Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

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marktownley
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Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by marktownley »

Hi Everyone.

Some nice weather this saturday! Not the deep blue skies I had in Italy earlier in the week, more of a milky haze, but still acceptably clear for solar imaging. The sun is all but clear of the majority of the trees now so my solar season can begin properly finally. This morning was pleasantly warm but the seeing was not great and I quickly resorted to the SSM to get only the best frames. First up I shot a full disk with the SM90, the filament and plage easily visible. The poor seeing manifesting itself in the spicule layer being a fairly continuous line rather than clearly defined spicules.

Imageha-full-disk.bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

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

Then I wanted to try the Quark with the SM90 as a double stack. It works well.

Imageimage by Mark Townley, on Flickr

With a lack of proms the natural target was the filament and plage:

Imagefilament-limb-ha-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagefilament-limb-ha-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

There appeared to be a ephemeral region that marks the likely magnetic other end of the filament structure:

Imagefilament-ha-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagefilament-ha-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Then I switched to CaK, the sun was starting to quickly go behind the trees (shadow on bottom right of disk), but I was pleased to see the PGR GH3 could accommodate the 1000mm focal length used for this full disk. Seeing was not up to the 80mm aperture used here, but it gives an idea of what is possible when the seeing complies. If tomorrow is good I may give 60mm a try.

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

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

Finally zooming in with the 2.5x barlow on the plage.

Imagecak-plage-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagecak-plage-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

All in all pleased with this mornings run!

Mark


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by Valery »

DS images are great for such a condition. Excellent session.


Valery


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by MapleRidge »

Hi Mark...

A great set of images and good to hear the sun is more accessible for you again!!!

The DS through the 90mm looks fantastic :bow

Brian


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by MalVeauX »

Really nice Mark!

Very best,


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by MAURITS »

Very nice session Mark ...


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by Astrophil »

Mark,
All great images! Superb DS performance in my opinion. Looks like it's going to be a good solar season this year.

Phil


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by Christopher »

Very nice set of images Mark.


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by xn44 »

Nice images!


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by David_The_Bears_Fan »

Great set Mark. The Quark / Solarmax double stack setup seems to work quite well.


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by marktownley »

Thanks everyone! Hoping Sunday yields me some more sunshine too!


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by Carbon60 »

Looks like you had an excellent session, Mark, even in milky skies. Very nice images across the spectrum. At least you’ve (mostly) cleared the treetops ;)

The sky was a bit too hazy here and it turned cloudy in the afternoon. Maybe Sunday.....

Stu


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by mattwastell »

Excellent images Mark - the Filament close ups are sweet!


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by ffellah »

What a great session, Mark. You are definitely having fun with your SM90.

Franco. :bow


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by Montana »

A great set of images Mark, I think your 90mm double stack image looks absolutely identical to mine (I didn't copy yours honestly :lol:)

Interesting to see your CaK too, it is good to compare with mine.
:bow

Alexandra


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by Bob Yoesle »

Hi Mark,

The DS w Quark/SM90 is amazingly good!

I'm also envious you have such good weather. We're not going to get much above freezing for another two to three weeks...

Driveway snow.jpg
Driveway snow.jpg (281.88 KiB) Viewed 1734 times


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Re: Saturday Sunshine - 23rd February

Post by MapleRidge »

Bob...you've got way more snow than me based on your pic! Rain this weekend has melted a lot and now a massive wind storm (could get over 100kmh tonight)...likely picking up shingles in the morning and calling the roofer.

Brian


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Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281@N08/albums

10'x15 Roll-off Roof Observatory
Takahashi EM400 Mount carrying:
C14 + Lunt 80ED
Deep Sky Work - ASI294MM Pro+EFW 7x36/Canon 60D (Ha mod), ONAG
Planetary Work - SBIG CFW10, ASI462MM

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iOptron CEM70G Mount carrying:
Orion EON 130ED, f7 OTA for Day & Night Use
Ha Setup: Lunt LS80PT/LS75FHa/B1200Ha + Home Brew Lunt Double Stack/B1800Ha on the Orion OTA + Daystar Quantum
WL, G-Band & CaK Setup: Lunt Wedge & Lunt B1800CaK, Baader K-Line and Altair 2nm G-Band filter
ASI1600MM, ASI432MM, ASI294MM Pro, ASI174MM, ASI462MM
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