guiding solution in use and shoot some Ha with it!

 

All the best,

 

Per

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perfrej

perfrej

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Yes, a 200mm refractor is quite a beast. I will try narrow band on it soon with my spare camera! Next is testing of the larger tube, which has 3 lens groups of 400mm aperture and supposively generates a flat field of 300x300mm. Could someone please lend me a CCD with 7-micron pixels and 300x300mm area? Please!

 

/per

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perfrej

perfrej

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15 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Excellent post on all counts bar one. You have confessed to your nation's flagrant theft of our weather and we would like it back, please!

Olly

Ah! Fat chance, Mr Penrice!

On the other hand, given the fact that I do have a 10Micron GM2000HPS with a TEC-140 and a QSI 683 right there on your premises, I wouldn't mind passing the clears skies back to you - me!

/p

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perfrej

perfrej

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23 hours ago, Macavity said:

Couldn't help but note a Baader ASTF 120 White Light filter tho...
I can make FLAT "Mylar" filters using my own 1930's technology.
But not quite as good theirs. I know it "doesn't matter" but... :D

Yeah, my D3s doesn't quite deserve the vintage stamp either... Can't have it all :)

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