Shaking Off The Rust With Some Autumn Sunshine

[David Smith]

Afternoon all. Clear sunny skies here this afternoon and with talk of an AR I thought I would have a peek today. Figured I needed to try and shake off the rust ahead of the November 11th cloud-festival  as it's been a while since my last solar imaging session with one thing and another.

Took the Evostar out today and kicked off with some white light visual. Have to say I was underwhelmed by these AR's! Switched to Ca-K and imaging to find some nice activity and some semi-decent proms too. Seeing was not great and I ditched the first 6 captures entirely as a result. Settled for a bit but by the time I got to the proms it had gone again, almost didn't post the prom image below as it is rubbish 

Switched back to WL visual after that for another look around before the clouds started coming back and the tree line beckoned! Even if the clouds play ball on the 11th I am going to struggle to see more than an hour or so of the transit due to earth-bound obstructions. Think I will probably go with the Bresser on the day so I can grab full-disk Ca-K / WL in one frame. Could do with a second scope and a cheap alt/az mount so I can view from the bedroom window 

[Davey-T]

Good to see some of your C-aK images again David, I was promised some afternoon Sun so got mount set up and then had to cover it quickly cause it started raining 

Dave

[David Smith]

Thanks Dave. After a dull and damp start this morning I did not expect to be imaging this afternoon.  It's a bit of a battle at this time of year (low Sun and poor weather) and won't be long before the Sun is too low to image at all 😪

[Davey-T]

47 minutes ago, David Smith said:

won't be long before the Sun is too low to image at all 😪

Yes I usually have a 5 week gap when it's too low even if I move the rig on to the patio steps which makes it a bit awkward to use.

Been pondering on going somewhere for the transit if the forecast is favourable as I'll be lucky to catch the first 10 minutes from home.

Dave

[Rusted]

I've done early morning transits and eclipses from the tops of local hills.
We have a low hill to our east with trees and hedges on top to make matters worse.

So I carried a Bogen video tripod up for my Vixen 90mm f/11 with Baader foil filter.
The Vixen was bolted, via its rings and dovetail, to the Bogen quick-change plate.
A compact digital camera was held up to the eyepiece.
I use a cut down washing detergent bottle top as a tubular guide for the camera's "nose."

Not meant to be off-topic. Just showing it is possible to overcome "local difficulties."