After being goaded by Ponders to ‘get out there”, the morning skies began to clear in Brissie so I tentatively began the long set up process. An hour later I was looking at my 1st light sunspot through the Tak Mewlon 180 f12 DK Cassegrain and DMK Firewire ccd camera.
It was not a pretty sight; the seeing was all over the place, so I had a look at the jet stream to see if my equipment, technique or collimation were off, and saw the attached map – ouch!
Well, having got this far, I decided to shoot at the native F12 (2160mm) prime focus and with the magic of the Tak mirror, DMK ccd camera and Registax I was able to rescue some of the results.
Takahashi Mewlon 180 DK Cassegrain (180mm f12).
Imaging Source DMK 21AF04.AS Firewire ccd camera.
Baader astro solar film (photographic)
Prime focus using stacked Baader IR cut and Solar Continuum filters.
Processed in Registax. 128 frames from 2100.
Great detail Dennis .... must order a continuum filter !
Thanks Steve!
I’ve had the Baader Solar Continuum filter for almost 12 months now and initially thought it was a dud! On the Vixen 4” refractor and the Celestron C9.25 (with a ToUcam) it just didn’t appear to work? I could not see any improvement to images with the filter fitted compared to images with no continuum filter fitted.
So, I was really surprised today when I used it for the very 1st time on the Tak, with a DMK camera. Not sure what made the difference?
The seeing was certainly more rubbish today, compared to previous efforts with the other ‘scopes.
Maybe the DMK optimises the filter advantages/characteristics, whereas the ToUcam didn’t?
Not sure if I can put it down to the Tak optics?
Maybe the Mewlon achieves thermal stability (open tube) better than the other 'scopes?
Anyhow, I am now a happy little vegemite and can’t wait to try it under better seeing conditions.