Solar Scope Advice

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_Zakalwe
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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by _Zakalwe »

brianm910 wrote:Welp.... It looks like I know what my solar setup will be - the Lunt Solar 60mm Ha Solar Telescope Double Stacked with Pressure Tuner / B1200 Filter / 2" Crayford Focuser/ and the ASI174MM/MC CMOS camera.

I use this mix of equipment. You will need a decent Barlow in there too, as the pixels on the 174 are pretty big and without barlowing you will see the pixels in processing. A x2.5 works well- you will need a little overlap to get a full disc on there. No great problems to join the mosaics in Photoshop or Microsoft ICE.

You might get some Newton's Rings with the ASI....I certainly do on my Quark setup and I get some banding on the Lunt. A tilt adapter is a good solution to these...I recommend the one from Rowan Astronomy:
http://rowanastronomy.com/productsa4.htm#adaptors


Don't bother with anything other than Autostakkert for stacking- it does a grand job. I recommend ImPPG for sharpening- Registax used to be the king, but things have moved on considerably.

For processing, have a look at Ken Crawford's tutorials- they are really very good. He also has a Photoshop action on his site that is a good baseline for pseudo colour.

Ohh, and you'll hate me for saying this :o , but start saving for a double-stack Etalon. The Lunt L60 is a great tool, but once you have used one with a DS Etalon you will never go back!
Good luck and have fun!


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by michael.h.f.wilkinson »

Bit late to the thread, but I would recommend AutoStitch for win64 for mosaics. It bests MS-ICE every time on H-alpha (but not on lunar, Ca-K and white light, I must add). It is free, and you just dump the images in there, and it goes ahead and stitches them. You do need a lot of overlap between frames, but the results can be awesome. This is one of my favourites:

Image


Solar kit: GP-C8 with Thousand Oaks Solar filter, APM 80mm F/6, Lunt Herschel Wedge, Solar Spectrum 0.3Å H-alpha filter, Beloptic Tri-Band ERF (80mm free aperture), Thousand Oaks 90mm ERF, Coronado SolarMax II 60mm with Double Stack Unit. Lunt straight B1800 Ca-K module.
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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by brianm910 »

Thank you Zakalwe and Michael!!! I have a 2x barlow that came in my Celestron kit. I have to learn how to hook everything up when it comes to my imaging. This will be the first time I do cmos imaging with my computer. Michael, that is an awesome image. That gives me a goal. Maybe I will get one like yours after I learn everything. Right now, I feel overwhelmed and not sure what everything is. At least I got the right equipment. :)


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by michael.h.f.wilkinson »

I have posted a short guide to how I process solar images here:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/2423 ... ngle-pane/

That might be helpful


Solar kit: GP-C8 with Thousand Oaks Solar filter, APM 80mm F/6, Lunt Herschel Wedge, Solar Spectrum 0.3Å H-alpha filter, Beloptic Tri-Band ERF (80mm free aperture), Thousand Oaks 90mm ERF, Coronado SolarMax II 60mm with Double Stack Unit. Lunt straight B1800 Ca-K module.
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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by brianm910 »

After everyone's help in March of last year, and your equipment advice, and tech support from others on Charlie's FB Site, Here are a couple of my better photos.... Lunt 60mm single stack, and ASI ZWO174mm. I still don't know how to get good photos with my 2nd filter attached. I'm still learning.

Brian
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Last edited by brianm910 on Sat Feb 25, 2017 4:07 am, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by Montana »

Some lovely pics Brian :hamster: are we missing one photo as there is a gap?

Alexandra


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by marktownley »

Looks like you're getting there!


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http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by brianm910 »

With your advice, I took a video and stacked it using AutoStakkert. I finished it up with Photoshop. Well, it made all the difference. This was the sun last week. It had a bit more action than this week. I'm please with it.
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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by Derek Klepp »

Keep at it Brian a good full disc.


