Imaging with a Coronado PST

[Bassnut (Fred)]

oops, some post crossover there, much to read

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Originally Posted by iceman

Even sidereal rate is close enough for tracking the sun, especially at the short focal lengths normally used for solar imaging. The hand controller satisfies the need to re-center.

Excellent

[Barrykgerdes]

I think everyone has missed my message to beginners.

Don't expect to plonk your PST down on a non tracking mount with a CCD and a computer and take pictures of the Sun. You need to spend quite a bit of time in preparation the first time otherwise you will spend all day chasing your tail.

Barry

[Barrykgerdes]

Oh and especially for Fred

With your normal attention to mechanics and detail and experience in narrow band I will be expecting to see some really first class images of the sun at the next meeting.

Barry

[AndrewJ]

Gday Baz

Have you ever tried to do a two star alignment or a polar alignment on a mount during daylight.

Yep, both AltAz and Polar
With my EQ6, i plonk it down, just hit enter on date time etc ( without changing anything ). Then i go to the Hbx and set tracking rate to solar.
Then i manually slew to centre the sun and let it track.
With my Meades, i set up altaz ( with Nth and level eyeballed ) and do a manual one star align.
Then i select my asteroid ( ref below ) and hit goto.
Then i just manually centre the sun and let it track.
No PC reqd
( you could also just enter the RA/DEC for the sun into the hbx
and do a manual goto, or manually slew all the way if reqd )

My mount does not track the sun (autostar controlled), it won't even let you look at the sun

So cheat :-)

so I needed to write a little program to make it track the sun. This needed a second computer. My polar alignment was only within about two degrees.

There is a standard asteroid developed for the Meades that is basically an "Anti Earth". As such, when you issue a "goto", the blasted sun is always in the way :-) This gets you close
Whilst the Meades will not then "track" to account for DEC errors
you can easily get 30mins or more using a rough alignment.
Also, if you apply Richard Seymours tracking rate patch to your Hbx,
you can manually adjust the tracking rate in increments of .01 of sidereal
to get a better RA rate.

Andrew

[Barrykgerdes]

Now come on Andrew

Both you and I know how to get around all the drawbacks. Yes I have done two star and polar alignments during daylight. But does the average beginner know all the tricks we can use or have. I was only using an old DS2014(?) mount and made up some brackets to hold the PST in the hope that it would drive the scope in some sort of a tracking mode while I took a few photos. However the short cuts were not good enough. The tripod was not stable and I could not see the laptop (that's where I needed to focus the image). I needed to make a better setup and time ran out.

Actually I did not need to write a program. I already had one that just needed to be set up on another computer.

Next time I will be better set up. I will use the HEQ5 It has a solar track rate and I will have it polar aligned before I start. I will have the laptop where I can see it and a better monochrome CCD.

Barry

[Paul Haese]

Looks like you missed mine Fred.

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Looks like you missed mine Fred.

If you mean yr post, I did see it, thanks for the info, "double stacking" looks interesting and the pics look great, thats the kind of pics im after .

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Fred,
I attach a Solar image taken with a PST, x2.5 TV Powermate and a DMK41 camera.
This was taken by "Photobykev" 16th Aug, and posted on the UK SGL site.
Kev only started solar imaging about a month ago, initially with a DSLR then changed to a DMK41.
Building the mosaic still has work to be done, but it shows what can be achieved with the basic PST. Excellent work.
He used the PixInsight "Dynamic Background Extraction" (DBE) on some early whole disk images to remove the "hot spot" - looked very promising.
HTH

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Yes, I like the look of that. Interesting the use of a powermate and then mosaicing, food for thought. Would a powermate negate the need for cutting down the tube to get BF do you think?.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Yes.
The powermate can just be dropped into the PST and the camera with a normal nosepiece used.
I actually use the TV T thread adaptor for the powermates which reduces the "overhang" and a T thread to C thread adaptor to the DMK.
HTH

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by Bassnut

Yes, I like the look of that. Interesting the use of a powermate and then mosaicing, food for thought. Would a powermate negate the need for cutting down the tube to get BF do you think?.

The other trick to try, Fred, if you're reluctant to cut the nose piece is a barlow lens. Unscrew the lens from the barlow and screw it in the front of the nosepiece. It doesn't increase magnification a lot but it might just get you in focus (depending on the length and shape of the nosepiece of course). It worked for me before I bought a second nosepiece and modded one specifically.

Al.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Can we expect 2"x2" prominence close-ups? I wanna see SOHO.

[AndrewJ]

Gday Baz

Now come on Andrew
Both you and I know how to get around all the drawbacks.

I can only get around "most" at present :-)
Some still have me baffled.

Yes I have done two star and polar alignments during daylight. But does the average beginner know all the tricks we can use

My reply was also intended to provide the average beginner with some ideas on what can be done. Its amazing how many people pickup tidbits whilst lurking.

Andrew