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Sunshine at last - 20/5/17

Stu

By Stu
in Observing - Solar

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Stu

Stu

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Having not really had a chance to do any solar observing for quite a while, sunshine this morning allowed me to put the Tak and PST mod out for a little look (still between clouds mind you)

Nice to see a few bits of activity in WL. Two small ARs and small spot, plus very lovely area of faculae. Seeing did not allow high mag, but at around x100 the macro granulation was clear across the disk and some detail visible in the ARs.

Ha showed some wonderful swirling detail around one of the ARs (need to check IDs), plus one quite large filament and a few smaller. At around 7 O'clock (PST view) there is a very lovely prom showing fine detail, and a number of others are dotted around the limb. Spicule line clear too.

Ha was using 32mm Omni plossls which I find are very excellent quality and value for Ha. I have two issues with them in my Antares Binoviewers though. Firstly the undercut in the barrel means the locking mechanism doesn't hold them tightly as it lines up with the clamping band. Secondly the eye relief is very long due to the barlowing required. This is not a criticism of the eyepieces at all, just a fact of life. I will have a look at creating some eyeguard extensions to help with eye positioning.

Perhaps down the road some time I will invest in some TV Plossls with the eyeguard extensions, but that is in the future for now.

Just great to be out seeing stuff!

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Pete Presland

Pete Presland

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Glad you got some views, even when it's quite it's good to be out there.  Managed a pretty short session as well before  9am and the incoming clouds/rain. A few small proms visible and a very nice filament close to A/R2656, which also looked quite interesting. 

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Piero

Piero

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Same here! Finally two (little) sunspots and a bit of granulation in white light ! :)

It's quite windy over here, but time to time the seeing settles just enough to catch some detail. The 2.4mm Vixen HR (150x) without Baader SC filter also allowed me to see the penumbra regions of those sunspots in those stable moments. Curiously, neither the SLV 9mm (40x) or the 9mm + PM2.5x (100x) with Baader SC filter managed to! LOL!

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Stu

Stu

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4 minutes ago, Piero said:

Same here! Finally two (little) sunspots and a bit of granulation in white light ! :)

It's quite windy over here, but time to time the seeing settles just enough to catch some detail. The 2.4mm Vixen HR (150x) without Baader SC filter also allowed me to see the penumbra regions of those sunspots in those stable moments. Curiously, neither the SLV 9mm (40x) or the 9mm + PM2.5x (100x) with Baader SC filter managed to! LOL!

Nice very one Piero, was this in the TV60?

Looking at SolarMonitor, I see the small spot I saw was AR12657.

Interesting that the Vixen seems to be fabulous on solar too :) 

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Piero

Piero

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1 hour ago, Stu said:

Nice very one Piero, was this in the TV60?

Looking at SolarMonitor, I see the small spot I saw was AR12657.

Interesting that the Vixen seems to be fabulous on solar too :) 

Thanks very much for the website. Very interesting! :)

Yes, it was with the TV60. If I remember correctly, the lower sunspot also had a smaller one (nearly a dot) on its North-West side. Again, this was only revealed with the Vixen HR 2.4mm. 

 

Edit: 

Yes, here we go: 

chmi_06173_ar_12658_20170520_124644.png

 

Congratulations for spotting 12657!  That's a very tiny one!! I will give a go now! :) 

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Piero

Piero

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Update. @Stu 

I tried hard with 12657, but didn't succeed. Possibly the SC could have helped but unfortunately the HR requires filters to have a longer thread than the Baader SC. Hopefully Vixen will improve this in the future. Unfortunately my #58 green filter is in Italy atm so I cannot try/use that either.. I will get it back next month and report. 

 

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Stu

Stu

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41 minutes ago, Piero said:

Update. @Stu 

I tried hard with 12657, but didn't succeed. Possibly the SC could have helped but unfortunately the HR requires filters to have a longer thread than the Baader SC. Hopefully Vixen will improve this in the future. Unfortunately my #58 green filter is in Italy atm so I cannot try/use that either.. I will get it back next month and report. 

