Saturday, October 31, 2009

20091031 Sun

Spotless again, seeing 3/10, transparency 3/10.

1604 (GMT+8):-


1605 (GMT+8):-


Firebird!

Monday, October 26, 2009

20091026 Sun

Very poor transparency today at 2/10, seeing 3/10. AR1029 can be seen in white light! Therefore, I pulled out my simple white light setup to have a shot first:

1525 (GMT+8), manual focus by looking into the view finder:-


1526 (GMT+8), autofocus by Live View contrast detection:-


My simple (lazy) white light setup consists of a Thousand Oaks Type 2+ Glass, Canon 450D with Canon 100-400mm at 400mm with Kenko 2x, handheld, spot metering.

And then I setup my H-alpha gear and it's definitely far more interesting. Again, taken with my Tele Vue Ranger with NGF-CM, Solarmax 40 with BF10, and DMK 31AF03. The full disc was taken with a reducer at the nosepiece of the BF10 and then the close up was taken with a Tele Vue 2x barlows:-

1547 (GMT+8):-


1548 (GMT+8):-


1553 (GMT+8), close up with 2x:-

Saturday, October 24, 2009

20091024 Sun

Busy schedule together with lousy sky means no imaging. The sky was still hazy together and I'm still busy but yet, I need some short moments of relax and luckily, we have AR1029 around.

My usual setup: LXD55, Tele Vue Ranger with NGF-CM, Solarmax 40 with BF10, and then a DMK 31AF03, the close up were taken with a Tele Vue 2x barlows, and the full disc were taken with a reducer in the nosepiece of the BF10.

1547 (GMT+8):-


1548 (GMT+8):-


Closeup, 1552 (GMT+8):-


1553 (GMT+8):-


1555 (GMT+8), I found this prominence group very interesting:-

Monday, October 12, 2009

20091012 Sun

It's cloudy today, I just take the short moment which I can penetrate the thinner cloud by overexposure.



Taken with my usual setup. The sun has moved into a good position from inside my home, I've removed that long extension plate after this session since I can point to the sun from insde my home without it. More stability from now on.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Stuff for sales

I prefer local (Hong Kong) sales except the Herschel wedge which could be shipped.

1. Orion 100ED f/9 OTA with rings ($3888)

- Superb optical quality, the tube is not very long and it "fits" into a tripod bad which I will include in the deal. I usually unscrew the lens with its cell to store separately.

2. Unistar Light mount ($1500)

- With less than 2kg in weight, it supports even a C8 up to around 100x (stable!), the ultimate portable visual mount, 3/8" thread

3. 1.25" APM Herschel wedge with B+W ND3 and Polarizer ($1999)

- The best you can get for white light solar imaging, period.

All prices are listed in HKD, please contact me if interested.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

20091004 Jupiter with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L

Yes, I am not joking, I just did it. Conventional snapshot won't work, and instead, I have used the software EOS Camera Movie Record so that I can take short video clip and then do stacking. The native 400mm focal length is very little for Jupiter and thus I've added a Kenko 2x into the optical path to get 800mm. Yes, 800mm is still little but then that's what I can do at this moment. f/11 is not pushing the optics for planet imaging and we usually use f/20 or more. Anyway, it's just a start.



Not bad, right?

20091004 Sun

There is a very interesting prominence today, nothing else.

1605 (GMT+8), with reducer:-


1606 (GMT+8), with reducer:-


1611 (GMT+8), with 2x barlows:-