Last hours of AR2673/74 with 280mm SCT and Quark

[Valery]

Hello to all,

Here the images of the AR12673 and 12674 from Sept 9 2017.

The seeing was mostly poor with some rare improvements to an average level.
Hence the images while less good than I hoped for but still worth to see what
were on the Sun that morning.

The telescope is C11 280mm F/10 SCT equipped with the ARIES full size 295mm two
bands DERF filter and Quark Chromosphere. Camera is Basler 1920-155.

To see the images in a full resolution right click on the desired image and open it in a
separate window.

Thanks for looking and comments.


Valery.

[Derek Klepp]

Thanks Valery.

[Carbon60]

Excellent, Valery.

Stu.

[Ronnie_Clayton]

Beautiful pictures Valery, congratulations!!!

[MapleRidge]

Hi Valery...

For poor seeing, those came out extremely well. Great capture and processing

Brian

[rsfoto]

WOW WOW WOW

The first image is impressive

[marktownley]

Nice captures Valery! Your good seeing is paying dividends again.

[Valery]

Nice captures Valery! Your good seeing is paying dividends again.

Thanks to all, folks, for your kind words.


Mark, my flat landscape area is not more prone to a good seeing than a similarly flat areas in other
parts of the world. If I getting a few tens of seconds (for all observing session!) of good seeing between hours of mostly poor seeing,
this does not necessary mean that we have a good seeing place! During morning hours 7-10h with a moderate wind (3-6 m/s) moments of a good seeing can be observed almost everywhere between 35-65 latitude.

[marktownley]

Mark, my flat landscape area is not more prone to a good seeing than a similarly flat areas in other
parts of the world.

Maybe that's my problem - where I live is not flat!

[Valery]

Mark, my flat landscape area is not more prone to a good seeing than a similarly flat areas in other
parts of the world.

Maybe that's my problem - where I live is not flat!

I did mean flatland (slow hill, flat valley, no real mounts).

[Ibbo]

excellent details

[Montana]

Wow!!! how did I miss these, such exceptional detail, magnificent

Alexandra

[Montana]

Valery, is this the sort of telescope I should buy? (similar to yours)
https://www.tringastro.co.uk/celestron- ... gLZV_D_BwE

Alexandra

[Valery]

Valery, is this the sort of telescope I should buy? (similar to yours)
https://www.tringastro.co.uk/celestron- ... gLZV_D_BwE

Alexandra

Hi Alexandra.

Yes, this is a C11 which is similar to my telescope.

I hope you finally will buy the ARIES D-ERF for such a scope.


Valery

[marktownley]

Valery, is this the sort of telescope I should buy? (similar to yours)
https://www.tringastro.co.uk/celestron- ... gLZV_D_BwE

Alexandra

Hi Alexandra.

Yes, this is a C11 which is similar to my telescope.

I hope you finally will buy the ARIES D-ERF for such a scope.


Valery


Buy an ERF off Valery, i'll give you my spare C8 and see if you can get it to come anywhere close to what should be possible for the aperture. If you can then buy the C11. For me, my 8" (where it is even hinting at resolution possible) is a couple of times a year scope, a C11 for me would be a once a solar cycle scope.

If you're ever over here Valery come and play solar with us and see what the seeing is like most times!

[marktownley]

sorry - all my quotes went wrong above!

[Dave S]

That's an amazing, dynamic, beautiful shot, Valery

[Valery]

Mark,

Leave your suspicious concerning exceptionality of my observing location. It is just a small grass lawn in front of my house. My house is situated not far from the center of the city Kherson, 450000 residents. The SkyShed with my telescope is in just 10 meters from the asphalt road.
I tested several places around (using my C8 scope + PST etalon and Basler camera). They all are about equal seeing wise. Night seeing is always about 2". Solar details shakes with about the same 2"-3" amplitude. Nothing special.
The secret is to try to catch some short periods of atmosphere stability between
mostly average to poor seeing. They almost always happen between 7-8 to 10 hours of a local time (depends of a time of a year). And the period of possible good seeing moments never lasts more than an hour. All other time short periods of a good seeing can occurs, but very rarely.
The key of my relative success is my patience and a regular observing - I have such an opportunity to observe almost every clear morning. The only a real advantage of my location is that we have a long period of mostly cloudless weather from mid April to end of September.

