20090730 Sun

Rainy, sunny and cloudy these days. It sounds funny but it's real, and therefore, if you have to shoot, you need to be patient. Everything taken with my trusty setup consisting of the modified Tele Vue Ranger with a JMI NGF-CM, Coronado Solarmax 40 with BF10, and then tracked by Meade LXD55. With the introduction of the new tube ring, the whole setup is far more stable and much better balance and it is a pleasure to use.

First is a full disc shot taken with the reducer, 1612 (GMT+8):-


Push up the exposure to show the prominence better, 1613 (GMT+8):-


And then I put the Tele Vue Powermate 5x in the optical chain, I believe that I've forgotten to remove the reducer this time.

1616 (GMT+8), this active complex is getting weaker:-


1617 (GMT+8), the small emerging (or dying) active spot:-


1619 (GMT+8), finally, one of those tall prominence:-


Nice day indeed, and when I packed up my stuff, it's totally covered.

20090729 Moon

Hazy sky, captured with a Canon 100-400mm wide open with Kenko 2x (f/11 effective), contrast detected autofocusing in LiveView mode. I need better sky to test again.



ISO 800, spot metering, IS off, RAW, stacked of 10 frames by Registax V5.

20090729 Sun

Seeing 4/10, transparency 6/10. Tele Vue Ranger with NGF-CM, Solarmax 40 with BF10, DMK 31AF03 tracked by Meade LXD55.

1446 (GMT+8), with reducer:-


1452 (GMT+8), with 5x Tele Vue Powermate:-


That active complex is quite interesting, the few bright spots at the middle are nice as well.

DIY reducer experiments

I have two small objective lens, one is 30mm f=122 and the other one is 21mm f=200mm. They might be suitable as the optics for a webcam/eyepiece reducer project.

For the mounting, I've some cheap 1.25" filter lying around and I can remove the filter glass and replace them with one of the lens above. The 30mm lens is a bit too big for this purpose, but still, I can stick the lens on the filter mount so that they could be attached to eyepiece/webcam. The 21mm lens fits nicely within the filter mount.

Both of them works basically. However, with my transformed Ranger, I found that both of them failed to reach focus, I need around 5mm more in-travel. So, I will probably need to give up.

Having said that, there's still one more way to try, i.e. to mount that 21mm lens directly inside the BF10 for solar imaging, but I will need to invent a good detachable way.

--

Put that 21mm lens inside the BF10 still failed, since this lens has rather long focal length and the big reduction factor requires more in-travel.

20090728 Sun

Seeing 2/10, transparency 6/10 without much cloud around.

1645 (GMT+8), with reducer:-


1646 (GMT+8), with reducer:-


1645 (GMT+8), with 5x:-

For Sales: Planet Imaging Solutions

Let me know if you're interested. Here is what's included in the deal:

First of all, this is a small notebook from Sony.



The detail specifications:

- Sony Vaio U3 ultra small notebook
- 820 grams only
- Size: 185 x 140 x 32mm
- Crusoe 933MHz CPU, 512M RAM, 20G hard disk
- RJ45 network, PCMCIA, USB * 2, 1394 * 1, VGA out, audio in/out
- Battery life around 1.2 hour (rarely used)
- Installed with Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux

Mine is upgraded to 512M RAM and even comes with a PCG-DA1S cable to connect to VGA directly. I will also include a Asus Wi Fi as well as a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card as well. No drop frame when used with the ToUCam Pro.

Secondly, this is a ToUCam Pro with an extra case if you prefer the newer look. The original lens is included as well as an Mogg adapter to connect to any 1.25" focuser, threaded for filter. Finally, a Baader UV/IR blocker is included. This filter is very useful for imaging Mars.


All items for $420 USD including paypal fee and shipping to US or similar destinations, or you can take the package without the notebook at $120 USD shipped.

A very nice free filter box

I have several color filters, plus two filters for my Herschel wedge. Those color filters do have their own box, but the cover is made by glass, so I never use them in the field since they will be broken very easily and it could be quite dangerous. And for other filters, I found it quite troublesome to open each box, take them out and put them back every time... Having so many boxes at once is pretty bad.

