Saturdays C-Class Flare CaK Animation - 30th April

[marktownley]

Saturday morning dawned clear, but with lots, and lots! of contrails that all got super broad super quick, filling the sky in a milky haze. I wasn't optimistic at all if i'm being honest, but it was the best I was going to get over the bank holiday weekend with Sunday and Monday forecast cloud and rain.

I started off with the 100/800 APM scope stopped down to 80mm, as that was my finger in the wind in terms of seeing given the conditions. It turns out I was pretty spot on, and I think if i'd used 100mm aperture the frames wouldn't have turned out. Using the Airylab 2.7x telecentric to get the scope up to f27, and the ZWO290mm camera, I find if i've got the aperture right for the seeing then this is a combination with real synergy.

The haze was thick, and I had to increase exposure time to 10ms (much longer than I like) and had to crank the gain up to around 40% (which is also higher than I like!) to get a decent histogram. But. imagine my surprise when I scooted around the disk for a target and found a flare happening just off the limb. Seeing these things before I decided to run a timelapse, and ran off 19 frames between 07.31ut and 07.48ut. On reflection I should have probably ran off a few more, but I wasn't convinced with the haze it wouldn't be any good. Looks like I was wrong and the result turned out OK!

CaK-ani-wide-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

CaK-ani-wide-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Has been ages since I bagged a flare, and a while since been able to do an animation!

Hope you like.

Mark

[Carbon60]

Superb, Mark. Simply awesome

Stu.

[MAURITS]

Excellent captured Mark.

[Alto]

Excellent capture and, going by your story, a true lucky capture!

[AndiesHandyHandies]

Very nice.

[marktownley]

Thanks everyone! I also got these closeups, same kit 80mm f27 290mm, not quite as dramatic as the flare though

ar13001-CaK-80mm-f27-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ar13001-CaK-80mm-f27-290mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

AR12998-CAk-80mm-f27-290mm-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

AR12998-CAk-80mm-f27-290mm-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

I think I got it right in terms of the seeing to image at 80mm aperture; the penumbral fibrils are just about resolved, the images above are the best of the batch, and the discarded ones don't show the fibrils resolved. The APM100/800 is a good performer in CaK, and if you are interested how it compares to the much cheaper Tal, check out this thread viewtopic.php?f=10&t=35925

[Sol seeker uk]

Fantastic flare animation and great write-up comparing the Tal to the APM..nice one mark

[rigel123]

Great animation Mark, it really did turn out well despite the conditions you described!

[ffellah]

First CaK animation of a flare I see, very well done Mark ! The stills are great too. The 100mm f/27 stopped down is working well for you.

Franco

[JochenM]

Great animation there, Mark.

[marktownley]

Thanks everyone! The only thing left from the session was the full disk

Cak-FD-60mm-f16-ICX814-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Cak-FD-60mm-f16-ICX814-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

[Montana]

These are absolutely awesome Mark
But I'll let you change the title to the 30th April how many beers did you have

Alexandra

[marktownley]

Ha ha ha! Date changed and thanks for the SPoD. Think it was morning coffee not beers that made me get the date wrong

[christian viladrich]

Splendid Mark !

[LTHB]

Great capture!

Frank

[H-Alpha]

Fantastic Mark!
Congratulations for this excellent capture and SPOD!

Best wishes,
Alexandros

[torsinadoc]

Holy cow a calcium flare animation is freaking awesome!

[eroel]

Mark:
Super Flare animation and images.
Thanks for sharing your work.
Eric.

[MapleRidge]

These are all excellent images Mark and the flare is a super catch

Brian

[JohnW]

Worthwhile captures Mark - well done. Cheers John W.

[marktownley]

Thanks everyone for the lind comments, hopefully some clearer skies later in the week and at the weekend.

[Freddie]

Lovely shots particularly like the ani.

[Martin_S]

Wow Mark , that's am amazing animation.

Martin

[Alun_H]

Fantastic work Mark!

Alun

[marktownley]

Thanks guys! No sun here till the weekend for me, but some astro goodies on route so a month of cloud may be on the cards

[arnedanielsen]

Fantastic animation, Mark! This is so cool to watch!!

Big congrats on the SPOD as well!

Best regards,
Arne