17 Jun WL

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vineyard
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17 Jun WL

Post by vineyard »

Spent large portions of the day baking in the sun, doing visual & imaging. Will post HA report separately, but for WL I tried a different set-up. A v old Meade ETX125 w Baader AstroSolar 5.0 film (ie not the photographic version). Images below. Have to say I'm v pleasantly surprised by the film vs the wedge. Will try and do a proper side-by-side visual comparison later (alternating both on my old SP102) but the film was doing pretty well - the weak point was the single-speed focuser on the ETX - really need to somehow improve that (watch this space).

All in all v pleased with it. On the SP102M + Lunt wedge, there were times in the morning when even 333x was ok! But spent most of the time at 200x.

With the ETX+film, 211x was a doddle, 317x was fine, it was holding it at 380x and in moments even 470x! But the image was quite dark at the higher magnifications & the focuser limitations were really apparent at those levels. The ND5 apparently only lets 0.001% of light through, while by my calcs a wedge + ND3 let through 0.004%? Now I reckon 3.8 film + ND0.9 would let through 0.002%?

Form factor wise, the shorter Mak much easier than a long achromat - but I really want to do a like for like comparison of film vs wedge. I know wedge is meant to be better, but I'm curious whether I will notice much difference w my eyes.

Cheers,

Vin
Attachments
Sun_121719_170622_ZWO ASI224MC_Gain=60(off)_Exposure=.6ms_WL_ETX125_ND5_642nmfilter_5_qe4_ap2351_imppg(220426WL)_gimp_wm.png
Sun_121719_170622_ZWO ASI224MC_Gain=60(off)_Exposure=.6ms_WL_ETX125_ND5_642nmfilter_5_qe4_ap2351_imppg(220426WL)_gimp_wm.png (776 KiB) Viewed 350 times
Sun_122358_170622_ZWO ASI224MC_Gain=60(off)_Exposure=.6ms_WL_ETX125_ND5_642nmfilter_3_qe4_ap567_imppg(220426WL)_gimp_wm.png
Sun_122358_170622_ZWO ASI224MC_Gain=60(off)_Exposure=.6ms_WL_ETX125_ND5_642nmfilter_3_qe4_ap567_imppg(220426WL)_gimp_wm.png (411.34 KiB) Viewed 350 times
Sun_122756_170622_ZWO ASI224MC_Gain=60(off)_Exposure=.6ms_WL_ETX125_ND5_642nmfilter_3_qe4_ap704_imppg(220426WL)_gimp_wm.jpg
Sun_122756_170622_ZWO ASI224MC_Gain=60(off)_Exposure=.6ms_WL_ETX125_ND5_642nmfilter_3_qe4_ap704_imppg(220426WL)_gimp_wm.jpg (54.88 KiB) Viewed 350 times


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DeepSolar64
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Re: 17 Jun WL

Post by DeepSolar64 »

The thing I like about the wedge is by turning the polarizer the brightness of the image can be controlled. This is especially important at high magnifications.

I only rarely ever have seeing that will allow 200x, much less 300x or higher. That’s incredible! For me 100x plus in the daytime is a thrill!!

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
Sky-Watcher AZGTI Alt-Az GoTo mount
Cameras: ZWO ASI178MM, PGR Grasshopper, PGR Flea
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vineyard
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Re: 17 Jun WL

Post by vineyard »

DeepSolar64 wrote: Fri Jun 17, 2022 9:43 pm
I only rarely ever have seeing that will allow 200x, much less 300x or higher. That’s incredible! For me 100x plus in the daytime is a thrill!!
Likewise. Most of the time lately it's been mush from 200x and above (sometimes even pretty bad at 160x, generally pretty consistently ok at 110x). So I couldn't quite believe it when I saw the image holding together - albeit very fleetingly at the highest mags, but still I'll take it!

I haven't tried a polariser in a wedge yet - will have to do that & report back.

Cheers!


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Re: 17 Jun WL

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Many wedges come with a polarizing filter. Mine came with one already built in. If it doesn’t one can be screwed into the bottom of an eyepiece and then you turn the eyepiece to adjust the brightness.

Your seeing certainly is better than mine!!

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
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: 17 Jun WL

Post by marktownley »

Nice shots there Vin!


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Re: 17 Jun WL

Post by vineyard »

Thanks Mark, that's v kind. I was quite surprised by the results vs a wedge - although I'm sure the 642nm long-pass filter & high FPS of the 224MC helped a lot. I was using an old laptop so it was only USB2 speeds as well.


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