Today, I've received a new filter which is for my Canon 100-400mm, and that box fits all of my filters very nicely. Great free box.

20090723 New active region forming

Most people will forget about the sun after those special events, but as a solar "addict", I definitely won't. I even hear someone who had become a solar addict after watching a couple of totality.

I setup my Ranger with the new ring, and now the 410 head can be removed and that improves the stability greatly. Don't get me wrong, the 410 head is very stable, but that's its weight and the raised profile on an offset platform which upset the performance of the whole LXD55, now it works very nicely. Good news to me indeed, since it's less than $10 USD to solve this problem.



Let's go back to the photographs, you can see three very bright dots near the center of the solar disc. The prominence loop which we saw yesterday was gone. As you can see from the above shot, the sky was pretty covered... It's not bad since I managed to take two shots!

1509 (GMT+8):-


1511 (GMT+8):-

Ranger fully transformed

Today I used the tube ring of my Canon 100-400mm and it does not work very well, it actually slided when we're observing, but as expected, there is no room for the scope to drop out. And after the observation, I got a new ring which is a third party ring for the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 and it does not fit well. Again, this is expected and I placed some padding material and now it's very firm unlike this morning. This ring will stay with my Ranger and the ring for the Canon 100-400mm can be returned to its intended partner :-)



Now the transformed Ranger is ready for any serious battle under the starry sky or sunny sky!

2009-07-22 Partial Solar Eclipse in Hong Kong

I decided to stay since the weather forecast is not too favorable. The venue for my observation is Nam Cheong playground which is around 10 minutes of walk from my home, and thus I can be more aggressive in taking more equipments.

Equipment Line up:-

1. Tele Vue Ranger with Solarmax 40 and BF10
2. DMK 31AF03.AS for H-alpha capturing, controlled by my Sony Vaio U3 (too old!!!)
3. Takahashi TG-SP II on Gitzo G106, powered by the notebook USB port!
4. SLA 12V 7aH battery
5. Konica Minolta Z5 12x zoom DC with Baader solar filter
6. Canon 450D with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L with Thousand Oaks Type 2+ for white light
7. A couple of eclipse shade

Guests:-

1. ahmou
2. Johnny and family
3. My wife and her brother
4. Evelyn and her sister
5. and a couple of passerby

Data and lesson learnt:-

1. Eclipse starts at around 08:14:00 as estimated from a video clip (less accurate)
2. Eclipse ends at around 10:45:06 as estimated from another video clip
3. Should go to the venue earlier since I have to explain and talk to the passerby and thus I cannot setup my equipments as fast as I can
4. There should be a backup for battery, I have but it's only for the cameras but not for the mount this time, the 12V SLA is really running out of juice during the last 10 minutes or so.
5. My 12V 7Ah battery should be dying, I believe it has less than 4Ah capacity right now.

Pictures:-

This is my first shot, and this is my only H-alpha shot since this scope has been so busy:-


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96393&id=700747262&l=932d42cd53

Some selected pictures:-

Here we begin, I was too late to setup my stuff. I don't expect so much questions from passerby but I enjoyed talking to them.

Most friends arrived, it's fun to have people sharing the view and the joy.
The moon matches on:-
The wisdom of some people around the spot (街坊的智慧):-

The natural pin-holes projections:-

Another natural filter, i.e. the cloud:-
Work in progress:-
DC and eclipse shade (各施各法):-
DSLR and my Thousand Oaks (各施各法):-

The eyepiece view should be the best of all:-


Last bit of bite, see you all next time!


Video clips: they could be boring but if you know cantonese, it could be quite fun to listen how people response to the view, and also what we chat during the show:-

Bad, YouTube does not allow longer clip, anyway, here's what the clip revealed:

"First contact time was around 8:14:00 as calculated from the movie clip, the voice recorded is a funny bonus. It's good to record the response from friends and passerby."



