31.05.2020

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Sunday 31st. A pleasant, sunny day but with a veil of high cloud. I had a look with a smaller telescope but the cloud obscured even the few aircraft going over.

17.45 70/64F. The sky looks clearer so I have set up to see if imaging is possible.

It was! I kept snapping away at the disturbed area in the NW quadrant in 500 frame captures for an hour.

Mostly processing in AS!3 and ImPPG as I went along. I have 60 captures to play with!  These two are quickly cropped and processed in PhotFiltre7.


The detail became clearer as the time passed until the trees finally intervened. There was a clear, thermal stream flowing over the image on the monitor with occasional softness. It was never still.

I spent an hour in the evening capturing the moon. I used the 6" F/10 H-a telescope with the etalon and BF removed. I have 2" extensions to replace the H-alpha filtration. I shall have to process a couple of videos but the seeing conditions won't produce great images.

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30.05.2020 Give me sunshine.. tra-la.

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Saturday 30th 08.15. 62/55F 

Bright sunshine. Disturbed areas at 2.30 and 10 o'clock near the limb. The 2 o'clock [NW] is accompanied by a filament. The 10 o'clock [NE] could become an AR.

Steady seeing beginning to be bodily mobile. Swapped back and forth between blocking filters. B1200 preferred. x1.6 TS GPC.

A bright flare is reported on the limb. With the hope of a significant AR appearing around the oncoming limb.



A complex area in the SE quadrant. 

I have captured another few videos of the NE limb to see if there is anything new. The rotation of the sun is clearly visible in the 2 hours between the earlier and later images.

 The steady seeing is going bad with the arrival of more cloud.

12.00 70/63F clear skies again. Prom at 2 o'clock NW.

Seeing now too fuzzy for surface detail!

18.00. 72/65F, hoping for better seeing later on. Not yet.

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29.05.2020 Sun and moon.

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Friday 29th 8.15[CET]  54/50F, bright sunshine but the sky is slightly milky in the east.

There is a filament  just above the NW disturbed area as it rolls slowly out of sight. The seeing was steady for a few seconds but has been wavy ever since.

Small prom at 8 o'clock.

The captures of the disturbed area and filament aren't showing much detail.

8.30 Fitted the 1.6x TS GPC but it hasn't helped.

The seeing remained so awful that I found something more interesting to do! Testing an old Vixen 90mm achromat against a modern APO 85mm spotting scope. The Vixen won.

Evening: After dinner I was capturing videos of the Moon. Only one processed so far.



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28.05.2020 Solar morning and evening.

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Thursday 28th Clear and sunny.

8.15 Set up, but with strong thermal agitation. Glistening and drifting in and out out of focus

Repeatedly tried changing blocking filters and GPCs. No improvement. Garbage coming out of AS!3. ImPPG just makes it worse. Tried refocusing repeatedly to no avail.  Tuned an re-tuned the PST etalon. Didn't help. The disturbed area is close to the limb and sporting a filament.

9.15 57/52F. A little, thin high cloud but still bright. The seeing is slowly improving but highly variable thermal wobbling. By which I mean slow, rather than fast agitation. 

9.20 58/53F. Moments of improved clarity but still thermally disturbed. The tilt and turn monitor bracket is really proving its value. I keep adjusting the PST etalon with a thin hex key. I removed the rubber and metal outer bands to have direct access to the inner tuning ring. The tuning is highly sensitive to tilting.

10.47 65/56F At last, I have a single image to share.

10.50 Light northerly wind. Thicker, high cloud and the seeing has gone to hell!

12.35 75/58F. Seeing conditions still awful!

18.26  Sun and cloud but steadier.

17.00 Sun already lost behind the nearest trees.

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27.05.20

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Wednesday 27th 12.30 66/61F. Seeing poor. Not much to see. Small prom at 2 o'clock.

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26.05.2020 Trying an inimation of the prom at 2 o'clock [NW] limb.

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Tuesday 26th. Clear blue skies to start but it became cloudier towards 10am. Poor seeing.

I had the opportunity to try a half hour of short captures. When I put all the captures through AS!3 all seemed to be well but then it froze in mid stream. There may be a special setting for batch processing. It seems not.

So I re-selected the batch leaving out "oddities" and this ran to the finish.  Except that now I had only a small fraction of stills from all the videos I had selected.

Nevertheless, I moved onto ImPPG and tried to align my much smaller batch of completed stills from AS!3. This ran okay but there were no output files marked "aligned" in Capture.

