10 replies to this topic

[BoskoSLO]

Hi!

 

I just recently started doing solar imaging besides deep sky and I was a little skeptical about it, if it was worth it (The DayStar Quark Chromosphere).

The first day I had issues with bad seeing 1/10 probably and intense newton rings in my image. Fixed the main issues the nex day so I'm relieved. Imaging the sun up close has it's benefits like creating prominence animations which I did but I always wanted to take a full disk image and I didn't want to invest more money into various adapters to use my Canon lenses so i went and used my 50mm f3.6 guide scope I had stored in my closet for a while now. It doesn't have a focuser like most telescopes have but it just has a thumbscrew that you losen and move the tube in or out to focus which is a problem when the sun jumps all over the screen. So I have achieved focus at the end and adjusted some settings in firecapture and took 500 frames at full resolution "ASI 1600MM Pro".

The data looked good and I quickly went inside and stacked and processed it just to see if the surface details are there or the prominences.

Here is the result

 

Astrobin link:

 

https://www.astrobin.com/9grbxy/0/

 

also on my Astrobin account you can find other images I took in the past days as well as 3 animations but the black and white one is by far my best one yet.

 

Solar imaging sure is amazing even in solar minimum.

 

[rigel123]

That worked out well for you!  Love that B&W animation on your AB site, the motion on the filament is really nice besides the prom itself.

[BoskoSLO]

That worked out well for you!  Love that B&W animation on your AB site, the motion on the filament is really nice besides the prom itself.

One thing that stands out is the flickering in the animation probably because I didn't use any flats.

[rigel123]

One thing that stands out is the flickering in the animation probably because I didn't use any flats.

I noticed Newton Rings traversing the disk which flats should help with which is what I think is causing that flickering you mention.  It's really not that bad, but I can see the same issue at times with my Skyris 236M even with flats applied.  Animations always highlight issues like Newton Rings and dust bunnies that are so easy to get rid of in a single shot!!

[MalVeauX]

Lovely disc!

 

Very best,

[MAURITS]

Nice to see.

[Seven007]

Wow stunning Image!

I like to have a quark for my guidescope too :-)

With f3.6 the guidescope is too fast for the quark?
Do you have mask its aperture?

Best Regards
Sven

[BoskoSLO]

Wow stunning Image!

I like to have a quark for my guidescope too :-)

With f3.6 the guidescope is too fast for the quark?
Do you have mask its aperture?

Best Regards
Sven

No mask just plug the quark in the scope, point at sun, focus and that's it. I could try masking it to 40mm and see if the contrast increases.

[aantonio]

I’ve been experimenting with my Quark Chromo for one month with few telescopes.

I too find that easiest option for full disc is a finderscope with a reasonably good helical focuser: mine is an unexpensive 60-mm f/4 unit bought on Amazon. I do find that stopping down to 40 mm significantly increases contrast and chromosphere detail. Stopping further to 30 mm means only marginal improvement, so I settled for 40 mm that is f/6. Although full disc is possible with a 0.5x reducer on my ASI174MM, resolution is much better with no reducer and a little mosaic. Photoshop “photomerge” is very effective in this respect.

All the best,

 

Antonio

[Seven007]

Thank you both, very interesting!

 

Do you have Images of both versions to share?

 

Is it also an improvement for visuel?

 

Best Regards 

Sven

[aantonio]

Sven,

yes disc details significantly improve visually too, when 60 mm is stopped down to 40 mm: much less continuum from photosphere and more discernible filaments etc.

Here are my two full disc versions, single frame with reducer and mosaic with no reducer.

Prominences are quite different in the two captures since these have been taken a couple hours apart. Seeing was comparable, so increased resolution is due to longer focal length, better matching ASI174MM pixels.

Consider that processing is not top-notch, I've just started my learning curve (the smaller disc at 0.5x is surely over-processed).

Best,

 

Antonio

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Edited by aantonio, 06 March 2021 - 05:05 AM.