The observation site, and the setup, and the friends. Observing with friends are so nice and the joy are multiplied:-




All the way until the end, the 12V 7Ah battery was running out of juice... it's unexpected, maybe the DMK is sucking up too much energy? The mount should be pretty energy efficient... anyway, got to prepare another battery box as back up next time.

ends at around 11:28, i.e. 10:45:06



Finally, an animated GIF:

http://oldfield.sinaman.com/gif/20090722.html

20090721 Sun

Just setup my Ranger/Solarmax to see if there's any big prominences around. I really want to see the moon cuts into the prominences, but it seems like the chance would be very small, there's no big prominence today and probably no tomorrow as well. Very low activity indeed.

1509 (GMT+8):-


1510 (GMT+8):-


The sky is pretty fuzzy today despite it looked quite good, maybe there's a layer of thin cloud moving around.

Final Preparations

1. Site visit: I went to the potential observation spots this morning at around the time for the eclipse tomorrow so that I know exactly where the sun will be, and whether the composition would be good enough.

a. Sycamore/Willow playground: this is a very small playground (mainly football and basket ball field) very near my home, this place is alright for the observation since the sun cleared all the obstacles already. However, the surroundings are not as nice for wide field shot.

b. Nam Cheong playground: this is a much bigger playground for 5 more minutes of walk, this place is alright for the observation since the sun cleared most obstacles already. However, there is a few tall buildings around which could block the view, and there are so many people there in the morning. The composition would be nice for wide field shot due to the trees, etc.

This is outside of the playground, less people, just the road side:-

This is inside the playground, there's a sitting bench around:-
A few minutes later in the same place:

On using simulation software, the sun might be blocked by that tall building during the first contact, so I will go to (a) instead. But (b) is more flexible indeed... still waiting for confirmation, maybe decide on spot!

I will go to Nam Cheong park for the sake of my friends.




2. Time synchronizations: I've updated my phone clock, my cameras' clock so that I know better when the eclipse will begin, I will also use the time from GPS.

3. Decision, decision, decision:

I will need to finalize my equipments as follow.

a. H-alpha should not be missed because it's great for close up, white light close up is meaningless since there's no sunspot. Therefore, I shall bring my Ranger, Solarmax 40 with BF10, and they will be tracked on my TG-SP II. I will need that 12V SLA to power my notebook as well as my DMK.

b. White light close up will be done with my Canon 100-400mm handheld, the Kenko 2x will be left at home with the absence of sunspots. Thousand Oaks Type 2+ will be used for the filtering. I shall also take a few wide field shots (at 17mm or 50mm?) say in around 10-15 minutes interval.

c. White light close up video will be done with my KM Z5 with DIY baader filter, it will do its work on the TG-SP II as well, mostly from the very beginning (5 minutes), the very middle say 20 minutes, and the end of the eclipse (5 minutes).

d. An umbrella and a big bottle of water for myself.

4. Finalizing everything:

The business end, one scope for H-alpha close up and one DC for video recording in white light:-



The dirty end, I really felt sad, Windows is running slower and slower everyday, and now I can only use 3.5 fps in order not to have any drop frame, even 7 fps will not do, crazy indeed! Time to upgrade my notebook (but where is the money?!):


==

Packing:

1. Fastpack 350:

- Canon 450D with kit lens for wide field shots
- I gave up the Canon 10x30 IS
- All filters were placed on the top part
- Ranger/Focuser in the bottom half
- KM Z5, filter, DMK also in the bottom half
- Bottle of water on the side

2. Another bag

- All cables (hopefully really all)
- Mount, counter weight, battery
- Mounting plate

3. Canon 100-400mm in its own bag, should fix on my belt

4. Tripod handheld, one more umbrella

I hope nothing important were left at home.

Saturn with Canon 100-400mm and Kenko 2x

It's still small, especially when the ring is closed these days. Anyway, the ring is detectable with this setup. And I guess Jupiter should be more interesting.

Out of focus, you can see the diffracton ring:-


The second one is better focused:-


Both capture video EOS Camera Movie Record and processed by Registax V5, 150% resized.

Testing: One... Two... Three....

