September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

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DeepSolar64
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September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Today I started the session around 14:50 intending to do visual only. I noticed the active regions coming through really bright in the Coronado 60 and the tuning looked good in doublestack. I thought I would try to get a good pic of it and went in to get my other mount, camera and laptop. Upon re-setting up, refocusing and everything I found out quickly that it did not look good in the monitor. The etalons were off band and the disc was unevenly illuminated. No matter how much I tried I never could get it to look like that earlier visual view. I don't know if I knocked off the tuning when I remounted the scope or what. Imaging seems to be harder for me to get onto band than visual, especially in doublestack. With visual if you don't get it perfect you can at least use the on-band portion of the field of view to see everything by moving the sun around in the field onto the on-band part to see fine detail. With imaging for it to look right it must be on band AND evenly illuminated across the disc to get a pleasing view. Imaging is VERY unforgiving and more demanding of the scope too. I sometimes find it very frustrating in DS to get on band and I can always tune better by the eyepiece it seems. And then when I was just starting to get somewhere clouds show up. I said " I'm done " and ended the session without a detailed visual report at around 15:40 UTC. I used the Coronado SolarMax II 60 today and the Orion70. The temperature is 79F. The seeing was decent.

I'll post a GONG and SDO image to show what's going on. AND my not so good single Ha image.

James


GONGCerroTololoChile_Ha_9-20-22.jpg
GONGCerroTololoChile_Ha_9-20-22.jpg (470.15 KiB) Viewed 377 times
SDOHMIc_Greyscale4K_9-20-20.jpg
SDOHMIc_Greyscale4K_9-20-20.jpg (927.87 KiB) Viewed 377 times
20220920_153210.60_UTC_JP.jpg
20220920_153210.60_UTC_JP.jpg (105.24 KiB) Viewed 377 times


Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars
Orion 70mm Solar Telescope
Celestron AstroMaster Alt/Az Mount
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 60 DS
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 90 DS
Meade Coronado AZS Alt/Az Mount
Astro-Tech AT72EDII with Altair solar wedge
Celestron NexStar 102GT with Altair solar wedge
Losmandy AZ8 Alt/Az Mount
Sky-Watcher AZGTI Alt-Az GoTo mount
Cameras: ZWO ASI178MM, PGR Grasshopper, PGR Flea
Lunt, Coronado, TeleVue, Orion and Meade eyepieces

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Re: September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

Post by MAURITS »

Lovely report James and beautiful images too.


Regards,
Maurits

Vista del Cielo Observatory

www.vistadelcielo.be
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Re: September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

Post by Martin_S »

James, here's a few tips for you to assist with tuning. Could you get someone to tune your etalon for you while you concentrate on your monitor?. I use firecapture and set my onscreen view with the gamma set to show a view with lots of contrast to exaggerate tuning deficiencies. If you cant get a decent full disk, get a low powered nose Barlow and magnify your image so the sweet spot fills the whole frame, then do mosaics for your full disk images. I had to do this with my Lunt60. I also machined down some nosepieces to give just the right amount of magnification.

Martin
20220921_204844.jpg
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Re: September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Thanks for the suggestions Martin. Both are good ideas. I could get my wife if she’s not at work to help me tune as I watch the monitor and the idea with the barlow is good too. Is your Lunt 60 a tilt tuned model or a pressure tuned one?


Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars
Orion 70mm Solar Telescope
Celestron AstroMaster Alt/Az Mount
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 60 DS
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Meade Coronado AZS Alt/Az Mount
Astro-Tech AT72EDII with Altair solar wedge
Celestron NexStar 102GT with Altair solar wedge
Losmandy AZ8 Alt/Az Mount
Sky-Watcher AZGTI Alt-Az GoTo mount
Cameras: ZWO ASI178MM, PGR Grasshopper, PGR Flea
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Re: September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

Post by Montana »

This is very good advice Martin :) or James you can turn your laptop screen to face you while you stand at the etalon end. This it what I do and stand and twiddle by watching the screen.

Start with single first and get it right on screen, then add the double, you may have to not put the double stack on all the way, sometimes 180 degrees or 90 degrees from tight will give you a better even spread of 'on band'. But be careful it is screwed on enough that it doesn't drop off!

Alexandra


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Re: September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Good ideas Alexandra! Is turning the etalon in that way the same thing as " clocking " it?


Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars
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Meade Coronado SolarMax II 90 DS
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Re: September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

Post by Sumpy »

I've never double stacked so I can only imagine how challenging it must be to get two etalons cooperating and on band perfectly for imaging.

I think we've all had a day like this, though. I've had things looking great, changed something, and then never was able to get things back the way it was before. The other day I grabbed an image on the alt/az mount, and afterwards decided to try another timelapse on the eq mount. For some reason, I never could get the full disk on band with the eq mount, even though the entire disk was on-band with the alt/az mount minutes earlier, and I have no idea why. I tried again the next day and had no issues at all, so I just chalked it up to one of those odd things that happen occasionally.


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Re: September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

Post by Martin_S »

DeepSolar64 wrote: Wed Sep 21, 2022 2:00 pm Thanks for the suggestions Martin. Both are good ideas. I could get my wife if she’s not at work to help me tune as I watch the monitor and the idea with the barlow is good too. Is your Lunt 60 a tilt tuned model or a pressure tuned one?
James, I sold my Lunt and replaced it with a Combo Quark as I am more interested in high resolution imaging.

The Lunt was a tilt model.

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: September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

Post by DeepSolar64 »

It can be really frustrating, Brian. Fooling around with tuning while following the sun manually while learning new software and then you have clouds. And I am more familiar with eyepiece views.

I will persevere on....


Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars
Orion 70mm Solar Telescope
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Re: September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

Post by marktownley »

Lots of good advice here James, you will get there.


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Re: September 20 2022 Visual and Imaging session. A struggle!

Post by DeepSolar64 »

marktownley wrote: Sun Sep 25, 2022 4:58 am Lots of good advice here James, you will get there.
I really get frustrated sometimes. Most people here post images better than mine and I would at least like to get mine to a fair standard. It's a goal I guess.

Thanks Mark.

James


Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars
Orion 70mm Solar Telescope
Celestron AstroMaster Alt/Az Mount
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 60 DS
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 90 DS
Meade Coronado AZS Alt/Az Mount
Astro-Tech AT72EDII with Altair solar wedge
Celestron NexStar 102GT with Altair solar wedge
Losmandy AZ8 Alt/Az Mount
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Cameras: ZWO ASI178MM, PGR Grasshopper, PGR Flea
Lunt, Coronado, TeleVue, Orion and Meade eyepieces

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