Beaut Solar prominence today

[PeterM]

There is a really nice long prominence visible right now.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Peter,
Thanks for the heads up - still clouded out down here and the wind is getting stronger.

[PeterM]

Originally Posted by Merlin66

Peter,
Thanks for the heads up - still clouded out down here and the wind is getting stronger.

Not equipped for images yet but soon will. Well I finally got the Lunt 60mm outperforming the superb Coronado 40mm Solar max. After changing over the O rings and still not on par I replaced the Lunt B600 blocking filter with the Coronado BF10 into the Lunt 60mm and wow!
Faye from Lunt said this was safe to do but not safe to put the Lunt BF into the Coronado. So will be sending the B600 back to Lunt for evaluation - its not the blue glass front filter in the B600 as that is pefectly clear. So seeing that stunning prominence in the Lunt was amazing and great to see how well the pressure tuner works.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Peter,
Thanks for the update.
I'm interested in the comment - ""Faye from Lunt said this was safe to do but not safe to put the Lunt BF into the Coronado""


I only use Coronado H alpha filters and the only experience I've had with the Lunt BF was during some testing of a Lunt 60.
Out of interest (!!) I used the Lunt BF on my DS SM60 set-up - just for comparison and immediate saw the image (visually) was MUCH brighter, but with the same detail.
This led me to check my Coronado BF15. I found that the ITF had deteriorated. When replaced with the Maier Photonics filter the image (visually) was as bright as I'd seen in the Lunt BF.


I accept the the design of the BF bandwidth must match the performance of the H alpha etalon being using, so there may be some differences between the Lunt and Coronado BF. (I've tested the Coronado BF assembly - ITF/ mirror/ BF with the spectroscope, but haven't had the opportunity to do the same with a Lunt)

[PeterM]

[QUOTE=Merlin66;1477927]Peter,
Thanks for the update.
I'm interested in the comment - ""Faye from Lunt said this was safe to do but not safe to put the Lunt BF into the Coronado""

I have had a bit of correspondence with Faye about why my Lunt was clearly not showing the amazing detail I was seeing in the Coronado.
After a bit of reading CNights etc I thought may as well try the Coronado BF in the Lunt and clearly was amazed. I rang Faye this morning to advise I had narrowed the issue down to the Lunt BF and told her my resulting experiment. I asked is this safe and she said the Coronado BF into the Lunt was safe but not the Lunt BF into the Coronado. She then checked an information sheet she had and reconfirmed saying the filtering was safe with the Coronado BF into the Lunt. I would encourage anyone to confirm this themselves with Lunt before doing this though.