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by Andre444 »

Hi i like to know witch intro-solarscope is best for the money: ( the lunt 400 BF cost now about €1350 and the PST € 995) the lunt or still the PST and why? Thanks!


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by solarchat »

I prefer the views through the PST.


Stephen W. Ramsden
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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by Andre444 »

Hi, andre from holland. Is the baader hyperion 4 zoom with the 2.25 Barlow set worth for the PST? Update: Hi . I found out that a cemax 12 mm or a made 15 mm possel would be best for the small scope. ( i hope that they Will also made a 15 mm cemax eyepiece witch is the best size for full disk vieing!)


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by marktownley »

Andre444 wrote: Wed Jun 14, 2017 1:20 pm Hi, andre from holland. Is the baader hyperion 4 zoom with the 2.25 Barlow set worth for the PST? Update: Hi . I found out that a cemax 12 mm or a made 15 mm possel would be best for the small scope. ( i hope that they Will also made a 15 mm cemax eyepiece witch is the best size for full disk vieing!)
I agree, I like the 15mm the best. I use a 15mm Televue plossl.


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by Andre444 »

I finally buy the PST.!! Good build quality, easy use/set up. I have use it 2x but the seeing was not so good. The only problem now is that i cant find/see the sweet spot. Do someone have Some usefull advice to find the spot? I use the 20 mm kelner becource i dond have other ones. Thanks!


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by Andre444 »

Update : Hi , i look at the sun today with medium seeing.play with the focuser and tuning wheel. Despite i could not see a sweetspot, the PST let me look to a beautiful orange end Sharp sun! I have see two sunspots with Some white hot gasses arround. it pups out beautiful out of the orange sun! Now i waiting to see things like proms and filements. If i can see them as good,then i dond care annymore about the sweet spot! Now i save my momey for a caddy cap and a TMB 9mm planerary 2 eyepiece. Thanks made!!!


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by Montana »

Hello Andre, I am glad you are happy with the PST. Don't worry about the sweetspot, all that is, is an area where there is the highest contrast, this is not really applicable when viewing with your eyes, but if you use a camera where the field of view is very small then you want that small field of view to be on the area with maximum contrast (sweet spot).

Use this website as a guide when you tune the PST with the tuning ring. You want to get it so you see most contrast. Look at the daily image http://halpha.nso.edu/index.html#top and today you will see there are filaments connected to the sunspot and a prominence at 5 O Clock. Try and tune the PST so you can see these features easily. Remember your view will be upside down :)

Alexandra


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by Andre444 »

Hi, Montana. I think now that the sweetspot was were i see the Sharp details.i think it was not posseble to see this without the sweetspot. I only Though first that the sweetspot was something different, i was confused with a verry bright light, what i see at youtoub witch rises acros the disk. I think it was light reflection of the camera. So, no more worrys ,i looking forward for a lot of fewing with the Scope! ( the double stack is in my mind too, maby i save my money fot that for next year.) Thanks for your advice.
Last edited by Andre444 on Fri Feb 02, 2018 1:21 am, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by Andre444 »

Hi, i have the pst now for a while and i happy withe the purchase. The views have nice contrast ( in the better seeings) and are relaxt to watch. I use a planetery zoom (€55) and it works great! ( maby the best eyepiece for the pst?) when the conditions shows less contrast, i use the 21.5 on the zoom to see Some grandulation and even proms. One time afther i just set up the scope, i could see lots of proms all arround the limb and could zoom all the way in!( full disk) Maby this had someting to do with the position of the sun ?? and seeing?? But most ofthen i most move the trypod to the " sweet spot" ( i also dond use the tuning ring ofthen maby should use it more) not a big deal annyways. Thanks!


Bruce Girrell

Re: Solar Scope Advice

Post by Bruce Girrell »

Nice job on the processing Longtech!
I have a Lunt LS80THa too, so I know what you're starting with. I have been fairly happy with my images, but they're not nearly as good as yours. Impressive!


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