 

It was pretty small Piero, perhaps below the resolution on the 60mm if the seeing wasn't perfect?? Try again tomorrow :) 

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Stu

Stu

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55 minutes ago, Stu said:

It was pretty small Piero, perhaps below the resolution on the 60mm if the seeing wasn't perfect?? Try again tomorrow :) 

Just had another look in the cloud breaks and....I reckon it has gone. The seeing was not the best, but good enough to see the macro granulation but I could only see the two larger ARs.

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Stu

Stu

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First look at about 7.30am here today and I can see 12657 again. It appears as a curved string of four small spots, quite clear today.

I'm pretty sure there was nothing there yesterday evening, the seeing looked good enough to pick it up. Quite a lot of high haze around this morning, mainly contrails :(.

I also wondered why the Ha views were so lacking in prominences until I realized the objective had dewed up as soon as I took the end cap off. Clearing in the sunshine now.

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Stu

Stu

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Another look, and it has changed again so 12657 seems very active. It is now two distinct spots, clearly associated. Nice to see something so dynamic in white light despite it being small.

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Stu

Stu

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1 minute ago, Piero said:

@Stu

It is great this morning! Here is a quick sketch at 150x:

20170521_101658.thumb.jpg.0f1b01031196a942b91398df22537485.jpg

12657 to the right.

Great sketch Piero, just like that!

Have another look, it is completely  different now!

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Piero

Piero

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The sketch above was done without solar continuum.

I'm watching it with the Vixen SLV 9mm plus powermate and guess what.. I can just hardly spot it. And this with added solar continuum filter.

Also invisible with the Vixen NLV 30mm + Powermate 2.5x + Baader solar continuum (SC).

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Piero

Piero

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Removed the solar continuum filter and I cannot even find it. The little penumbra regions around the larger sunspots are also lost. 

Going back to the Vixen HR 2.4mm now. I may try holding the Baader Solar Continuum in front of the eyepiece.

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Piero

Piero

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I've just tried my Vixen SLV 5mm. I can detect the position with difficulty just because I know where it is, but no real detail is visible.

The Vixen HR 2.4mm now shows a fifth dot. They form a kind of square with an external dot on the right.

No Solar continuum filter was used for both the tests.

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Piero

Piero

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The HR now shows 6 spots. The Zeiss zoom 25.1-6.7mm using Baader VIP 1.25" nosepiece as 1.25" adapter shows the same at about 70x. 

The Vixen SLV 5mm now shows 5 spots, one of which seems more a penumbra region.

Again no SC was used.

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Piero

Piero

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Another little dot with the Vixen HR 2.4mm.

I took another sketch. The larger sunspots on the left might miss some details because the seeing has deteriorated and it's cloudy now.

 

20170521_113843.jpg

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Stu

Stu

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Great stuff Piero, it so very dynamic, changing constantly. I looked a little while ago and it was different again from your sketches. I shall try to keep an eye on it all afternoon, looks like a fun region.

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Stu

Stu

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Some of the best seeing of the day just now. I'm finding white light more engaging than Ha today I think. No major proms around but there is some lovely swirling surface detail around the ARs and the large filament is showing good detail.

In white light just now, I was seeing detail in all four spots, umbra and penumbra despite their small size. I'm getting very confused about AR designation, but let's say the AR which is most active in Ha, i.e. the two spots close together showed some delicate structure in white light, lighter 'lanes' in the granulation structure surrounding it.

The AR which is at the top of the view also had a retinue of 4 small pores below it and I think a couple more above and left.

I need to sort my head out in terms of relating the correct image in the PST mod with the left right reversed view in white light. It helped to detune the etalon so I could match up the ARs.

Anyway, it's been fun having the scopes out all day, watching changes occurring and catching the best seeing.

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