Functional Units:

A. Mount: I prefer to use my TG-SP II since it's much lighter, but my LXD55 can hold far more stuff and stand quite a lot of imbalance, and give more stability

B. Capturing:

- White light: I will be using my Canon 100-400mm at 400mm plus a Kenko 2x, that would give 800mm effective focal length, Canon 450D will be used for image capturing and it will be controlled via a timer release. Thousand Oaks Type 2+ will be used for filtering.

- H-alpha: I will be using my Tele Vue Ranger at prime focus, maybe with a reducer or barlows for closer up, DMK 31AF03 will be used for image capturing and it will be controlled via my Sony Vaio U3. Coronado Solarmax 40 with BF10 will be used for filtering.

- Video: I will be using my Konica Minolta Z5 in video mode, 640x480x30fps at maximum zoom. A small DIY solar filter will be used for the filtering.



Problem:

- Since my Ranger was not yet mounted via a ring, so I have problem balancing it with the Canon 100-400mm. That means I will have to use my LXD55 to handle that imbalance. And that would add significant bulk to the setup. The H-alpha setup is also the most troublesome one which requires a computer, a bigger battery, etc.

I shall try to capture the sun in H-alpha tomorrow to see if there's any big prominence around. If it does not, I will skip this one altogether.

The Minimal Setup:

- Gitzo G106 with Takahashi TG-SP II, 6A SLA
- Scope stuff mounting plate
- Konica Minolta Z5 with DIY filter for video recording
- Canon 100-400mm with Kenko 2x and Canon 450D, Thousand Oaks Type 2+, timer release

that is, the Ranger side is replaced by a small 12x zoom DC.

That would be very portable and easy to setup. Adding the H-alpha part will mean double the weight, and that might not be feasible and not worth the effort.

--

Additional Remarks at night:

Just a sudden thought, maybe I can take H-alpha with my Ranger as well as white light video with my KM Z5 before and after the first contact?

And then switch to Canon 100-400mm with 2x afterward?

The balance issue could be resolved by then.

A solar filter for my 12x DC

I had made so many of them in the past, but none of them were as elegant as this one. This one consists of the 52mm adapter, a small piece of baader film, plus a 52mm red filter. Originally, I wanted to take out the red glass but the retaining ring is too firmly attached, so I gave up, instead, I sandwiched the baader film between the red filter and the adapter.

Here's the result:



It does not look good, but it's more related to the sky condition today. And the bottomline is that, I will only use this DC (Konica Minolta Z5) for video recording.

20090720 Sun

The typhoon left rather quickly. Today we got around 60-70% of cloud cover, and the weather forecast is very favorable on the eclipse day locally, and at least I won't be making too bad a decision to stay.

Today I tried to shoot in white light again with my camera lenses so that I can see how to make good use of them. Autofocus by using LiveView contrast detection is better than conventional DSLR focusing when there is no sunspot to focus, but contrast detection using the solar disc edge could be very accurate! Better yet, you're not limited by the aperture, autofocus is available even at f/11!

Again, I tried the 200mm f2.8L with Kenko 2x as well as the Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L with kenko 2x.

200mm with 2x:-


400mm with 2x:-

Typhoon number nine here!

Water are sneaking in from my (south west facing) observing window, the rubber insulation were all wet and this is the first time that I have seen this within ten years.

Here's a section copied from the Hong Kong Observatory website:-

= begin quote =

Tropical Cyclone Bulletin

Here is the latest Tropical Cyclone Bulletin issued by the Hong Kong Observatory.

The Increasing Gale or Storm Signal, No. 9, is in force.

This means that winds are increasing significantly.

At 3 a.m., Typhoon Molave was centred about 40 kilometres north of Hong Kong Observatory (near 22.7 degrees north 114.2 degrees east) and is forecast to move west-northwest at about 25 kilometres per hour across Shenzhen.

