First light with the Baader Coronagraph

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Montana
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First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by Montana »

Well well, forecast was cloud and rain all weekend but over lunch a gap of blue sky appeared and stayed for 2 hours! on Sat24 it was the only hole over the whole country and it was over Cheshire :cool: how about that!!

Well, I rushed out with the telescope and had a fun couple of hours with the coronagraph. Considering I couldn't see anything through it with a bright light (as per instructions) I was a bit nervous.

First off, couldn't see anything through the camera, as I thought. So I played with the excenter and suddenly the sun popped out. It seems that the occulting disc is so huge compared to my camera chip size that if you have it centred it blocks the whole field of view. So I have to have it to the extremes to see anything. This is a nightmare to steer, first you have to wiggle the excenter to get the occulting disc where you want it, then steer the Sun under it. When upside down and back to front you should have heard me :lol:
So I thought maybe I would use the 0.5x focal reducer, this sort of works but seems to reduce the size of the occulting disc in a drastic way compared to the Sun. Here is the view

Image120317_114558 Focal Reducer by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

So I went back to native, it took me ages to find focus of the occulting disc, I need no extension tubes and also not to screw the eyepiece adaptor all the way in and bring the nose piece out by about 4mm. That was another serious problem with the reducer, I needed to go further inwards to focus the occulting disc and this is not possible so I couldn't get it focused.

ImageSet up by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

To get the Sun in focus I need the 10cm extension tubes before the corongraph, this is the same for the Solarscope.

ImageSet up by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageCoronagraph set up. by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Picture of the occulting disc

ImageBaader H alpha Coronagraph (prominence Viewer) by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Here is the resulting view coming in to alignment

Image120317_120755 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

and in alignment

Image120317_122402 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

it twinkles beautifully

https://vimeo.com/208005240 sorry but the media button doesn't work so I can't embed the video :(

I was using occulting disc number 1 which is for December, so I seem to be about one out. So I think I should be fine except for December (size wise) but then I can't see the Sun then anyway.

I am very happy I have got this far. Sadly I couldn't see any prominences with it and there was one on GONG. Has the filter deteriorated? that is the next BIG question.
Any comments / hints welcome :hamster:

Alexandra


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by eroel »

Alexandra:
The Baader Coronagraph is a very nice instrument, I got one many years ago, though the etalon has deteriorated. (rusted)
I have not found an etalon to replace it, hope that Baader will make a few as spares.
If you find one let me know please.
Here is one taken in 2002 with a one shot Coolpix camera.
Best regards,
Eric.
Coronagraph-1.jpg
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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by Montana »

Wow! I don't think I have ever seen prominences like that in this solar cycle Eric :hamster: what angstrom was your filter? this one is supposed to be 8A

This image was taken with this Coronagraph in 2001 Image by the late HPJ Douglas Arnold who was the previous owner. So it did work then :) It is 24 years old now.

I wrote a mail to Baader and they haven't even replied to me, so I guess they don't want to know. But I do have the e-mail address of the chap who apparently designed and built it for Baader, so he is worth e-mailing now I know the set up does actually work :) http://sonnenfernrohr.de/

Alexandra
Last edited by Montana on Wed Jul 05, 2017 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by ffellah »

Alexandra: congratulations on your great patience and perseverance. I now understand why you are scientist....

Franco


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by eroel »

Alexandra:
Mine was an 1.5A° etalon. It performed splendidly, visually it was breathtaking with a binoviewer.
Lets find out if we can make those 2 Coronagraphs work!!
In those days, protuberances were giant.
Best regards,
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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by Montana »

It's my dream to see a prom that big :hamster:
Perhaps 8A is a bit wide?

Alexandra


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by pedro »

This is very interesting stuff Alexandra. I guess you will have great results with the coronagraph soon. Please keep us posted. The video is also very interesting

thanks for sharing


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by Sunwatcher »

You do push the envelope for us, thank you!


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by Derek Klepp »

Interesting Alexandra good luck in getting it functional. Mark T may have to dissect it to see if it's viable that,s if he has time of course.


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by banjo »

Very interesting, but I think it is often necessary to change disk (~ 15 days), it is the frequency on the coronographs of the PdM.
I am with great interest your production (damage minimas for some time)
Paul


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by robert »

Great video, wonderful progress. I hope the filter is oK. Let us know!
Robert


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by marktownley »

Getting there! Don't use the focal reducer it just throws all the basic maths of the system. Decembers disk is definitely the wrong one, occulting disk size is key. I personally suspect the filter in it is dead given the final 2 shots lack of chromosphere features.


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by Derek Klepp »

Alexandra just had a look on Flickr some great planetary pics there with the 140 and thouroughly enjoyed the Venus pics and the Tunstones.


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by Montana »

Thanks everyone :) glad you enjoyed them Derek :)

Mark, my occulting discs are very slightly the wrong size for the scope, the Feb/March one was definitely too small, the Dec/Jan one was a much better fit. I have serious doubts about the filter, however I have not heard anything back from Wolfgang Lille yet, I hope he replies as Baader never did :( maybe nobody likes me ;)

Alexandra


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by PDB »

"maybe nobody likes me" don't think so Alexandra.

I know if one company (if still existing) selling a coronograph (very similar to the one from Walter Lille). German company called Beloptik. They are on Airylab's dealer list, but the website mentioned there seems to have vanished. (so no idea how to contact them to see if they might have spare parts)

(But still see their product sold on astromarket.org)

Regards,

Paul


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Re: First light with the Baader Coronagraph

Post by Montana »

Thanks for the info Paul, it is going to be a hard one tracking this down ;)

Alexandra


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