Lunt 60 Triple Stack

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Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by Carbon60 »

I finally bought myself another front etalon for my Lunt 60. This gives me the option to double stack with the new one, or triple stack with the new and the old one together. Coupled with the recently purchased Coronado BF15 the views are phenomenal. Tuning wasn't too bad, requiring only a few moments of tweaking and clocking to avoid artefacts.

Here are the results on a Basler acA2440-75um fitted with a 1.5x Barlow (two pane mosaics, heavily overlapped as the disk just fails to fit onto the sensor).

The quadrant was captured on a Basler acA1920-155um with 2.5X Barlow.

First up is the little monster....

ImageLunt 60 Triple Stack by Stuart Green, on Flickr

Two pane FDs in mono and colour.....

Image20210327_Ha_TS_FD_2Mosaic_Mono by Stuart Green, on Flickr

Image20210327_Ha_TS_FD_2Mosaic_colour by Stuart Green, on Flickr

and the quadrant views of the main regions, AR2811 & AR2812.

Image20210327_Ha_Quadrant_TS by Stuart Green, on Flickr

Image20210327_Ha_Quadrant_TS_Colour by Stuart Green, on Flickr

I'm VERY pleased with the final results of this setup. Ha FDs have been my nemesis for some time now.

Thanks for looking.

Stu.


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by Montana »

Great results Stuart :bow :hamster: I'm glad to see you happy :hamster:

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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by Astrophil »

Well Stu, you made that look easy. Great contrast, details, and nice even illumination across the disk. A winner!

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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by MAURITS »

Great result Stu and what a beautiful setup.


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by solarnoob »

Nice looking setup and great results.

Frank


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by Bob Yoesle »

Hi Stu, those are wonderfully uniform FD images! And the scope is awesome looking.

I'm curious. With my DS Tucson SM90s I have generally found having the tilt-wheels (and therefore tilt angles) 180 degrees apart seems to work best. What "clock setting" orientation do you have for your Lunt front etalons?


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by christian viladrich »

Excellent ! There are a lot of small size low contrast filaments filament visible here and there.
The view should be great at the eypiece.


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by Martin_S »

Great post Stu ,what capture settings are you using for a triple stack setup?.

Martin


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by torsinadoc »

Wonder full disc. Did you need an adapter to stack the two front mounted etalons?


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Hi Stu,
That's an interesting set-up with the two DS's, but I'm slightly confused (not that it is difficult for me), but can you confirm please - if your four images were taken with both the DS's, which I assume they are ?

If so, would it be possible to take some images (weather permitting-as usual) with the single DS and the Double DS on your Lunt 60PS.

Bearing in mind that I have the Lunt 60 Ha (non PS) and a DS, it could help me to see what difference I could expect for a similar arrangement that you have shown here...

Many thanks
Terry


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by rcwinter »

Excellent images and setup, works really well

Congrats A1

:bow2

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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by rsfoto »

Hi Stu,

Excellent contrast gain you have.


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by arnedanielsen »

Great work Stuart! Sharp and very natural looking contrast.

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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Very nice work Stu. The images are sharper than I would have expected for all that glass. Nice contrast!


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by Carbon60 »

Bob Yoesle wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 3:49 pm Hi Stu, those are wonderfully uniform FD images! And the scope is awesome looking.

I'm curious. With my DS Tucson SM90s I have generally found having the tilt-wheels (and therefore tilt angles) 180 degrees apart seems to work best. What "clock setting" orientation do you have for your Lunt front etalons?
Hi Bob,
Thanks for your comments. This was my first effort with this setup, so I was just happy to get something out of it that looked okay (no internal reflections etc), so clocking was a little ad hock, I must say.....and with the threat of cloud cover looming I was just grateful to get some Sun time under my belt. I think a more rigorous approach will follow as I get into the swing of this and I'll note the positions more accurately. Gravity also plays a part in that the etalons are pulled (tipped) towards the ground as the threads are loosened (small deviations have a large effect, as we know), so I think the whole thing will change with tracking. I might look into making some form of front mounted stabilisation clamp to get control of this.

Cheers

Stu.


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More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by Carbon60 »

Martin_S wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:39 pm Great post Stu ,what capture settings are you using for a triple stack setup?.

