2.09.2022 AR3089

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Friday 2nd September 50F at 8.00. Clear blue sky.

The sun is on the dome so I am going to try some early imaging. The seeing conditions are supposed to be optimum before the landscape heats up.

A waste of time! Soft smudges.

10.14 First image I considered worth saving. Strange appearance. Poor detail. Dark in right, lower corner. Tuning?

 

 

11.05 High cloud is obscuring the sun.

I have added a 2" extension and double checked the etalon spacing from focus. Dark image has lost the light bridges.

Tantalizing detail is seen between completely foggy images on the monitor. I may give up and go shopping.
 

 

 

 

 

 11.19 Retuned and refocused.  Still uneven brightness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11.26  Detail improving despite thin high cloud over the sun.

 Struggling to maintain light bridges. There are two delicate bridges over the main spot's umbra.

 I have removed the Lunt red filter. The Baader D-ERF, 35nm H-a and Beloptik KG3 are protecting the camera. The camera temperature registered by SharpCap only reached 44C.

 All captures before and after lunch time were a waste of effort.

 As it approaches 18.00 I am trying different ideas for thermal convection reduction. I have lifted the rubber skirt on the windward NE side of the dome  to try and get a draught going. 

 Unfortunately the trees are rather dense behind the dome. The effect on the monitor was unnoticeable.  I have draped the white material under the slit again but this too was minimal in effect, if any. 

 The white tarpaulin is hanging well down the outside of the building over the SW arc. The double doors out to the old balcony are wide open. The live image is still soft, distorting wildly and "boiling." The processed images are completely worthless. 

 Yesterday was calm. Today there is quite a breeze. This seems not to have helped. The trees are now rocking into the field of view a full quarter of an hour earlier than yesterday. 

 17.58 67F. As a final trial I reduced the exposure from about 10ms to 3ms and 100 Gain. I had to boost the gain to 166. This seemed to have more of a beneficial effect than anything else. It could be pure coincidence. Because the sun is low and approaching the trees. The usual time for best seeing conditions. I can hardly believe the last image which came out of the mush.

 18.13 The sky is increasingly white around the sun due to increasingly dense, thin, high cloud. 

 18.15 Tried 2ms exposures and the boiling has reduced to a simmer. Though not with any increase in clarity. In fact the last half dozen captures are worse than ever!

 18.18 The trees have finally captured the sun.

 

 

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