Molave is still rather close to Hong Kong. Gale force winds are generally affecting Hong Kong. Winds will strengthen further with heavy rain and squalls. As local winds turn southwesterly gradually, places previously sheltered from the winds will become exposed. Members of the public should take precautions as soon as possible. In the past hour, the maximum sustained winds recorded at Lau Fau Shan and Tai Mei Tuk were 91 and 88 kilometres per hour with maximum gusts 113 and 134 kilometres per hour respectively. A high water level of 2.9 metres above chart datum is expected at Quarry Bay between 4:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. The high water level may cause flooding in low-lying areas in Sheung Wan.

= end quote =

20090717 Sun taken with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L USM

Taken with Canon 100-400mm at 400mm wide open f/5.6, Thousand Oaks Type 2+ Glass, IS turned off, tracked by Meade LXD55.



Taken with Canon 100-400mm at 800mm wide open f/11 (Kenko 2x), Thousand Oaks Type 2+ Glass, IS turned off, tracked by Meade LXD55.



Both autofocused by LiveView contrast detection, I would say the result is very excellent, sharp and well defined edge. Now I will need some sunspots around to conduct any futher test, and maybe I shall use this combination for the upcoming partial eclipse and any total solar eclipse trip that I might go in the future.

This solar filter is originally bought for my Tele Vue Ranger and it's a perfect fit with this lens, even better than the Tele Vue Ranger!



A very tight fit, just perfect! Judging from the result, I guess that I have a very good reason to keep the Kenko 2x.

Enhancing the DIY solar filter cell for my Canon 10x30 IS

I make it something like a box:-


This is the inside of this box, notice that I have sticked some soft foam inside in order to create a better fit. Once the 10x30 is stucked in, it will not drop off by itself, even with strong shake. Of course, extreme care must still be exercised due to the intrinsic risk of solar observations.


This is how it looks like when fitted:-

20090717 DSLR video capturing - Jupiter

This is more like a test of equipment, my DMK is perfect for monochromatic capturing, and after using it, I dare not to look back... so for color, maybe my DSLR can do? However, my Canon 450D does not support video mode directly, so I used the video capture software for Canon DSLR (third party, non-standard) to see if I can capture planet with it. It supports more than 20 fps, and at the same time, you can adjust the ISO and shutter speed manually. I found that it's delivering pretty clean images up to ISO 400, and even at ISO 1600, it's not much worse than a ToUCam Pro. The downside is that the file captured is not in raw format, but anyway, why not give a try first?



The above is done with Registax. Registax V5 can do the stacking without problem, but it's much slower than with AVI.

My intuition told me to use my Ranger for testing, but focuser travel requirement stops me from using higher power, so I'm limiting myself to 480mm in the dark. In short, the 2x barlows requires more back travel than I can provide in a rush in the dark. The 5x is too dim for my eyes to judge the focuser travel requirement. Therefore, I will want to verify this in day time before the next test.

When the sky turned blue, I asked myself, why didn't I try to use my Canon 100-400mm with a Kenko 2x?! At least I will have 800mm and there won't be any focusing issue! This is just similar aperture with my Ranger! Silly me, maybe next time. Maybe I shall also try out my 100mm ED as well.

The software:

http://valexvir.narod.ru/

Edge HD from Celestron

Interesting improvement from Celestron, an answer to the Meade ACF apparently. Competition could be a nice thing for the customers.

Round 3: Canon 100-400mm @ 400mm vs. Canon 200mm 2.8 with Kenko 2x

Canon 450D at ISO 200, two lenses were tested again each others namely, both lenses are having date code beginning with UW:

1. Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L USM
2. Canon 200mm f2.8L USM + Kenko 2x

Zoom at f5.6, center cropped:-


Zoom at f5.6, border cropped:-


200mm with 2x at f5.6, center cropped:-


200mm with 2x at f5.6, border cropped:-


Zoom at f8, center cropped:-


Zoom at f8, border cropped:-


200mm with 2x at f8, center cropped:-


200mm with 2x at f8, border cropped:-


Summary: center sharpness of the prime with 2x is similar to that of the zoom, but the border sharpness of the zoom is clearly superior!

