February 20th Images

[MapleRidge]

Good day everyone...

A nice clear day here today, with some clouds managing to drift through part way through my imaging session. I should have went out a little sooner I guess

The prom and new AR on the NE limb was the most impressive view through the LS80T as well as the dark filament in the SW. The image below is a composite of separate disk and limb exposures with the limb inverted. This was imaged with the LS80T/LS75FHa/B1800Ha solar scope and the ASI174MM camera:

Full-Ha_02202021.jpg (438.68 KiB) Viewed 117 times

The new activity in the NE held promise for some WL and CaK details, so the iStar 150mm, f8 OTA was used with the Lunt WL wedge and CaK Wedge/B1800CaK/Baader K-Line filters for these full disk images (dust spots included). The ASI1600MM was used for these:

IS_WL_112551-ASI.jpg (1.13 MiB) Viewed 117 times

IS_WL_112551-ASI-fc.jpg (784 KiB) Viewed 117 times

IS_CaKK_113752-IMP.jpg (802.71 KiB) Viewed 117 times

IS_CaKK_113752-IMP-fc.jpg (1.05 MiB) Viewed 117 times

I changed the iStar over to Ha with the pair of DSII etalons and B1800Ha blocker with a 3x focal extender ahead of the ASI174MM. The clouds started to drift in during these captures forcing some long delays between images. The seeing also degraded quiet a bit which didn't help my attempts to image the areas of interest in higher resolution.

AR2803 on the NE limb was the prime target, and the largest proms was on the limb nearby:

NE_AR.jpg (149.16 KiB) Viewed 117 times

NE_AR-inv.jpg (178.53 KiB) Viewed 117 times

NE_AR-fc.jpg (204.06 KiB) Viewed 117 times

I made a slight adjustment to the tuner and found this filament pop into view in the AR:

NE_AR-2.jpg (137.25 KiB) Viewed 117 times

Before I gave into the clouds I got an image of the filament in the SW:

SW_Prom.jpg (155.63 KiB) Viewed 117 times

SW_Prom-inv.jpg (170.79 KiB) Viewed 117 times

SW_Prom-fc.jpg (227.72 KiB) Viewed 117 times

This covers the images for today's session. As always, questions and comment are always welcome.

Brian

[DeepSolar64]

Brian,
All of these are awesome! I can't pick a favorite. I am starting to image now so CaK will can become a reality now. Like me getting a Lunt CaK module. I would probably use it on my small apochromatic 72mm refractor. Yes I noticed your CaK image first.

James

[MapleRidge]

Thanks James, always appreciated the comments

The CaK is not a very good image...the poor seeing really affects it but I don't have an easy way to mount a smaller scope to use specifically for it. MAke the best if it, and some days the filter does a great job!

Brian

[marktownley]

Good shots Brian! Make an aperture stop for the CaK images, will improve things considerably! Go for something like 60mm, then it will give f20 at the chip which is a good match for the pixels on the 1600.

[Stardust5858]

Brilliant captures Brian, appreciate you sharing them with us, clouds here until tomorrow.

[ffellah]

An excellent run, Brian. I am very impressed by your results during the winter.

Franco

[EGRAY_OBSERVATORY]

Hi Brian,
Another excellent set of images showing so much (of what is available) to see.

Thanks vm
Terry

[MapleRidge]

Thanks to all for your comments and feedback...always appreciated

Mark, this set of CaK was stopped to around f10. I have yet to make up a smaller aperture mask...haven't forgotten, just slow to act

Brian

[Montana]

Wow!! what a great set, lots of lovely close ups of the active regions, filaments and proms, looks like you had a great session

Alexandra

[MapleRidge]

Thanks Alexandra

Today's time in the sun should have some good images too...just have to process them!

Brian

[Carbon60]

I fine crop of images, Brian.

Stu.

[krakatoa1883]

Great, Brian, the filament has been captured very well.

For full discs one can improve balance between dark and bright tones by using of the Exposure function in AstroSurface.

[MapleRidge]

Stuart and Raf...

Thanks for the comments and feedback

Raf, I am not familiar with that software but will have to look into it. Thanks for the heads up!

Brian