First day with the Lunt LS60.

[ollypenrice]

This morining brought crisp sunshine in cold mountain air with thin snow around us on the hillsides. Good solar seeing?. Yesss!!!!

I have long wanted a solar scope, partly for myself and partly to add another astro activity for guests. For myself I might have gone for a PST but I felt that folks not used to looking though scopes might not get enough out of it. Prominences usually seemed quite faint though you could see them. More wow factor cost more than I could afford till this new generation of scopes appeared. And so I eventually went for a Lunt FS60 Ha from Ian King. I opted for the standard Crayford and normal etalon tuner, not the pressure type. I did go for the 1200 diagonal though, to avoid cutting the image circle down too much.

Topday was my full first session with it and I was absolutely thrilled. Our present guests are beginners but there was absolutely no doubting the wow factor for them, either.

Visually the prominences are brighter than I have ever previously seen in any solar scope. They are just downright bright. You don't have to look for them, they are just there, bang wallop. The disc shows some granulation and the current 'Lion's Face' feature was very distinctive, though with the single stack the disc detail needs more teasing out.

At this stage I was using a 10mm TeleVue Radian which showed the full disc with room to spare. I think on a driven mount an 8mm would be optimal. I then tried a 4.8 Nagler and the image held up well. It brought out individual feathery strands in some of the prominences. Very impressive. 4mm killed it though. Honestly I thought the view sensational.

Next came a run with the DMK21. It was all very easy to set up though you have to choose between disc and prominences on the monitor since the dynamic range beats the camera. Anyway, everone enjoyed both EP and monitor views and then we grabbed some video files.

The Crayford was just fine. I like my Feathertouch on the TEC but with a light webcam it would have been a gross indulgence. This one does a very good job.

We ran round the sun in 4 quadrants getting fast exposures for the disc and then shorter ones for the proms. I did manage to work out how to combine them in Ps but have not yet sussed out how to get the 4 panel mosaic to work. So this is just one quadrant.

I am impressed by the combination of the DMK and Lunt since I am a slow learner with IT products yet this all went fine for a first go. It won't impress the experts but I felt thrilled with this first session.

It has roundly exceeded my expectations and I am serously hooked on this malarky!

Ian King was as bombproof as ever.

Olly

[Earl]

Excellent !

you need to update your sig

So now you can image in the day and image in the night.... when do you plan to sleep

[brianb]

Great report Olly. Glad it's all working for you. Have you tried Microsoft Image Composite Editor (a free download!!!) for mosaic construction?

I am serously hooked on this malarky

Cut up your credit cards, solar observing can quickly get expensive (says someone who blew £8K on a 100mm etalon this summer ... and doesn't regret it but is already wondering how expensive the next upgrade will be)

[Helen]

Great report Olly. Glad it's all working for you. Have you tried Microsoft Image Composite Editor (a free download!!!) for mosaic construction?

Cut up your credit cards, solar observing can quickly get expensive (says someone who blew £8K on a 100mm etalon this summer ... and doesn't regret it but is already wondering how expensive the next upgrade will be)

I second the above

Helen

[mattifor]

Great shot Olly.

I had my first try at imaging with the CANON 400d, but I am strugling to get focus correct.

What I can view visually exceeds the photo image.

I have tried with web cam but again I can not get focus correct.

Ivor

[johninderby]

Nice report Olly. Reminds me of my first light with my Lunt 60. I too find the standard focuser is up to the job, even if it's not as nice as a Feather Touch of course. Curse the FT R&P for spoiling me.

BTW I found the Pentax XF Zoom 6.5 to 19.5 to be the best eyepiece for the Lunt. Just as sharp and contrasty as a Baader GO, but with the ability to set the mag to just the right mag.

John

[A McEwan]

Excellent choice! Great scope for beginners and experts. I second John's Pentax zoom recommendation.

Ant

[ollypenrice]

Cheers all. Thanks for the EP tip.

Brian, Helen put me onto Windows ICE and it worked for the moon. However, it will only do the top 2 or the bottom 2 of the sun and won't put those together. They do overlap. I can't see how it can be rotation because I went round anticlockwise and the top 2 were the most separated in time. I will have another look today.

Olly

[Helen]

I couldn't get ICE to work for solar mosaics either, so if anyone has any tips....!

Helen

[mattifor]

excuse my ignorance, but what is 'Windows ICE'?

[Merlin66]

Its a mosaic program which allows you to combine various small images into a larger image - used for whole moon images when using small CCD chips or wide field image built up from smaller images.

[Merlin66]

Olly,

I got a free copy of PaintShopPro X which allows you to assemble a mosaic...a bit time consuming but it can be done...

[brianb]

if anyone has any tips....!

It sort of "just works" for me. Usually. When it doesn't it seems to be because some of the panes have only one reasonably high contrast feature in them. The granulation pattern of the surface is too complex & uniform for the software to match properly, it really needs something like plage areas or filaments to lock on to.

[mattifor]

Its a mosaic program which allows you to combine various small images into a larger image - used for whole moon images when using small CCD chips or wide field image built up from smaller images.

Thanks Ken.

Is it down loadable ?

Where from please?

Best regards

Ivor

[ollypenrice]

It is a free download from here;

Microsoft Research Image Composite Editor (ICE)

You need to check which version of Windows you are running but it does work well, if not that reliably on the sun!

Using it on deep sky it did a good job with just a doubt in my mind that it reduces contrast. This can be restored and I am not even dead sure that the problem is there, I am just on the look-out.

Olly

[mattifor]

Thanks Olly just downloaded thanks forthe link

Ivor