Saturday Sunshine 24th February

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marktownley
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Saturday Sunshine 24th February

Post by marktownley »

With a weeks decorating behind me and completed I was looking forward to a weekend of clear skies and observing the sun, however fate was not on my side, turning on the mount I was met with a burning smell. Looks like an inductor burnt out on the motherboard:

Imageimage by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Frustrated I did a bit of visual on the static mount and then decided to do some drift imaging. I was pleased with the new 60mm f6 scope, it seems to work quite well in CaK wavelengths with the shot below being taken at prime focus.

Imagecak-full-disk-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagecak-full-disk-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

I think it will give nice results when used with a barlow to get a larger and better sampled full disk. I also used the scope with the double stacked quark and was very pleased with the results. I'm definitely interested in doing a proper side by side comparison with the Lunt DS50 as they both gave very similar full disk views. I managed a shot of the prom that was on show that came out ok given the boiling seeing there was.

Imageprom by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Fingers crossed the mount is back in working order soon.

Mark


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Re: Saturday Sunshine 24th February

Post by MapleRidge »

Hi Mark...

Great images, especially when you consider they were not tracked. Nicely done :bow

Good luck with the mount repair. Seems to be a common issue since I’m waiting on a replacement Dec motor for one of my Gemini controlled mounts.

Brian


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marktownley
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Re: Saturday Sunshine 24th February

Post by marktownley »

Thanks Brian. Hope your mount gets sorted out soon.


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Re: Saturday Sunshine 24th February

Post by pedro »

Definitely bad luck to have a broken mount and glorious sunshine. Your CaK FD images are great and the HR prom is also very nice. Nicely done with drift imaging


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Re: Saturday Sunshine 24th February

Post by Montana »

A lovely blank CaK image, and a wonderful prom :bow :hamster: sorry to hear about the mount though, I hope it gets fixed soon. Your pictures demonstrate nicely why polar tracking for solar doesn't need to be exact :lol:
Alexandra


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Re: Saturday Sunshine 24th February

Post by Carbon60 »

Lovely images, Mark. Darn bad news about the mount.....

Stu.


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Re: Saturday Sunshine 24th February

Post by ffellah »

Mark: you are obviously a resilient amateur astronomer who does not give up imaging when problems arise. Good for you !

Excellent Cal K FD images and prom..... nicely done

Hope you can work out the problems soon.

Franco


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Re: Saturday Sunshine 24th February

Post by Valery »

Hi Mark

Nice images! I never saw more quiet sun image in the CaK !!! Absolutely dead activity.

Wish you get your mount back in a row soon.

Valery


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Re: Saturday Sunshine 24th February

Post by eroel »

Mark:
Unfortunate failure, but hope that soon you will have it going again.
Very good images, nice CaK results too.
Best wishes,
Eric.


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Re: Saturday Sunshine 24th February

Post by marktownley »

Thanks guys. Think the new board will be with me later in the week.


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