Final test on the sun with Thousand Oaks Type 2+ Glass filter, all cropped:

200mm with 2x wide open:-


100-400mm at 400mm wide open:-


The one from the zoom has a more well defined edge, it could be a result of the IS of the zoom but from my previous experience, even when I put the 200mm with 2x on a tracking mount, the edge is still a kind of fuzzy, so it's very probably that the zoom is performing better indeed. More tests should follow.

Round 2: Canon 100-400mm @ 200mm vs. Canon 200mm 2.8

Canon 450D at ISO 200, two lenses were tested again each others namely, both lenses are having date code beginning with UW:

1. Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L USM
2. Canon 200mm f2.8L USM

Zoom at f/5 center cropped:-


Zoom at f/5 border cropped:-


Prime at f/5 center cropped:-


Prime at f/5 border cropped:-



Zoom at f/8 center cropped:-


Zoom at f/8 border cropped:-


Prime at f/8 center cropped:-


Prime at f/8 border cropped:-


Finally, let's see the prime at wide open (f/2.8), and you will know it's an exceptionally good lens!

Center cropped:


Border cropped:-


No doubt that the 200mm f2.8L is always recommended for astrophotography.

Round 1: Canon 100-400mm @ 100mm vs. Canon 100mm 2.0

Canon 450D at ISO 200, two lenses were tested again each others namely:

1. Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L USM
2. Canon 100mm f2.0 USM

So here are the testing shots at f/4.5:-

Prime at f/4.5 resized:-


Zoom at f/4.5 resized:-


Prime at f/4.5 center cropped:-


Prime at f/4.5 border cropped:-


Zoom at f/4.5 center cropped:-


Zoom at f/4.5 border cropped:-


And then the test shots at f/8:-

Zoom at f/8 resized:-


Prime at f/8 resized:-


Zoom at f/8, center cropped:-


Zoom at f/8, border cropped:-


Prime at f/8, center cropped:-


Prime at f/8, border cropped:-


Finally, prime at f/2:-

Center cropped:-


Border cropped:-


Resized:-


The 100mm f2.0 is recommended for astrophotography in a number of website, I guess that I have to stop it down to f2.5 or slower and considering the price and versatility, it's unbeatable.

20090716 Jupiter

Finally, I got it. It's hanging outside now but it's rather low in the sky, I should have waken up earlier. Anyway. It's pretty cloudy essential but I did try.

Sky: Seeing 4/10, transparency 0-8/10.
Telescope: Orion 100mm ED f/9
Camera: DMK 31AF03.AS
Barlows: Tele Vue Powermate 5x
Mount: Meade LXD55

First of all, I pulled out my Pentax 40mm SMC XL to center the ball in the field, hey it's oh-so-sharp! There are so many stars in the background sky but the brightest ball is too bright to see. Those satellites were nicely and equally separated, two at each side. Great view indeed. Then, I inserted my Japanese 7mm Ortho there...

Wow!!!!

What a view! Plain sharp! GRS is right in the face and I could see so much detail! This is one of the best view of Jupiter that I ever had! Impressive! I guess part of the reason is owing to the fact that I didn't see Jupiter for very long! And another part of the reason is the refractor view... It's just another story when compared to SCT, period. Bigger aperture really helps, but quality aperture also counts. :-) Don't beat me if you don't agree, just enjoy your own view as much as I enjoyed mine.

Then I pulled out my DMK... at prime focus first... it's just cute!

0439 (GMT+8), all the satellites in place!


Then I inserted the 5x, but then cloud rolled in, and it keeps rolling in... anyway, I have several 400 frames AVIs (I usually get 1000 at 30fps) between those nasty cloudy, so far when I am typing this, the view is still totally covered.

(After processing, I found those smaller AVIs are all bad due to the variation of cloud thickness and sky condition)

And just before the sky turned blue, I managed to get a much bigger cloud gap. See what can I get. I couldn't do very critical focusing because time is running short, so I just took two clips with slightly different focus position. See my luck and my guts feeling about correct focus this time.

0505 (GMT+8):-


0507 (GMT+8):-


Which one is better in your eyes?


