PST mod is it worth it?

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minhlead
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Re: PST mod is it worth it?

Post by minhlead »

AndiesHandyHandies wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 4:21 pm Hi

I spent about £500 on a SH PST, paid £250 and a dirt bike to Rodastro for it, maybe some sellers regret.
Comparing with Daystar bandwidth example images looks like 0.7A.

A couple of Swiss adapters aprox £150.

1.5A Omega Bob solid etalon on hand for a blocker about £75.

Various filters on hand and or useful additions.

Rod kindly contributed bits out of his bits box and some lathe work for a nosepiece for the moved PST Collimator to T2 adapter.

DeepSky64 rates my visual observations with a Mak180 mod as the best.

Montana says my reported details match her 100mm Solarscope.

Tuning the blocker by tilting I see surface datails similar to Stardusts DS images.

I can see more detail in prominences than posted images.

And more realistic details, like granulation in bright areas and fractal borders on them, rather than over-processed lines.

Quiet happy.

Cheers. Andrew.
I am thinking about double stacking my Quark with a 1.5A filter (or 1.7A filter from Apollo). Do you have any experience with using the 1.xA filter as contrast booster (and perhaps double limb suppressor) for Quark?
I'd happy to see some comparison image if you have one. Thanks!


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Re: PST mod is it worth it?

Post by Merlin66 »

Minh,
I've successfully modded many PST's over the years but it's becoming more and more expensive.....
I would recommend a Quark today, or a MiniSHG (gives you better resolution across many wavelengths)


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Re: PST mod is it worth it?

Post by AndiesHandyHandies »

Hi

I am not doing imaging.

Only 2 quick visual views.

Cheers. Andrew.


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Re: PST mod is it worth it?

Post by AndiesHandyHandies »

Hi Merlin,

Are mini SHGs cheap then?

Cheers. Andrew.


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Re: PST mod is it worth it?

Post by minhlead »

I am interesred in MiniSGH too. Naver heard of them. Would be nice to have their out of pocket price and availability(ie. How tk buy them)


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Camera:
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Quark Chromosphere Doublestacked with PST etalon
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Re: PST mod is it worth it?

Post by Merlin66 »

Guys,
The MiniSHG would probably cost around us$750 in components.
It's a DIY solution. Buil has his 3D printed version, if you have that capability.
Mini_SHG.pdf
(1.33 MiB) Downloaded 136 times


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http://astronomicalspectroscopy.com
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"Imaging Sunlight - using a digital spectroheliograph" - Springer
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Re: PST mod is it worth it?

Post by minhlead »

Merlin66 wrote: Sat Dec 11, 2021 3:17 pm Guys,
The MiniSHG would probably cost around us$750 in components.
It's a DIY solution. Buil has his 3D printed version, if you have that capability.
Mini_SHG.pdf
That is some serious resolution. I find this very interesting. Should not too hard to build, judging by the look of it. But you wont be able to shoot multiple frame and stacking them to beat the seeing right? This is gonna be a problem for hi res imaging. I guess it's limited to FD for this reason? Almost every image I see with a Spectroscope out there is a FD.


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My gear:
Scope: SkyRover (Kunming Optics) 152mm F/6 Doublets
Mount: JTW Tridents GTR
Camera:
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Quark Chromosphere Doublestacked with PST etalon
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Re: PST mod is it worth it?

Post by Merlin66 »

Minh,
With the current scanning rates of a few seconds, it’s pretty easy to take multiple SER files and then combine the images.
I use an ED80 with a focal length of 600mm to give me a FD, but there’s no reason if your conditions are good enough why you could not use longer focal length and get “closer to the action”


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Re: PST mod is it worth it?

Post by minhlead »

Merlin66 wrote: Sun Dec 12, 2021 1:27 am Minh,
With the current scanning rates of a few seconds, it’s pretty easy to take multiple SER files and then combine the images.
I use an ED80 with a focal length of 600mm to give me a FD, but there’s no reason if your conditions are good enough why you could not use longer focal length and get “closer to the action”
Thanks, Ken.
I am curious about post processing and scanning. Are you slew the mount around to scan the sun manually or there is an app for that?
Also how is processing and joining the strips together? If it's not too much of a trouble could you please share a raw ser?


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My gear:
Scope: SkyRover (Kunming Optics) 152mm F/6 Doublets
Mount: JTW Tridents GTR
Camera:
PlayerOne Apollo M-Max
Quark Chromosphere Doublestacked with PST etalon
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Re: PST mod is it worth it?

Post by Merlin66 »

Minh,
The "weapon of choice" for SHG processing software at the moment is Valerie's INTI software.
This will process a 16 bit SER video file to a solar image (including a prom image if full disk) in a few seconds.

I use a SW HEQ5 mount which is polar aligned and scan the solar disk with the Synscan slew buttons - usually x3 slew in Declination which gives a complete solar scan in less than 9 sec.
If you use a slit length less than the solar disk size you'll end up with slices which can be joined using ICE or similar.
Each scan is usually around 3Gb with my ASI 178 camera, about 2400 frames 2400 x 300 pixel.
I have a sample SER on my Dropbox.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/20u1oyae1ewwj ... 9.ser?dl=0

There's a couple of English versions of the INTI software on GitHub:
https://github.com/mattconsidine/Solex_ser_recon_AVI
https://github.com/thelondonsmiths/Solex_ser_recon_EN
You can use either of these to process the sample SER video - see how long it takes and the quality of the image produced.

You can use the SimSpec_SHG to enter the parameters of you telescope/ spectrograph/ camera and see the probable results.
SimSpec SHG V1_3a.xls
(60.5 KiB) Downloaded 86 times
Hope that helps.
Ken


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"Imaging Sunlight - using a digital spectroheliograph" - Springer
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Re: PST mod is it worth it?

Post by minhlead »

Thanks, Ken. I think I am gonna give this a spin


Minh.
Loves from Viet Nam <3
My gear:
Scope: SkyRover (Kunming Optics) 152mm F/6 Doublets
Mount: JTW Tridents GTR
Camera:
PlayerOne Apollo M-Max
Quark Chromosphere Doublestacked with PST etalon
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