H-alpha Sol Sept 20th

[Peter Ward]

It's been quite a while since I last configured a 'scope to image the Sun, but
with the arrival of a new blocking filter element from Germany
last week (the old Coronado one went "rusty") it seemed like a good time to end my hiatus.

Re: that "Rusty" element (slow peripheral clouding of the interference filter), Meade were absolutely pathetic when it came to
supplying a replacement. Their only solution was for me to buy a new BF30
(read $USD 1900 ++) . Yeah. Right

Beloptik (Germany) have ITF's that have tighter bandwidth's and higher transmission at a fraction of the cost of a new filter. Highly
recommended.

Today's Ha Sun here

I hope you enjoy the view!

[John W (John Wilkinson)]

Superb detail in that image Peter - obviously working well. Cheers John W.

[leon]

Yes, as said excellent image indeed.

Leon

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by John W

Superb detail in that image Peter - obviously working well. Cheers John W.

Originally Posted by leon

Yes, as said excellent image indeed.

Leon

Thanks John, Leon.

The front mounted etalons give excellent full-field illumination in H-alpha, hence no "hot spots" that are common with full disk images
produced by many back-end filtered instruments.

The camera is also a rare bird...a 1" CCD with a 16 bit DA converter. Beautifully clean output with nil pattern noise. Sadly no longer available....everything is CMOS theses days

[Averton (P and C)]

Great detail Peter

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Averton

Great detail Peter

Ta... I've since put on my solar processing hat and re-processed the data (same URL)

The re-pro shows the spickules and prom structures much more clearly.

I had hoped to do a few more.....but the usual applied today

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

that is astonishing!

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by graham.hobart

that is astonishing!

Not really, it rains a lot in Sydney of late

[Dave882 (David)]

Beautiful shot Peter. Captured great detail in both the proms and the chromosphere.

[Eris (Gerard)]

Hi Peter,
Thanks for posting that great image of the Sun. Thanks also for the heads up re the Coronado rusty element and where to go to purchase replacement parts. My Solarmax II is still going but it’s good to know that I can look for a fix without having to pay through the nose for it. Looking forward to seeing more of your Solar images.

Gerard

[Averton (P and C)]

Nice image. Is there any reason for the strange orientation? It is flipped east/west and is shown with north and south running horizontally instead of vertically.
We did a quick edit and orientated your image as it was on the day with north up as per convention. As you would see it from the southern hemisphere rotate 180 degrees, ie north down.