H-alpha, H-beta and Ca-K SHG images from Sept 25

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thesmiths
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H-alpha, H-beta and Ca-K SHG images from Sept 25

Post by thesmiths »

The imaging window is getting really short for me now. With the Sun so low here in London, there is only a short time when there is no obstruction from trees and buildings . Unfortunately, SHG imaging is slow and when time is of the essence, choices need to be made. So today I decided to get three wavelengths in one fairly short Sunday morning session. Normally I take two or three series of scans for each wavelength to get things like the focus and exposure just right. Today, I just did one series per wavelength to try to get them all in. The H-beta turned out well; the H-alpha could have used a bit more work; and the Ca-K was a bit overexposed (some highlights were saturated). Nevertheless, it's nice to be able to compare features in all three wavelengths. Click on the images to see at higher resolution.

H-alpha SHG image. Crop from full disk, inverted. Stacked 13 of 18 frames. 8:17 UTC to 8:24 UTC.
H-alpha SHG image. Crop from full disk, inverted. Stacked 13 of 18 frames. 8:17 UTC to 8:24 UTC.
250922-Ha-720mm-106mm-stack-13-crop-invert.jpg (796.75 KiB) Viewed 1195 times
H-beta SHG image. Crop from full disk image. Stacked 8 of 14 frames. 9:17 UTC to 9:25 UTC.
H-beta SHG image. Crop from full disk image. Stacked 8 of 14 frames. 9:17 UTC to 9:25 UTC.
250922-Hb-720mm-106mm-stack-8-crop.jpg (962.82 KiB) Viewed 1195 times
Ca-K SHG image. Crop from full disk image. Stacked 15 of 21 frames. 10:29 UTC to 10:41 UTC.
Ca-K SHG image. Crop from full disk image. Stacked 15 of 21 frames. 10:29 UTC to 10:41 UTC.
250922-CaK-720mm-72mm-stack-15-crop.jpg (795.69 KiB) Viewed 1195 times
H-beta, Ca-K, H-alpha full disk mosaic.
H-beta, Ca-K, H-alpha full disk mosaic.
Hb-Cak-Ha.jpg (1.66 MiB) Viewed 1195 times

All images were taken the morning of 25 September. The break between the H-alpha and H-beta images is the normal time it takes to adjust the setup for a new wavelength. The time between the H-beta and Ca-K also included a pause due to clouds.

720mm APO triplet refractor. 106mm aperture for H-alpha and H-beta, 72mm for Ca-K. ASI 183MM camera. 13x sidereal rate scan for H-alpha and H-beta, 11x scan for Ca-K. 2400 l/mm holographic grating, 50mm x 50mm. 135mm f3.5 collimator and camera lenses. 9 micron wide by 12 mm long chrome on fused quartz slit. 2-inch Astronomik L1 UV/IR filter 15 cm in front of the slit. HEQ5 Pro mount with EQMod. FireCapture, AS!3, ImPPG, Photoshop Elements.
Last edited by thesmiths on Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:55 pm, edited 4 times in total.


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Re: H-alpha, H-beta and Ca-K SHG images from Sept 25

Post by Alun_H »

Superb images Douglas.

Alun


Lunt 50THa solar scope
Lunt CaK B12 module
SW Evostar 72ED for full disk imaging
Sol'Ex SHG
80mm f/7 achromat used with pressure tune module off the Lunt with Lunt 100mm ERF
Bresser 90 f/10 achromat used for CaK & white light imaging & PST mod with Lunt 100mm ERF
Coronado SM40 (pre Meade) and BF10 filter set + SMII 60 richview DS etalon
Skywatcher EQ6 Pro and Ioptron CEM60
Then there is all the night kit which is far too long a list to write up here! :lol:
More images on view on my Flickr page...https://www.flickr.com/photos/alun_h/
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Re: H-alpha, H-beta and Ca-K SHG images from Sept 25

Post by Montana »

This is such a fine trio :bow :bow :hamster: I find the hydrogen beta very absorbing to ponder over.

Alexandra


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Re: H-alpha, H-beta and Ca-K SHG images from Sept 25

Post by thesmiths »

Montana wrote: Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:33 pm I find the hydrogen beta very absorbing to ponder over.
I know what you mean. It's kind of a familiar face and yet a bit inscrutable.


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Re: H-alpha, H-beta and Ca-K SHG images from Sept 25

Post by Bastelhannes »

[/quote]

I know what you mean. It's kind of a familiar face and yet a bit inscrutable.
[/quote]

the feeling i have every morning looking into the mirror...


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Re: H-alpha, H-beta and Ca-K SHG images from Sept 25

Post by thesmiths »

As a little experiment, I took the Calcium K data and applied a pixel shift of +4 and stacked the best 6 frames. This is therefore a slightly off-band image, although still very narrow band. The results are the following:

CaK, pixel shifted by _4, stack of 6
CaK, pixel shifted by _4, stack of 6
250922-CaK-720mm-72mm-stack-6-shift-4.jpg (663.89 KiB) Viewed 1128 times

The contrast becomes much less: the filaments essentially disappear and the prominences are much less visible. I think it is worth comparing this off-band image to a standard Lunt CaK image (taken by Pedro on the same day):

Image
Last edited by thesmiths on Tue Sep 27, 2022 8:57 am, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: H-alpha, H-beta and Ca-K SHG images from Sept 25

Post by Montana »

Wow!! absolutely fabulous :hamster: so, the holy grail, how do we get our Lunt wedges to be more on the centreline (narrower) :)

Alexandra


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Re: H-alpha, H-beta and Ca-K SHG images from Sept 25

Post by Carbon60 »

Absolutely superb SHG images. You really have set the standard very, very high. :bow :bow :bow

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: H-alpha, H-beta and Ca-K SHG images from Sept 25

Post by marktownley »

Fantastic results Douglas, a pleasure to see!
Montana wrote: Tue Sep 27, 2022 6:54 am how do we get our Lunt wedges to be more on the centreline (narrower) :)
Double stack and tilt tuning is the closest we will get to SHG results.


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Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
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