New Solar filter

[dmill1220]

HI folks,

Well I finally made the decision to splurge a little, so I bought a Glass solar filter for my 6 inch refractor, its not the full 6 inches, since I have a smaller 4 inch cap, that fits on my 6 inch cap, to use as an aperture stop, so I purchased the 4.25 #2 Thousand Oaks glass solar filter and, guess what happened?
I used it yesterday And I couldnt believe my eyes!
Murphy's Law reared its ugly head again, there were no spots to be seen all day long.

there was only one tiny speck near the limb it was so small it took quite a while to notice it.

I know that we are at a supposed solar minimum but I was at least expecting to see one or two spots.
oh well, at least now I have something to image during the day when the nights are washed out by the Moon, now if I can only get the Sun to cooperate and show some spots, I would be very happy.

Dennis

[dmill1220]

Last week an an alert went out for sunspot activity, I finally got to see what I was missing, I have found yet another addiction!
If the wind wasn't so bad around here I would have tried to image it.
Now Im thinking about a PST, question is how do I explain it to the wife? LOL
Dennis

[stephenramsden]

Hey Dennis,
I am sure you have already purchased the PST by now. Especially if you have the bug like me.

Anyway, I own the PST and the extra 40mm stacker (PSM40). I have found that the disk is significantly more detailed with the stacker, but the prominences and flare activity are much better without the stacker.

The PST far out does any white light filter on the market for detail and observability.

I am embarking on the quest for imaging through my PST using one of my three Sony Digital SLR cameras. (FD91, FD95, CDR400)

I have tried a camera mount with little success. I have made my own PVC type eyepiece adaptor with little success. I am now waiting for a super expensive camera kit and professionally made 40mm eyepiece adaptor from the internet to arrive to try again.

Have you made any advances yet?

[dmill1220]

HI Stephan,

No I haven't purchased the PST yet! the keyword is yet.
I do have the thousand Oaks full aperture glass filter which produces a nice amber color and not the annoying white or blue image.

MY C6RGT has an aperture stop cap which is reduced to 4 inches so I bought the 4 inch filter, so far the Sun has been just about bare of sunspots, we are still at the Solar minimun cycle for suspots, but we should be emerging from this cycle pretty soon. I am waiting for some to show up so that I can take images using the DSI with a focal reducer on my C6RGT.

I always look a the SOHO site daily to see if there is anything worth photographing, BUt with a PST I would be imaging everday just to capture any Solar prominces and to see the sun in Hydrogen Alpha alone is awsome.

Dennis

[Buldric]

Congratz on the new solar filter! I wish I could get one 0.o There is a few factors which stop me from doing so,

a.) One for the size of my telescope is not...cheap,
b.)Shipping one for the size of my telescope is very, very fragile.
c.) I cant afford the parts I need for imaging my galaxies let alone the sun! I still need to make a wedge, get an off axis guider, get a focal reducer, and heck, I'm still using 1.25" on a 2" capable Scope! yeayea, I know, you all think im crazy for using 1.25" when I dont have to, but I just cant afford it! the new back, diagonal, eyepieces, camera adapter, AHH! Why did they have to ship it out with 1.25 instead of 2, WHY?! Ah well, it is what it is.

Can't wait to see some pictures man!

Someone needs to setup a camera recording them of one night of astrophotography, so I can see what they do, because my pictures... well, you've seen my pictures, they leave something to be desired. And i'm 99.999% sure it's not my equipments fault.

Clear Skies,
Buldric

[stephenramsden]

Hey Dennis,
I see you are a nut like me. Well I am an amateur nut. I have an ancient astrophysics degree from the early 80's and am about to retire from Air Traffic Control. So, I am learning all of this stuff right now. You mentioned a DSI. I bought the DSI and could not get it to do what I wanted. I was having a hard time getting the image to focus. It updated about every 1/2 second and it was hard to see my laptop screen in direct sunlight or shaded with my old eyes.

I have not used the glass filter yet and do not have a telescope worth putting one on. I invested my first $2000 in the PST, stacker, case, tripod, lense set, barlow, etc... You know the drill.

If you are interested, I have kept a journal of my pathetic images so far. They may have some value as abstract art? Ha Ha.

They are at www.stephenramsden.com The link is "My Solar Images".

ps I am using a Sony CD400 with a home made adaptor (PVC couplings and hose clamps). I am waiting for payday to feed the beast some more.

