First go at Sun with PST & DMK21

[AstroFlyer (Arek)]

I bought a Coronado PST that turned out to suffer from worst case of PST rust you've seen.
Today I managed to borrow a whole gold tube with front element from friend's PST & have a crack at the Sun.
PST was set up on a tripod with Manfrotto geared head & DMK21AU04.AS.
Also first time processing solar images, tried few different methods.
A lot of trial & error.
Not the best, but am quite happy with my first attempt.

[bartman (Bart)]

Hi Arek,
Just curious....what do you mean by " worst case of PST rust"?
Bartman

[sheeny (Al)]

Not bad at all, Arek. You are on your way.

Al.

[iceman (Mike)]

Nicely done Arek, they're great!

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

On the older PST the front objective would deteriorate (looks alike "rust") this only affected the early "'gold" coloured objectives - the later "blue" objectives were OK.
Ken

[skyoyster (Alexandra)]

Nice work! Very inspiring.

[bartman (Bart)]

Thanks Ken,
Kinda makes sense... the coatings deteriorate?
Bartman

[AstroFlyer (Arek)]

Thanks for your kind comments guys.
Much appreciated.

Originally Posted by bartman

Thanks Ken,
Kinda makes sense... the coatings deteriorate?
Bartman

Some of early PSTs had a problem where objective lenses developed corroded lens coatings, giving the appearance of "rust."

Coronado stated:
“The ‘breakdown’ or rust colored appearance that has been seen on front objectives of some PST’s is a result of degradation of the ITF coating. The degradation is from outsourced application of the IFT (Induced Transmission Filter) which blocks infrared radiation.”
It is reducing the contrast of the solar surface reducing detail and the crispness of prominences.
In my PST it's pretty much impossible to see prominences & sun's details.
Here's what it looks like:

[trent_julie]

Good work Arek!

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

A Sunman too!
These are great first up images!
Did you Registax these too?

[Steffen]

Wow, I'm impressed. I had no idea that a PST would show this much detail. Do the images compare to what one would get visually?

Cheers
Steffen.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

If you mean visually through the PST - very similar. If you mean when using a white light filter on your scope...very very different; you would only see the sunspots as dark/black marks and maybe some hint of surface granulation.

[Steffen]

Yes, I mean through the PST. I'm familiar with Baader film which reveals very little detail at similar apertures compared to these images.

Cheers
Steffen.

[AstroFlyer (Arek)]

Originally Posted by Matt Wastell

A Sunman too!
These are great first up images!
Did you Registax these too?

Sorry for late reply.
Yes Matt - stacked in Registax5, levels & colour in Photoshop CS5.

Originally Posted by Steffen

Wow, I'm impressed. I had no idea that a PST would show this much detail. Do the images compare to what one would get visually?

Cheers
Steffen.

As Ken said - very similar visually. Probably bit better - my post processing is in its infancy stage