I am going to try out my 450D in video mode next time when I got more time.

Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L

Just got it today! It's kind of unexpected, anyway, it's a UW model. I will try to compare it with my Canon 200mm f2.8L with a Kenko 2x very soon.

This zoom should be far more flexible, and at the same time, it has IS which is great for daily purpose. For astronomy, the Canon 200mm f2.8L should be better since it could be used wide open. The Kenko 2x is more useful for solar eclipse trip before, and now I guess maybe the Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L can replace it entirely. But of course, I shall try it out first.

So if you're interested in the comparison between this two options at 400mm f5.6, stay tuned.

20090715 Sun

The weather is funny today, sunshine and heavy rain alternatively, I took the chance of the perfect sunshine and captured a few shots. As usual, taken with my Ranger/Solarmx40 and BF10/DMK 31AF03.

1523-1524 (GMT+8), two frames stitched together:-


1525 (GMT+8):-


I also took time to enhance my Baader filter for my Canon 10x30 IS and test it again, it fits much better now. I remember last year I dare not to let other people to use it since I don't feel it safe, cannot risk other people's eyes... I have to hold the filter bracket with my fingers and it's hard to teach other how to do it. Now, it's ready for the upcoming partial solar eclipse here. There's no sunspot in white light.

Equipment line-up for upcoming solar eclipse

This is a plan for local observation, i.e. a partial eclipse.

1. For friends and passerby, I will prepare two sets of eclipse glasses.

I will also use my Canon 10x30 IS with Baader filter. I will need to make a better mount for the filter since it could be dangerous for the present one.

2. For photography:

- White light: Canon 450D + Kenko 2x + Canon 200mm f2.8L with Thousand Oaks filter, controlled using timer release automatically after the first contact and I will take exposure every 5 minutes.

- H-alpha: Ranger with reducer + Solarmax 40 with BF10 + DMK 31AF03, target for first contact plus a few shots in between the partial eclipse, maybe every 10 minutes and then let people look through it in between the exposures. Each sub-frame should have around 300 frames only to save disk space and time.

- Mount: my TG-SP II should be good enough but I might take my LXD55 for stability

- Power: My notebook would need that 12V SLA, and the DMK would also draw power there via a powered 1394 hubs.

--

If I were to travel, I will only bring the white light setup on TG-SP II, and also my Canon 10x30 IS like the last year.

Stellarium

http://www.stellarium.org/

I found this one very nice and easy to use, no more those useless manual to block your view, and the simulated view is just fantastic. Not too real to confuse newbies like the real sky (!), and not too fake to become useless.

Best of all, it works very nicely and it's free.

20090714 Sun

No transparency that we can speak of today, it's 0.1/10 if I were to rate it. Just for fun, two frames stitched together, zero detail absolutely.

Upcoming solar eclipse

I have no concrete plan yet, but since there is no place like last year, that is, a place where good weather is nearly a certainty, I didn't plan for a trip yet. And this year, the eclipse path covers big cities so that air ticket is easy to get and we can easily get there without too much travelling, so we can wait until the last minute for a quick two-days return trip.

Here is a list of factors for my considerations:

1. Weather forecast: this is the single most important thing, and so far, those easily accessible locations only got cloudy, raining or even thunderstorm. So, it's better to wait until early next week?

2. Location: since most of the locations are big city, the good thing is the transportation, but the bad thing will be a "weaker" solar eclipse due to air pollution, the most beautiful thing about solar eclipse is the huge dynamic range of detail, but then air pollution will kill contrast like hell.

Frankly, I'm kind of worrying that this solar eclipse might kill people's appetite.

Finally, there's one more less important factor and it's about equipment. Last year, I planned to shot via H-alpha filter during the first contact, I hope to see the moon cuts into some prominences, and I never saw similar photograph before. And I believe it would be interesting. However, I gave up since it's hard to bring too much equipment with me. Guess what, this photograph is do-able without totality, and I can stay in Hong Kong to do that! Therefore, if the local weather forecast is favorable, I might just stay in Hong Kong for that reason. Save the trouble to travel and risk the bad weather else where.