Even during poor seeing days the short periods of good seeing can randomly occur. For example, yesterday was a poor day. I gave up and have erased all my movies and started to experiment with using another etalon in several modes. And then, when I adjusts the mode #1 I saw on the screen that the seeing starts to improve dramatically from a boiling soup to quite acceptable. I immediately pushed the recording knob and have recorded two movies each of 30sec cadence. Then the seeing returned to it's regular poor level. Here is the result of processing of one of these movie.
While the image is of a low contrast (too wide bandpass) it is of a good resolution. Absolutely unexpectable short period of a good seeing! So, if to have a SSM, one can hunts for a good seeing with high enough chances for a good results.
A SSM is my primary goal for a nearest equipment upgrade.

Valery

[FeroT]

Very interesting discussion Valery. Thanks for the information. So as I understand you evaluated the improvement in seeing conditions on your screen just visually, without using a gadget like SSM?

Frank

[Valery]

Very interesting discussion Valery. Thanks for the information. So as I understand you evaluated the improvement in seeing conditions on your screen just visually, without using a gadget like SSM?

Frank

Yes, no SSM. Just looking at the screen. This is the most reliable method.

[Montana]

Thanks guys
I have a little prize money to spend (although not got it yet). I feel I get good results in WL with my 6" so I was hoping to try WL at 11" to see whether I had hope or not. I wanted to do this before taking the plunge on expensive ERF and having to get a halpha filter to fit in it. What I don't know is whether the one above would be optically good enough or whether you need the EdgeHD or I have been looking at truss tube astrograph, or whether to get the HaT. However 8" isn't much above my 6" so I wanted to go for 10 or 11" if I am making an investment. I just want to test the water with WL first but I need to get the right base for future upgrading.
Alexandra

[Valery]

Thanks guys
I have a little prize money to spend (although not got it yet). I feel I get good results in WL with my 6" so I was hoping to try WL at 11" to see whether I had hope or not. I wanted to do this before taking the plunge on expensive ERF and having to get a halpha filter to fit in it. What I don't know is whether the one above would be optically good enough or whether you need the EdgeHD or I have been looking at truss tube astrograph, or whether to get the HaT. However 8" isn't much above my 6" so I wanted to go for 10 or 11" if I am making an investment. I just want to test the water with WL first but I need to get the right base for future upgrading.
Alexandra

I would advice to use a regular C11 which is significantly cheaper than a HD version. Almost all C11 scopes are of a good to excellent quality. And you always can return it for exchange for a good one.
11" size is a very good compromise. Very powerful and very compact and lightweight. The difference between the cost of a HD and a standard SCT versions is a great part of a 10" filter cost, as well as 11" filter cost. Even 10" filter will work excellently on a C11.

Note, that it will work in Ha better than in a green light.


Valery

[marktownley]

I guess we're at the wrong end of the season for testing now, but you are more than welcome to have a long term play with my C8 (it's the regular version like you posted), it is just sat around doing nothing and has been for a while, i'd rather it is being used than just a bookend. Take advantage of a try before you throw £££ at something that may or may not be feasible for you.

Maybe i'm just a bad seeing nay-sayer and overly cautious of these large apertures and how viable they are in the UK?

The only a real advantage of my location is that we have a long period of mostly cloudless weather from mid April to end of September.

This may well be your advantage then Valery, here in the UK we get clear blue cloudless skies maybe 5-6 days a year, people here say it is sunny and clear when there is still several oktas clould cover, when there is cloud there is instability in the atmosphere. Most of the time we are shooting through gaps in the cloud or through thick haze.

I'm weighing up the options for a new scope myself too, will be a next year purchase now, but looking in the 120-140mm range. I love my 8" HaT, and would most definitely not get rid of it, but I know from the pictures that Frederic, Christian and Simon post that I am getting nowhere near the resolution capabilities of the 8" HaT. Something in the 5" range will offer me that step up in both resolution and scale that I get with my 100mm Tal refractor, but also give me something that I can get the most from on a regular basis. The best scope is the one you use the most - for you Valery it is a C11 and for me something smaller.

[Montana]

That sounds a good idea Mark, but I want to take advantage of this really cheap offer at the moment, so I could test the C8 and the C11 side by side and see which is best. If we knew of a really sunny Saturday / Sunday you could bring the HaT and stay overnight for an early morning testing session but that would have to be a last minute idea and could be early next spring if this weather stays like this. One thing I did think of though, will a 1.25" focuser be a bad idea as how would you fit a Halpha filter in eventually?
Alexandra

[marktownley]

Okey doke, we'll sort something. What is this 'sun' you talk of though?

The scopes (8" & 11") have a SCT thread which comes supplied with a 1.25" visual back that just unscrews and replaced with 2" fitting accessories.