25th March 2020 First light

[Montana]

Well, this morning dawned clear blue sky so I was set up and waiting ready for the Sun to hit the telescope. I did the usual three lights looking for polar faculae, this may take me days to analyse again but the seeing was good, not marvellous but good. So from 11am I had a play with the Celestron C11 and my PST mod. I had no idea what I was doing and didn't expect to see anything at all because first lights are usually disasters.

Celestron C11 Halpha by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Celestron C11 Halpha by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Celestron C11 Halpha by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

This is the view at native, is this normal?

Sun_112825_25_03_2020_lapl4_ap4379 a.jpg (522.05 KiB) Viewed 4402 times

Anyway, the view through a 2.5x Powermate was much more like what I see from you guys and this gave me encouragement. I didn't even think I would find the Sun, let alone focus it so I was very pleased with myself. Obviously seeing wasn't the best over lunch time but this gives me some hope so I am pleased to bits.

Sun_115953_25_03_2020 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_115953_25_03_2020 f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_122842_25_03_2020 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_122842_25_03_2020 f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Equipment: Celestron C11 / Aries full aperture ERF / 2.5x Powermate / PST etalon / ASI174

Alexandra

[rsfoto]

Hi,

Very good and yes it takes time to get adjusted a new set up.

I was astonished how long that optical train is behind the scope

[marktownley]

Weird, my seeing was pants today. The native view is showing the PST sweetspot, looks like in that view you've got it tuned as an annulus instead of a central spot, you can see how it goes off band at the edges of the fov. Barlowing / powermating into this centre of this is normal fodder on a pst mod. Glad you got a result, did you manage to do a comparison with the SF100?

[Montana]

Thanks guys

Mark, yes, those are coming slowly
Alexandra

[Starry Jack]

There is going to be some gorgeous images coming from you soon! I can hunts of some really lovely high res features.

[JochenM]

Impressive looking setup there, Alexandra. And nice results as well!

PS: I can imagine that actually finding the sun with that thing is not that straightforward.

[DeepSolar64]

Nice setup Alexandra!

[Astrophil]

Coming along nicely, Alexandra. Fun and exciting times await you when the seeing improves. It only takes one great day to make it all worthwhile. You'll be ready.

Phil

[ffellah]

Good first light, Alexandra. You will get great results soon with this set up.

Franco

[eroel]

Alexandra:
Beautiful setup, it takes time to tame it, so do not become impatient you will soon see spectacular results.
Best regards and keep healthy.
Eric.

[Carbon60]

Hi Alexandra,

When the seeing conditions improve you’ll get some fantastic images with this set up. I’ve found with mine if I add a red filter on the camera the contrast improves (I don’t know if this is an issue in your case). I alway use a PowerMate (2.5x or 5x depending on the conditions) as natural focal ratio imaging does not work so well. But then the idea is to use this for hi-res close views anyhow.

I always take and apply flats to eliminate dust bunnies, but then I also often apply a false flat during final processing to even out any gradients. Of course ‘seeing’ is the real killer, or maker, of excellent images. Some incredible sunspots wouldn’t go amiss either.

Stu.

[Valery]

Hello Alexandra,

This is a good start. You can do this much easier and better if you will simplificate the etalon-filter-camera train.

See here how short and simple it can be.

adapter from PST etalon to telescope 2" visual back - adapter #1.

adapter 1 --> PST etalon with it's native lenses --> tube 140mm --> BF10 or BF15 --> barlow --> camera.

Total length is about 220mm only. Barlow magnification is depends of the camera pixel size and seeing. Not necessary to use too large focal length when you just trying to practice.
2x barlow shortened to screw-in in the nose of ASI174 camera is OK. It will give about 1,5-1,7x magnification and F/D=15-17 - absolutely enough for first experiments.

To adjust PST etalon for Ha better to make scale even smaller by binning 2x2. As Mark said already, you need to adjust PST etalon so that it will show a sweet spot of dark center with slow brightening of the sweet spot towards the outer edge.

This basically all.


Hope this helps.


Valery

[MapleRidge]

Good to see your first light with the C11 and the PST mod. Results look good, need the seeing to improve and a allow a better idea of how well the setup is performing.

I recognize that part of your garden...nice ot see solar work going on there

Brian