Sneaky Friday Sunshine

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Montana
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Sneaky Friday Sunshine

Post by Montana »

I decided to trick the weather this week and take Friday off work. Of course it was glorious wall to wall blue sky sunshine and as predicted Saturday and Sunday were cloudy :roll: so it was a good idea. I wish Friday's were always part of the weekend as they are consistently sunny.

I set up the TEC140 for 9.30am and enjoyed a good bit of white light imaging with the Baader Herschel wedge. What a delight to see crystal clear granulation. However the scale again with the ASI174 is not that great and quite pixelated at 3x. The 5x Powermate was much better but the granulation was still small. However my Grasshopper 3 has at least been sent away for repair :hamster:

One thing I noticed straight away was - where has the giant dust bunny gone? The ASI was lovely and clean at 5x in WL? Mmmm What got me thinking was that the dust bunny followed the big spot everywhere last week, usually dust bunnies turn with the camera?? Then, when I was collimating the hubby asked what was this giant aberration in the star ring on one corner. It was a beautiful round circle but was broken and swirling in the bottom right of the diffraction disc. Now my brain cells got working and I went to have a look at the primary mirror on the C11. Bloody h***!! there is the biggest blackest blob on the primary mirror. How on earth did that get there in a sealed unit?? I have a photo I can share with you tonight. What luck :? I need to work out how I can poke a long pipe cleaner through the back hole with a lens wipe in to brush it off. I have a feeling it might be a fly that has died. I really hope it is not a blob of oil from the focuser disaster :shock:

Anyway. White light, primary aim was to look for polar faculae. I think I spotted some at the north pole and some at the south. Lyn at the BAA thinks I have a positive sighting. What is unusual is that these seem to match bright points in Halpha. She is going to check how this could be. I am guessing that if these are magnetic footpoints of the new cycle then they should reach up into the chromosphere and beyond. This is interesting and needs checking out. I think I have some arrows in the wrong place but I think you get my drift. I am very happy indeed.

ImageSun_094536_29_03_2019 Polar faculae? by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageSun_094536_29_03_2019 Polar Faculae? by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageSun_094957_29_03_2019 Polar faculae? by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageSun_094957_29_03_2019 Polar faculae? by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageSun_095743_29_03_2019 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

ImageSun_095743_29_03_2019 f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr
Best viewed in Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexandra ... 5/sizes/o/

I then attached the Solarscope DSF100 and took a full disc. While taking the full disc I saw a beautiful plane transit, the fast frame rate of the ASI makes it so clear and sharp. Pity it had just stopped recording 2 seconds before :evil:

Image2019-03-28 Sun Full disc f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexandra ... 5/sizes/k/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexandra ... 2/sizes/k/

What a fun day :hamster:
Alexandra


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Re: Sneaky Friday Sunshine

Post by pedro »

Glorious granulation images Alexandra, the ASI174MM is great for HR WL imaging


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Re: Sneaky Friday Sunshine

Post by krakatoa1883 »

Great images, Alexandra, have you used the continuum filter ? Or are they pure WL ?

That small bright spots seems really to be polar faculae. How are the images oriented ? celestial north up ?


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Re: Sneaky Friday Sunshine

Post by Carbon60 »

Beautiful granulation images, Alexandra. Your Friday sneak peek looks to have stood you in good stead.

Will the blob blow off with a can of air and directional straw, do you think?

Congrats on spotting polar faculae. Interesting, as you say, that they are visible in WL and Ha.

Stu.


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Re: Sneaky Friday Sunshine

Post by marktownley »

Excellent set there Alexandra, friday was gloriously clear indeed. Great capture of the polar faculae, they'll be there in CaK too.


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Re: Sneaky Friday Sunshine

Post by Montana »

Thanks everyone :)

Yes it was the Baader Herschel wedge + Continuum filter. They are orientated north up.
Stuart that is a very good idea, a bendy straw :) I like it!!

Here is the image:
DSC06412small.jpg
DSC06412small.jpg (488.86 KiB) Viewed 1082 times
This distortion cannot be good for my imaging?
Sun_193530_25_03_2019_a.jpg
Sun_193530_25_03_2019_a.jpg (675.12 KiB) Viewed 1082 times
Alexandra


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Re: Sneaky Friday Sunshine

Post by ffellah »

Fantastic granulation shots, Alexandra. The results with the faculae are very interesting too...

Glad you had a very good day after the bad one you had recently.

Franco :bow


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Re: Sneaky Friday Sunshine

Post by MapleRidge »

Hi Alexandra...

These are all superb images, especially the WL granulation and faculae :bow

Any luck cleaning the spot off the primary? To me the dark swirl at the lower edge of the out of focus image looks more like a tube current. I'd be surprised that the dark spot would appear like that.

I could have swore I posted a comment the other night, but no sign of it :?

Brian


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Re: Sneaky Friday Sunshine

Post by Montana »

Thanks guys. Been searching all week for a bendy straw and haven't managed to find one yet. They have all gone environmentally friendly and are all straight paper straws. I remember when I was kid all straws were paper and we had bendy ones back then, maybe like with the space race we have lost the technology :lol:

Brian, that image of the diffraction disc of a star is a stacked image from 1000 frames in ASK3. If it was a tube current it would be random and would be blurred out by stacking as with the case for most of the ring. This anomaly stays and is very noticeable and remains in the stacked image as a feature. Therefore it can't be good for imaging purposes if this ring should be perfect?

Alexandra


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Re: Sneaky Friday Sunshine

Post by MAURITS »

Alexandra, superb images and a loveley granulation.


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