New first light CaK 10th Feb 2023

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

These are single SHG images taken with the MiniSHG, 9 micron quartz slit, ED80 and ASI 178.
First images for a year!!
Not perfect, but do show the enormous prom in CaK.
Onwards and Upwards.
Ken

[Maurice]

Congratulations on your new first light Ken!
Your Ca images look great.


I didn't expect to see that N-hemisphere prominence to be so obvious in Ca


Cheers
Maurice

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Maurice,
Thanks mate!
I was spoiled with the setup at St Leonards, the mount was just outside the office door - took 30sec to set things up.
I now have to lug all the cables, computer, telescope, and camera outside and find some shade - Oh and fight of the new dog who wants to help


The mount seems to be working OK and I do my scans in Dec.
Spent some time later to improve the alignment of the camera/ slit to the RA to reduce the tilt and tweaked the frame rate to improve the Y/X to very close to unity (I use x3 Synscan Rate)
Need to improve the focus to the new 9 micron slit plate and remove a slight sag in the 2" fittings.
Onwards and Upwards.
Ken

[Averton (P and C)]

Good to see you are imaging again Ken

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Thanks!
I'm coming to terms with Doug's latest version of Main_SHG V3.7 which has more bells and whistles.
I know the key to success with the MiniSHG is to quickly obtain a series of images and stack at least 4-5 to improve SNR and smooth out any scanning artefacts.

[Eris (Gerard)]

Interesting shots in this wavelength Ken. Congratulations.
Good to see you back!

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Gerard,
Thanks mate, appreciated!
Ken

[AdamJL]

Originally Posted by Merlin66

Maurice,
Thanks mate!
I was spoiled with the setup at St Leonards, the mount was just outside the office door - took 30sec to set things up.
I now have to lug all the cables, computer, telescope, and camera outside and find some shade - Oh and fight of the new dog who wants to help


The mount seems to be working OK and I do my scans in Dec.
Spent some time later to improve the alignment of the camera/ slit to the RA to reduce the tilt and tweaked the frame rate to improve the Y/X to very close to unity (I use x3 Synscan Rate)
Need to improve the focus to the new 9 micron slit plate and remove a slight sag in the 2" fittings.
Onwards and Upwards.
Ken

My take-away from reading this is that solar imaging is it's own beast and requires "starting again" if you're coming from DSOs!
That sounds complex!!

Awesome images, Ken

[Derek Klepp]

Good to see you up and imaging Ken. How’s the size of that prom.
Derek

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Derek,
Yes, certainly one the the largest CaK proms I’ve recorded!

Adam,
Things can be a bit fiddly to setup, but once all the ducks are in line things become much much easier.
Ken

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by Merlin66

Maurice,
Thanks mate!
I was spoiled with the setup at St Leonards, the mount was just outside the office door - took 30sec to set things up.
I now have to lug all the cables, computer, telescope, and camera outside and find some shade - Oh and fight of the new dog who wants to help


The mount seems to be working OK and I do my scans in Dec.
Spent some time later to improve the alignment of the camera/ slit to the RA to reduce the tilt and tweaked the frame rate to improve the Y/X to very close to unity (I use x3 Synscan Rate)
Need to improve the focus to the new 9 micron slit plate and remove a slight sag in the 2" fittings.
Onwards and Upwards.
Ken

Set up sound like a chore.
I've managed to put mine in the obs, so I just need to roll off the roof.

I've been using EQASCOM to run the mount & I have a number of pre programmed speeds set up so that I can get very close to unity (depending on the suns declination).
I had 3d printed all of the parts for the SolEx as per the original design, but I think that I'll start converting them to aluminium as I'm seeing a bit of movement in the device due to thermal effects.

Cheers
Maurice

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Maurice,
I used EQMod on the NEQ6 for many years while doing spectroscopy.
I find the Syscan works well for me…..
The solar disk and X/Y ratios are definitely more related to the apparent solar diameter due to the varying orbit.
My SimSpec SHG does the necessary arithmetic and gives very good results.

I went for a MiniSHG based on 125/125 optics and 9 micron quartz slit disk based on unused camera adapters and a plywood housing.
Ken

[Maurice]

Where did you get the 9micron slit Ken?

I've been looking around for something longer than the 4.5mm x 10 micron one used in the SolEx and have found a 1" (!) long one at Ealing in the US - but I can't get them to respond to my emails....

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

On the English sol’Ex group Doug Smith has details of how to obtain one of his 9 micron x 12mm slit gaps on a quartz substrate.
If you need more information drop me an email.
Ken

[Maurice]

Thank you Ken!