Sunshine Friday 29th May - Flares and f40 Experiments

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marktownley
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Sunshine Friday 29th May - Flares and f40 Experiments

Post by marktownley »

The experiments with CaK at f40 continues yesterday, but I was being distracted by pesky flares on a region that has yet to fully round the approaching limb. First off the overview in Ha:

ImageHA-FD-DS-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageHA-FD-DS-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

In true fashion I was imaging in Ha when one of the weakest solar burps of yesterday, the B6 which happened just before 10am local time. Aware something was happening and happening quick I ran off 22 frames over 14 minutes with the following result with 100mm f28 and Quark.

Imageflare-ani by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Incidentally, after a conversation with someone yesterday about how their Quark wasn't performing well it turns out the blocker in his Quark has failed (rusted), I decided to check mine, and low and behold mine is failing too (stop laughing Alexandra!), I always thought the USB port would be the first thing to go, looks like the blockers are prone here too! Interesting as both him and me always use full aperture DERF so those 'just' using a UV/IR cut filter may see premature aging. Daystar will replace under warranty (his not mine :P), however have to send it to the USA to do so. Given import duty will be payable on it's return to the UK (20% plus fees) this could be expensive. However you can replace it yourself, at your own risk (really is none), but all warranty and future service from Daystar will be null and void. Replacement blockers are $180 direct from Andover. This is the route I will be taking.

Anyway, after all this drama and scandal at the red end of the spectrum it was time to go to the blue, and first off perspective in the form of full disk 60mm f16 at the filter.

ImageCaK-FD-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageCaK-FD-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Then onto my latest experiment, imaging at f40 in CaK as suggested by Valery. This as with most things solar comes with it's pros and cons. When I image at f28 with the Airylab telecentic it is lush, lots of contrast and sharpness as a result of a lack of spherical aberration, and this helps with the seeing. At f40, to get there, I need to introduce a barlow nosepiece on the camera, and this introduces a notable softness due to spherical aberration, which is counterproductive to the image scale - zero magnification. I also had a hot spot, but rotating the CaK filter with respect to the optical axis shifts it out of the fov, one problem solved. Despite these being imaged first thing in the morning, i'm on the limit of my seeing, and seeing always likes to throw a spanner in the works.

First off the region of damp plage on the approaching limb. F28, then f40.

Imagenew-ar-f28-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imagenew-ar-f28-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageNew-AR-f40-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ImageNew-AR-f40-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

For me the winner is the f28, considerably cleaner image. However hopping over to the departing limb and the other region of plage, and the opposite, the seeing must have been that little bit better, and f40 has the edge.

Imageold-ar-f28-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imageold-ar-f28-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imageold-ar-f40-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Imageold-ar-f40-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr


As I type this post I am processing this mornings images, still the f28 / f40 experiment, however now reflection issue is dealt with and I seem to have found my barlow combination that produces minimal spherical aberration. Laptop is whirring away with AS3.

Mark


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Re: Sunshine Friday 29th May - Flares and f40 Experiments

Post by yltansg »

Hi Mark,

Thanks for sharing your results. Good stuff for me to learn. That small burst of proms must be more than Earth size.

Alfred


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Re: Sunshine Friday 29th May - Flares and f40 Experiments

Post by krakatoa1883 »

Thanks for sharing, Mark. Much prefer your images @f/28, it doesn't look to me there is a useful improvement in going to f/40.

Great limb animation too!


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Re: Sunshine Friday 29th May - Flares and f40 Experiments

Post by marktownley »

yltansg wrote: Sat May 30, 2020 11:29 am Hi Mark,

Thanks for sharing your results. Good stuff for me to learn. That small burst of proms must be more than Earth size.

Alfred
Thanks Alfred, did you see Valerys comment about the NPZ barlow in my other post? I'm sure you'd tried an NPZ with CaK? I might have imagined it though :D


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Re: Sunshine Friday 29th May - Flares and f40 Experiments

Post by marktownley »

krakatoa1883 wrote: Sat May 30, 2020 11:34 am Thanks for sharing, Mark. Much prefer your images @f/28, it doesn't look to me there is a useful improvement in going to f/40.

Great limb animation too!
Thanks Raf. I know what you mean. Looking provisionally at this mornings results hotspotting is dealt with and SA is the lowest I can get with my barlows. I think if I could get the sharpness at f40 that I do at f28 it would be a no brainer, but whether it is increased image scale, SA or fighting the seeing, or a combination of - i'm not sure. Nyquist says f20(ish) is ideal for 393nm and this setup, so i'm already running above that, f40 is twice what Nyquist says, but going above Nyquist is far from uncommon.


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Re: Sunshine Friday 29th May - Flares and f40 Experiments

Post by JochenM »

Nice results, Mark. Great job capturing the flare!

As far as the CaK is concerned; I can only agree. The f28 looks much sharper/detailed.


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Re: Sunshine Friday 29th May - Flares and f40 Experiments

Post by marktownley »

Thanks Jochen, your honest critique is appreciated.


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Re: Sunshine Friday 29th May - Flares and f40 Experiments

Post by Montana »

Wow!! that flare animation is an absolute winner Mark, it made my heart flutter which is what a good bit of solar action should always do :hamster:

Sorry to hear about the Quark, under no circumstances send your Quark back because you will not get that one back, they always swap for a new one!!!! and you have a special flat one! They went mad when I wrote my name all over mine and refused 'to fix it' because they couldn't swap it. When I used ethanol to remove my name they promptly swapped it for another which was cr*p.

Alexandra


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Re: Sunshine Friday 29th May - Flares and f40 Experiments

Post by p_zetner »

Fantastic animation, Mark!
Cheers.
Peter


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