Lhires III SHG set up + images from 2nd Oct 22

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Alun_H
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Lhires III SHG set up + images from 2nd Oct 22

Post by Alun_H »

Here are a few photos showing my Lhires III (Littrow High Resolution) spectrograph attached to the Evostar 72ED apo doublet. Hoya ND16 filter sits on the front of the scope and behind this is a cardboard disk with a 40mm hole so as to bring the scope to f/10 matching the Lhires. One benefit of this spectrograph is the guide camera (ZWO ASI130MM with ND 3.0 neutral density) allowing me to keep a check on focus and where on the slit the sun is and also see when the clouds are in the way,capture camera is the QHY5III 178M. Mount is the Ioptron CEM60,can be good performer when it wants to be,finicky with its balancing,release the magnetic "clutches" and the thing swings like a pendulum and getting it all balanced can be a nightmare!
Also included a screenshot of the computer when capturing the data,oh and the music I have playing in the background,bit of Metallica or Iron Maiden :band
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A couple of spectroheliograms from today using the 1200l/mm grating and 15um slit,the seeing wasn't that good so struggled to get a decent image,anyway first image was in the Calcium K line and the second image in the Ca II 8542.1 and for this I added a red orange colour filter (OG590) so as to remove the interference from the second order,still got a severe banding effect which I have got to sort out.
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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: Lhires III SHG set up + images from 2nd Oct 22

Post by Montana »

Wow!! this is much better, although is it possible to raise the gamma a bit (or lower the contrast)?
:bow :hamster:

Alexandra


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Re: Lhires III SHG set up + images from 2nd Oct 22

Post by thesmiths »

Alun_H wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 10:01 pm Hoya ND16 filter sits on the front of the scope and behind this is a cardboard disk with a 40mm hole so as to bring the scope to f/10 matching the Lhires. One benefit of this spectrograph is the guide camera (ZWO ASI130MM with ND 3.0 neutral density) allowing me to keep a check on focus and where on the slit the sun is and also see when the clouds are in the way, capture camera is the QHY5III 178M.
That's really interesting about using the guide camera to check focus on the slit and monitor the clouds. In principle, you could take white light images simultaneously (with a little black line, which could probably be easily removed in software). The normal Solex design has the guide feature available in principle but I never saw anyone use that before. I can see how it might be helpful as focus is the most difficult part of using an SHG.
Alun_H wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 10:01 pm A couple of spectroheliograms from today using the 1200l/mm grating and 15um slit, the seeing wasn't that good so struggled to get a decent image, anyway first image was in the Calcium K line and the second image in the Ca II 8542.1 and for this I added a red orange colour filter (OG590) so as to remove the interference from the second order, still got a severe banding effect which I have got to sort out.
The Ca II 854.21nm image is really quite good. Do you think it was necessary to keep the aperture mask in place? I could imagine that it might improve the optics as I don't think normal lenses are designed either for UV or deep IR. Or were you trying to suggest the Lhires anyway limits the telescope to f/10 ?

By the way, I'm guessing your images have been rotated and the dark diagonal bands are in fact in the scan direction. I assume the dark bands are a software artefact, potentially with the reconstruction software you are using. The typical transversalium removal function will create artefacts with very high contrast features (it is a kind of high pass filter). For Calcium, it is better to reduce the strength of this function (which you can do with our software quite easily; it might be harder if you are using another software).


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Re: Lhires III SHG set up + images from 2nd Oct 22

Post by Alun_H »

Thank you Alexandra,I will cut back on contrast next time :)

Douglas,the guide camera view does make life that much simpler when focusing and I am now thinking I will incorporate one in the SHG I am planning to build which I am basing on the Solex design,I have an Alpy 600 from which I can use the guide module but this will require the slit to slightly protrude from the SHG so as to sit inside the guide module housing. In regards the aperture stop,the minimum focal ratio the Lhires can handle before vignetting is f/8 so I could open the scope up a bit more to 50mm,I did try using the 72ED (f/6) at full aperture but focus was a bit soft/mushy.

Thank you,the images are rotated to correct orientation,something I automatically do due to my contributing my images to the BAA solar section,the banding in the IR isn't software related as the transversalium removal was set to zero,I am using your windows based software,I believe it is to do with the sensor of the 178 or combination of the filter I am using to cancel the blue end of the second order and the neutral density filter but when viewing the full image of the spectrum at 854 the whole length of the spectrum is contaminated with a banding effect. Thinking about it I could try flat frame correction on the fly either in Firecapture or Sharpcap as the Lhires has a built in calibration lamp and flat/dark frame module. For the calcium image I forgot to turn the correction down after having used the software on another image set so put that down to user error.

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: Lhires III SHG set up + images from 2nd Oct 22

Post by marktownley »

This is very impressive Alun, something I would like to do myself with more time.


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Re: Lhires III SHG set up + images from 2nd Oct 22

Post by Alun_H »

Thank you Mark.


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: Lhires III SHG set up + images from 2nd Oct 22

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Metallica, Iron Maiden! Yep!!! :band

Mark, I could see you doing an SHG setup. I am really surprised you haven't dove in yet.


Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars
Orion 70mm Solar Telescope
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