AR 2643 showing nicely in HA, 24th March

[Iainp]

Ah, how nice to be able to dust off the Lunt and grab a spot again. I even managed an animation, processing now. 

Iain 

 

 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice one!

[Sunshine]

beautiful shot! which lunt did pull this off with if i may ask?

 

[laudropb]

Very nice image Iain

[Swoop1]

Cracking image.

It even looks like you have caught part of the sun in shadow 

[Iainp]

Thanks guys! Animation on its way. 

29 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

which lunt did pull this off with if i may ask?

Hi, it's the 80mm. I love it, (though have nothing to compare it to) One day I will double stack it...

Iain 

[Sunshine]

I wonder if i can pick someones brain with much more experience than i in solar observing and equipment.

I have a Lunt LS60Tha, older model 2010, tilt tuned, feather touch focuser, B1200, produces great views of prominences and some surface detail but my issue is with tuning not doing much at all in terms of visual change to the detail.  I'd love to hear from any of you please,

The scope is in pristine condition and was stored far more than it was used, the focuser maintains its firmness from the factory and aesthetically it looks like it just rolled off the line, my issue is with tuning.

i felt that the tuning wheel was far too easily spun, almost as though it was free spinning, it does reach a stop on either end though, initially i spoke with lunt and they said there should be more resistance and there may be an issue, so being technically 

savvy i opened the scope carefully in a clean room just in case. What i fount was that the wheel was indeed connected to a horizontal pin which moved back and forth about 3mm in total as the wheel was spun end to end.

This confirmed that something was working, but as mentioned above, when i painstakingly  look through the scope, under a dark blanket, with optimal seeing conditions several times straining to see any change as i turn the wheel, nothing happens. 

It is as though the scope is tuned to a very decent spot i might say but i cannot influence the detail anymore, after speaking with lunt customer service who were super BTW i actually got a reply from their production manager who explained that 

"your earlier tilt tuned model only had about 4 degrees of tilt in total, it is an on or off system and the wheel is only to bring the scope into band if it goes out of band" having no prior experience with lunt scopes or never having looked through another i cannot say whether this is correct or not, i wish i knew someone with more experience who could just look at it. 

I did own a PST for a few months and i could swear that turning the wheel on the PST achieved a far greater variance in the detail i was able to see, either prominance or chromosphere back and forth as the wheel was spun.

Anyboby have anything they could add? thank you!!

 

[Iainp]

10 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

I wonder if i can pick someones brain with much more experience than i in solar observing and equipment

Hope you get an answer here, I'm sure you will. I can't help much, as mine is pressure tuned. For my part, as as increase the pressure the surface detail is firstly invisible, then nicely comes into view, and as I increase further, I see different detail at different depths (?) . It's not always obvious visually, as compared to imaging, depending on conditions, but it's certainly there and clear enough when you know what you are looking for. In the above view, for example, the 3 or 4 'swirls' were quite clear, but a lot of the contrast and detail only came out in post processing.  Hope this helps as a comparison.

Iain 

[Sunshine]

Thx for the reply! and yes, pressure tuning is a different animal all together.

[Sunshine]

I read that we are in middle of weakest solar cycle in a century, the sun has been pretty spotless lately which I'm sure makes for shorter and less interesting observation sessions on everyones part.

[Pete Presland]

There certainly hasn't been much to shout about lately.

[Sunshine]

How is it that reference numbers are given to solar phenomena??? i see pictures with spots with numbers attached to them, why? won't a sunspot be gone in a matter of hours,days,weeks?? then what, the next blemish gets another random number?

[Merlin66]

Solar Active areas are assigned a number by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space weather Prediction Centre.

Raben Systems have a up to date map, which shows the daily AR's.

https://www.raben.com/maps/index.html

[Sunshine]

Was out observing the sun today, OH MAN i got weak in the knees! the seeing was just fantastic, looked as though i was in orbit just a million miles from the sun with an inky black background, just superb seemingly 4K views.

Surface details just looked so crisp and tack sharp, brilliant really, and for those looking for a great solar eyepiece the Lunt Zoom performs so darn well, from 21 up to 7mm the details were still great, i was surprised at how well 

it performs even at max zoom. Unfortunately i do not have a camera yet so i sketched as i watched (i am no artist) lol.