Martin
Many thanks, Martin.
The exposure was 11 ms for the triple stack, with just a little gain added. This is just a tad over double that for double stacking (5 ms).

Stu.


H-alpha, WL and Ca II K imaging kit for various image scales.
Fluxgate Magnetometers (1s and 150s Cadence).
Radio meteor detector.
More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by Carbon60 »

torsinadoc wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:02 pm Wonder full disc. Did you need an adapter to stack the two front mounted etalons?
Hi,
No adapter required. The etalons have the same thread front and rear, so they just screw together.

Stu.


H-alpha, WL and Ca II K imaging kit for various image scales.
Fluxgate Magnetometers (1s and 150s Cadence).
Radio meteor detector.
More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by Carbon60 »

EGRAY_OBSERVATORY wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:03 pm Hi Stu,
That's an interesting set-up with the two DS's, but I'm slightly confused (not that it is difficult for me), but can you confirm please - if your four images were taken with both the DS's, which I assume they are ?

If so, would it be possible to take some images (weather permitting-as usual) with the single DS and the Double DS on your Lunt 60PS.

Bearing in mind that I have the Lunt 60 Ha (non PS) and a DS, it could help me to see what difference I could expect for a similar arrangement that you have shown here...

Many thanks
Terry
Hi Terry,
No problem. As you might imagine, I ran both double and triple stacking on the day (triple stacking comprises the internal pressure tuned etalon and two front mounted etalons, as shown in the first photo). Here's a comparison. These comparisons are tricky because etalons have to be retuned/rotated and the capture settings adjusted between the two configurations and there's always that nagging question about how true the comparison can be with all of these 'tweaks'. Anyhow, I tried to optimise for each case. Scudding clouds didn't help...
20210327_Ha_Triple vs Double.jpg
20210327_Ha_Triple vs Double.jpg (1.88 MiB) Viewed 805 times
You should be able to see some extra details in the triple stacked image.

Stu.


H-alpha, WL and Ca II K imaging kit for various image scales.
Fluxgate Magnetometers (1s and 150s Cadence).
Radio meteor detector.
More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by pedro »

Wonderful results Stu and a perfect even disk with your triple stack LUNT60. You have a winner combo


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by marktownley »

You've got an excellent combo there that works very well. Good DS TS comparison. Might be worth the experiment of changing the order of the external etalons when time allows and seeing if there is any difference.


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by Martin_S »

Carbon60 wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 6:48 am
Martin_S wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:39 pm Great post Stu ,what capture settings are you using for a triple stack setup?.

Martin
Many thanks, Martin.
The exposure was 11 ms for the triple stack, with just a little gain added. This is just a tad over double that for double stacking (5 ms).

Stu.
Thanks Stu, have you experimented with binning your camera? and comparing the exposure times.

Martin


H alpha : ,Skywatcher 120mm F8 open frame refractor, a tilted 2" 7nm H-alpha filter as a sub energy rejection filter, Baader TZ4 telecentric focal extender, Player One energy rejection filter, Combo Quark Chromosphere, Naked PST etalon for double stacking, ASI74mm camera
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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by ffellah »

You definitely tamed your nemesis, Stu :D . Great set up and top images there.

Franco


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by viewer »

Very nice indeed! Could TS be the new normal for the disk?

Reminds me why I'm primarily observing prominences with my single stack... :D


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Re: Lunt 60 Triple Stack

Post by Carbon60 »

Martin_S wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 10:36 am
Carbon60 wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 6:48 am
Martin_S wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:39 pm Great post Stu ,what capture settings are you using for a triple stack setup?.

Martin
Many thanks, Martin.
The exposure was 11 ms for the triple stack, with just a little gain added. This is just a tad over double that for double stacking (5 ms).

Stu.
Thanks Stu, have you experimented with binning your camera? and comparing the exposure times.

Martin
Hi Martin, Good suggestion. No, I haven't tried this yet, but I think the exposure time is quite reasonable.

Stu.


H-alpha, WL and Ca II K imaging kit for various image scales.
Fluxgate Magnetometers (1s and 150s Cadence).
Radio meteor detector.
More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
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