SolarChat!

As promised elsewhere, a few witterings on my *personal*
experience of "commissioning" a basic Solar Setup based on
the Lunt LS50THa plus ZWO ASI 120MM (mono) camera.

N.B. I'm not a Visual Astronomer, I'm a VIDEO Astronomer. I
do have experience with "imaging" but not in "classical" sense?
Normally, I control my scopes remotely, and use Watec Video
Cameras - Directly to screen or with added (Registax) stacking.

I had a quick visual look through the Lunt... and everything
looked just FINE! But my eyesight / patience is a bit limited?

To be honest, the first IMAGE left me a tad frustrated... Why
wasn't I getting the *consummate* Full-Sun disks (as here)?
A thousand quid/bucks... And it "didn't quite work"? <sweat>

Then I did a bit of Google Searching (Even found Solarchat)!

My first problem: The image didn't look "half bad"... But over
only HALF the image? Inspired by the experience of others, I
then rotated the diagonal "randomly" 90 deg about the axis.
Suddenly the image was a lot better... At least more "even"?

I replaced the finger screw by an M4 Bolt and tightened it on
the diagonal nose-piece. (Take care not to strip the thread!)
Later, in more considered experiments I showed the effect
of "clocking" the diagonal through the four compass points:

[Sadly I cannot upload images at the moment] ?

I then settled on one of the four (the best) orientation and
was then left with a *reasonable* Solar Image... But the
new "evenness" served to emphasise the Newton's Rings?

[Sadly I cannot upload images at the moment] ?

BUT, following the KNOWN idea, I then tried the experiment
of *stopping* the scope tracking during the exposure. And...
it worked. There was a slight loss of contrast, but no Rings!

[Sadly I cannot upload images at the moment] ?

So THAT is basically "where I'm at" at the moment.
I am relaxed about the setup! The rest is down to me...

Re. Stuff such as "exposure times"? I am using the rather
excellent "FireCapture" Software! As with Video Astronomy,
I just twiddle the sliders to get the "best" result? I stack
the images via Registax 5.1 and I post-process via GIMP...

My Software settings are ever rather arbitrary? lol. But folk
do publish such things on the internet! <nudge> <nudge>
For what it's worth, I PLAN to look at the ImPPG program...

Again, I am no expert, but if this helps anyone.

Are you getting the php issue?

Alexandra

Maybe that's it? For the moment, It starts to upload my images
but complains about temporary storage space... or something?

Edit: More precisely...

"Temporary folder could not be found. Please check your PHP installation"?

Ah, the joy of computers? If in doubt, wait a while for it to FIX itself?

As a minor postscript. In the UK anyway, the Televue
"Sol Searcher" (Solar Finder) is on "back order" mostly?
I have learned that the threads on the clam shell are
10-32 UNF. I can now bolt on my own solar finder.

Hi, first post ! ... did you get the 400 or 600 blocking filter on your LS50 ? I've just sold a load of stuff and will be choosing between a Quark (will be used on a William optics zenithstar 71) or the same scope you have.
It's good to see others first experiences so thanks for the post.

Very nice post, I'm getting a 50 B600 soon so very informative, thanks

Be patient! The PHP issue is being dealt with!