[dmill1220]

Originally Posted by Buldric

Congratz on the new solar filter! I wish I could get one 0.o There is a few factors which stop me from doing so,

a.) One for the size of my telescope is not...cheap,
b.)Shipping one for the size of my telescope is very, very fragile.
c.) I cant afford the parts I need for imaging my galaxies let alone the sun! I still need to make a wedge, get an off axis guider, get a focal reducer, and heck, I'm still using 1.25" on a 2" capable Scope! yeayea, I know, you all think im crazy for using 1.25" when I dont have to, but I just cant afford it! the new back, diagonal, eyepieces, camera adapter, AHH! Why did they have to ship it out with 1.25 instead of 2, WHY?! Ah well, it is what it is.

Can't wait to see some pictures man!

Someone needs to setup a camera recording them of one night of astrophotography, so I can see what they do, because my pictures... well, you've seen my pictures, they leave something to be desired. And i'm 99.999% sure it's not my equipments fault.

Clear Skies,
Buldric

Hi Buldric,
without a Wedge/ Focal reducer/ PEC/or GUIDESCOPE/ Radial Offset guider, its not you my friend, and It is not that you have poor equipment, it is the fact that you need more of it to get good results.

Without a focal reducer any error in tracking becomes a big problem and star trailing will show, especially with the DSLR you are using and a ALT/ AZ mount.
also keep in mind that if you auto guide with another cam like the dsi Pro installed in your radial guider and, you have the back lashes set correctly and you have the auto guiding port, you can still get decent results on brighter DSo's without the wedge, but you will still need the focal reducer, and a good guiding program like GuideDog available online for free.

AN EQ wedge, focal reducer, coupled with a polar align and then a drift align would do the trick as long as you have PEC enabled and Calibrated.
To use a radial offset guider you will need at least a 9mm illuminated recticule eyepiece, and beleive me when I say that is a tough way of guiding, obtaining a bright enough guide star is tough on most DSO's and time consuming as well.

Remember that with a EQ wedge or GEM, it takes at least 30 minutes to an hour to get drift aligned properly, this will do away with having to do any dec adjustments as the scope tracks, but due to periodic error inherent in all worm gears, you either need PEC (Periodic Error Control) or manual guiding with the radial offset guider, or ccd camera autoguiding capability mounted on the radial guider, or a guide scope piggy back mounted on yout OTA.

Your camera is fine and I have seen many fine DSO shots made with that camera.

Here is a pic of my Celestron C8 on its Eq wedge with its counter weight system, I hand guide this setup via a radial offset guider and a f6.3 reducer, the shot I have posted of M-42 in the photo section with the 35mm Pentax me was hand guided for 14 minutes of pure hell.
Astrophotography is an expensive beast!
I have 4 scopes in total, the only shot missing is my 12 inch dob.
Dennis

[dmill1220]

Originally Posted by stephenramsden

Hey Dennis,
I see you are a nut like me. Well I am an amateur nut. I have an ancient astrophysics degree from the early 80's and am about to retire from Air Traffic Control. So, I am learning all of this stuff right now. You mentioned a DSI. I bought the DSI and could not get it to do what I wanted. I was having a hard time getting the image to focus. It updated about every 1/2 second and it was hard to see my laptop screen in direct sunlight or shaded with my old eyes.

I have not used the glass filter yet and do not have a telescope worth putting one on. I invested my first $2000 in the PST, stacker, case, tripod, lense set, barlow, etc... You know the drill.

If you are interested, I have kept a journal of my pathetic images so far. They may have some value as abstract art? Ha Ha.

They are at www.stephenramsden.com The link is "My Solar Images".

ps I am using a Sony CD400 with a home made adaptor (PVC couplings and hose clamps). I am waiting for payday to feed the beast some more.

Hi Stephan,

I am worst than a nut! I am completely obsessed with the hobby!
you should see what my living room looks like! lol, my wife complains about it all the time.
If im not mistaken I dont see any Shots that I would expect the PST to show? IF those reddish shots are with the PST you need moe Magnification! Have you tried a barlow with the PST and some afocal photography?

Is this more like what you see in the eyepiece?

Dennis

[dpab]

This glass filter that you are talking about ,what brand was it again and do you buy the plate and make your own.
Have you looked thru a Bader solar film type ?, and with the glass is the resolution better than the film and what color is the image ?
Ive got a 11 inch schmidt and I was thinking of makin a filter.
Just wondering?
Dave

[stephenramsden]

Dennis,
I most certainly do not see the beautiful orangish image that you posted through my eyepiece. I have the Barlow and all of the Cemax eyepieces and used them all in my photos. Are you telling me that I should be seeing that highly detailed orange image through my little ole' PST with the optional PSM 40 stacker added on? If so, I have been screwed.
The images at SOLARASTROPHOTOGRAPHY.COM are the best I can get with my Nikon Coolpix 5100 and my Stacked PST. One is pictured below.
please reply here and copy to ramsden@mindspring.com