More homework obviously needs to be done on processing animations. I still have all the original videos files if I manage to get my act together. The cloud and poor seeing gave me the opportunity to try. So nothing was really lost.

11.30 67/59F and the sky is clear again. The prom image shows how poor the seeing is today. No real detail.

12.00 Seeing absolutely appalling! Like looking at a reflection off choppy water! 😱

In the absence of a usable solar target, due to awful seeing conditions, I changed the computer monitor bracket from a simple dovetail to a turning and tilting model. This will allow me to view the screen from almost any angle. It is a shame I hadn't done this before.

Previously, I have been using a compact mirror to be able to see the screen from a standing position east or west of the pier. Now I can turn the whole screen to where I can see it while adjusting the camera, focus, etalon, Barlow lens or any other accessories.

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25.05.2020 Fullerscopes 4" f/15 all brass classical refractor on eBay.

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Fullerscopes 4" F15 export model all brass refractor circa 1980's | eBay

Fullerscopes 4" F15 export model all brass refractor circa 1980's. Due to house re-organization in lieu of possible future downsizing, I am in a position to need to let my fine classic & rare telescope go.
 

I have had many satisfying Luna trips with it. It will take binos, as in image, as there is a lot of in and out travel on the sliding focusing tube. I have made a split ring block to clamp a diagonal which I will include. This is useful if heavy binos are used. At f15 it shows no detectable false colour and throws up great images of the moon. The focuser is the traditional side wheel and works smoothly.

 

Custom made and matched sliding counterweight. Custom fitted brass handle. It has a long tube 1 1/4" finder scope. Complete with K40mm and R40mm Fullerscopes eyepieces. Tube rings mounted on a Losmandy 'D' type dovetail plate. Approx weight 28lb

I have had this on a simple alt-az set up on a sabre mount. It worked flawlessly Included is an original Fullerscopes catalogue and also price lists from 1981 & 1985. Please note the diagonal and binos are not included in the sale. Definitely collection only, where you will have opportunity to try out. An opportunity for somebody to be custodian of a proper telescope! Please feel free to contact me for any info. Thanks

 

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25.05.2020 Cloud, cloud and more cloud!

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Monday 25th 11.00 61/56F. A beautiful, double prom at 2 o'clock NW limb has me being teased by cloud

again. The cloud seems to becoming from the NE.

Already changed to the PSTBF for much less gain. Added the 1.6x TS GPC for more scale.

Interesting detail in the more southerly prom: Bright clumps and threads. 

12.26 64/60F It looks as if the flame shaped prom is lifting off.

12.40 There is far more cloud than blue sky!











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22.05.2020 Sun, wind and cloud.

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Friday 22nd 9.50 66/62F, rather cloudy after a brighter start. The south easterly wind is blowing straight through the slit and moving the telescope.

Added the x1.6 [x1.3?] TS GPC for more scale.

The early, still, seeing is becoming higher frequency and more agitated.

Quite pleased with the detail.

Cloud keeps intervening but the wind isn't too much of a problem.

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21.05.2020 Milky sky and cloud.

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Thursday 21st 10.30[CET] 66/60F bright but rather cloudy at times.

The first image is spotty from over-sharpening despite none being applied.

10.42 added the 1.6x T-S GPC for more scale. Soft, but quite detailed.

Thermal seeing steadying. With occasional still moments but not very sharp. Now stacking 100 of 1000 frames.

11.15. The seeing, or perhaps the camera, has become misty and glistening on the monitor. The camera has reached 41C. External case temperature on 26C. The results after stacking in AS!3 are awful! Barely recognizable smudges!

Only ImPPG can rescue them. Which isn't the point at all! They should at least look presentable after stacking. I have opened all of the doors to try and get a draught going to clear out any warm air in the dome. The sky is white with thin cloud. Now I have a visible stream [like water] rising diagonally across the monitor image!

It is so bad that I can't identify the disturbed area any more. Complete waste of time trying to capture anything in these conditions!  I have fitted a solar foil filter over the D-ERF to see if it cools things down without having to close the dome or stop tracking the sun. I have moved the hot car which was parked under the viewpoint from the observatory to the south. Still no obvious difference in the seeing.

15.00 Went in search of the small prom, at 10 o'clock, with dim arches on either side. Changed to the PST BF to avoid excessive gain with the LUNT B1200S2.

The seeing improved after that though with some cloud.  So it was back to the AR again. There is fascinating complexity and great beauty in this disturbed area. I just wish I could do it real justice with my images.

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