20080203 Sun again!

We had some many cloudy days! The sky finally cleared up and we got a view of the sun. Seeing 6/10, transparency 7/10. We have AR982 and the filaments near it, very nice indeed.

1503 (GMT+8), full disc, Borg 45ED II, SM40/BF10 at prime focus of DMK 31AF03:-


1504 (GMT+8), full disc, Borg 45ED II, SM40/BF10 at prime focus of DMK 31AF03:-


1505 (GMT+8), full disc, Borg 45ED II, SM40/BF10 at prime focus of DMK 31AF03, increased exposure to bring out the prominences:-


1508 (GMT+8), Borg 45ED II, SM40/BF10, with 2x barlows:-


1523 (GMT+8), with PST etalon added:-


1527 (GMT+8), same as above except with 3x barlows:-


False color version of the above:-


==

On the internal reflection issue of the PST etalon module and the blocking filter, I found that the problem even appears in a refractor, of course, with a refractor you cannot see the secondary shadow, but you can still see a circular patch of brightening, that also hurts the contrast as well.

So now I wonder if it's a good move to move up to the 5" refractor, since it won't help too much on the reflection issue, obviously I need something else to solve the internal reflection issue, like tilting of the PST etalon module or the BF or even both.