Sun images from Melbourne 22 October 2022

[Averton]

After 41mm of rain overnight and a couple of savage thunderstorms, there was a parting of the clouds late this afternoon. A very quick set up with the Quark just heating up in time, we took these two shots.

Full disk Ha image taken with Daystar Solar Scout 60 double stacked with Lunt 40 etalon, ASI178MM camera and 0.5 reducer.
Close up image taken with 72ED, Solar Scout Quark and ASI178MM.

[rustigsmed]

amazing work and the sun didn't even show up today!!

[Averton]

Thanks Russ. It was a very narrow window of opportunity :)

[John W]

Nice captures P and C. No time for me to do Halpha shots - too much cloud passing by. Cheers John W.

[Averton]

Thanks John. There was only just enough time here for these images.

[evltoy]

OMG! What cracking images!!

I'm looking at a Lunt LS40 with a B600 blocking filter to start my Solar HA journey. Would that get me anywhere near to your image quality you have here?

[Averton]

Thanks Wayne.
The Lunt 40 is an excellent scope. In fact these images are taken using the etalon off the Lunt 40 combined with the Solar Scout 60. The Lunt 40 on its own is a superior scope, in our opinion, to the Solar Scout 60 by quite a margin. We have the B500 blocking filter, which by calculation and practice, is all you need for this scope, particularly when using a camera. The wider blocking filters might be worth purchasing if you intend on buying a larger scope later on that can support a wider FOV.

On 20 September we used our Lunt 40 stand alone for the first time in quite a few months and compared the images directly to our double stacked set up. Both set ups were processed using the same settings and the single stacked Lunt 40 images look pretty good.

See https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=200656

[evltoy]

Thanks for the heads up on the Lunt. Looks like you have saved me a few $$$ by getting the b500 instead of the b600 filter.