Thursdays Hazy Start to the Day - 16th May

[marktownley]

We've been having a lovely week of early summer sunshine this week, but this morning there was a distinct high cloud / haze to the air, more noticeable nearer the horizon. Compared to previous days it meant the suns image on the laptop screen was lower in contrast. However a rare thing for me to have so many sun days in a row! Image taken with the Lunt50 etalon on the ED60 f6 scope with a 2.5x barlow and the FLIR GH3 916M camera. Sadly looks like the sunshine is at an end for a while now! Oh well!

Ha-FD-Ss-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Ha-FD-Ss-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Mark

[David_The_Bears_Fan]

Good shot Mark. Conditions equally poor here this morning. Cloud forecast for a few days now so I can go back to crawling out of bed just in time for work again

[ffellah]

These are great, Mark ! Even with the haze you captured great detail: when you enlarge the images, you can actually see the fine detail of the surface and AR2741.

Franco

[RodAstro]

Very nice detailed images Mark
Do you think that the haze actually works in our favor much like for planetary imaging and viewing?
When it is hazy much more of the atmosphere is stable, this makes for better frame rates and although the contrast is a little lower it is much easier to get good focus. It has been known for many years this is the best time for planetary work just wondering if could be so for solar as well your images seem to show its not detrimental anyway.

[p_zetner]

Nice shots, Mark. They do stand up well under magnification.
@RodAstro: I wonder if a little haze is beneficial. It does seem to be associated with less turbulence. In the end, though, I guess there is some sacrifice of fine detail.
Cheers.
Peter

[RodAstro]

Hi Peter
It is and always has been an interesting argument this one.
Many visual planetary observers preferred slightly hazy seeing because of the stable air that comes along with it, their reason for this is you record what is actually there and not fleeting glances of your imagination.
This argument stood up well when lucky imaging (as it is now called) came along, as some observers who made fantastic detailed drawings were then proved wrong.
Or are they? as their argument goes that these fine glimpses of detail are lost anyway during stacking in preference for the stronger details.
I do agree with you though there must be some loss of fine detail if you imagine it like using a soft focus filter on a camera lens, if it was never there you can never tease it out.
But does the ease of focusing and the fact you can collect many more frames with good focus and undistorted features in a shorter time compensate for this and if so to what degree?
Cheers
Rod

[Montana]

Beautiful full discs Mark, I think this week has been superb weatherwise and lucky with an active sun too

Alexandra

[MAURITS]

Great images Mark.

[eroel]

Mark:
Clean and crisp FD´s.
Have a nice weekend.
Eric.

[marktownley]

Thanks everyone! A bit of haze in my experience can stabilise the seeing, however for me the transparency has to be consistent, if it is variable then it becomes a royal PITA.

[pedro]

great FD images Mark, missed this post

[RodAstro]

Hi Mark
I totally get the transparency issue, not as much of a problem with a smaller object like a planet but the sun being so large can have many moving brightness across it that sometimes the staking software cannot cope with.
Varying transparency is a major problem here in the Peak District as all the aircraft in the world seem to leave their contrails criss crossing the sky.