Couple of Proms 020309

[Merlin66]

First time out with the SM60!!
DMK21 with x2.8 Barlow exposures from 1/20 sec (Proms) and double stacked for surface ( 1/77 sec)
Obviously need to get more practise!!

[madwayne]

Very nice Merlin, thanks for sharing your pictures with us. Must be rare for the sun to shine where you are :P....

Please keep them coming.

Regards
Wayne

[sheeny]

Looks very promising, Ken.

Al.

[Merlin66]

Guys, Thanks for the encouraging remarks!!
I honestly haven't had enough images to be able to confidently "standardise" the processing technique. Each image was the best 200 or so from a batch of a 1000 images on the AVI
I'm sure, looking at the images so far, that I should move up to f40 or maybe even f50 for next series. The SolarMax 60 combined with the DMK appears to be able to work at that resolution.
Seeing conditions are not the best and it clouded over within the hour ( they're promising rain for the next few days!!); under some steady seeing and a longer "window of opportunity" would make things much easier.

[Kevnool]

Looks great Merlin.
This is something that i really havent got myself into.........YET.
Cheers Kev.

[Merlin66]

Kev,
You have more opportunities to observe the Sun from Oz than we have over here in Europe. You're also 12 hours ahead, so you can image areas of the surface well before we see them!!
A PST or small Lunt Ha scope is a good way to start your solar "training".
It's amazing what can be done with such a small instrument, you just have to look at Jan Timmermans page to see the results he gets with a PST.
http://www.thefirmament.nl/astro/main_screen.html
I recommend it to any amateur!!!