20090713 Sun

Basically featureless, Tele Vue Ranger, Solarmax 40 with BF10, DMK 31AF03 at prime focus, tracked by Meade LXD55.



Created with drift and expand method.

20090710 Sun

Typhoon is coming, transparency dropped crazily today and I don't even need a ND3 for imaging with a Herschel wedge. All I used was a green filter plus a polarizer. First up are a few H-alpha images taken with my Solarmax 40/BF10, and then some shots taken with my APM Herschel wedge.

1523 (GMT+8), taken at prime focus of my Ranger:-

1526 (GMT+8), with 2x barlows:-

1535 (GMT+8), white light using green filter and half-polarizer:-


After that, I pulled out my Orion 100mm ED f/9 for some test shots. I have to move my mount to another window to gain access to the sun, but part of the aperture was still blocked, and I couldn't use my DMK as well due to the distant from my PC. I have used my Canon 450D instead, Tele Vue 5x was used:-



Single shot cropped.

20090709 Sun - Color Experiment (cont)

This is to continue the experiment yesterday, one more data point before the sunspot goes away. Same equipments:

Blue filter:-


Green filter:-


It seems like that green is superior, but the difference is not too much. However, I guess that's enough for me to stick with green from now on.

Transparency remains high today, many local amateurs comment that the moon was brightest these days among these months (maybe years). Frankly, I never felt hot when I'm trying to point my Ranger on the sun, but yesterday and today, I really felt the heat! I pulled out a piece of paper and it burns within 3 seconds, this was never the case from my experience. The heat sink on my Herschel wedge is now more useful than before, I never feel the need to have it there before.

Comparison of white light images taken with different color filters

Date: 2009-07-08 (Around 1400-1440@GMT+8)

Telescope: Tele Vue Ranger 70mm f/6.8 ED refractor
Filter: APM Herschel Wedge plus B+W ND3
Barlows: Tele Vue Powermate 5x
Camera: DMK 31AF03
Mount: Meade LXD55

In addition to the above, different color filters were used, they include:

1. Yellow filter from Antares #12 (Japan) - exposure 1/1000s


2. Blue filter from Zhitong #38A (China) - exposure 1/108s


3. Green filter from Zhitong #58 (China) - exposure 1/45s


4. Red filter from Zhitong #25A (China) - exposure 1/736s



Registax V5 is used for the stacking job, MAP were used with 3 alignment points, around 1200 frames were captured for each individual AVI.

I guess we will agree that the blue and green ones are better of the batch, so I took two more clips for comparison:-

Green:-


Blue:-


Finally, I have briefly compared the eyepiece view with #58 (Green) and #38A (Blue), the amount of detail is similar through both filters, but I prefer the dimmr view from the green filter. Visually, dimmer view could be more pleasing but photographically, I tend to believe that my blue filter has a slight edge here, since it allows faster shutter to freeze poor day time atmospheric seeing.

Of course, we need more experiments to confirm since day time seeing tend to vary quite a lot, even among experiments taken a few minutes apart and thus, sharper result could be a just result of momentarily better seeing, and thus might not be fully a result of better filter.

My main eyepiece box

After equipment re-organizations, here is my main eyepiece box. It consists of a 40mm Pentax SMC XL, a 13mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 6, a 0.5x Siebert optics binoviewer corrector, a 20mm Japanese Widescan Type III, a Tele Vue 5x Powermate, a 7mm Japanese Orthoscopics, a 1.25" thread extension tube, a Tele Vue 2x Barlows.

The Pentax is my wide field scanning eyepiece, it also serves as my finder eyepiece.

The Widescan is parfocal with my DMK as well as ToUCam Pro, good for target centering as well as rough initial focus.

The 13mm Nagler is my main observation eyepiece, once the target is located, I will switch to this one, excellent for deep sky observing, solar observing and lunar observations.

The 7mm Ortho is my planetary eyepiece, it is just excellent, super sharp and contrasty.

Visual observation in the urban center

Don't call me crazy, it's do-able. Scorpius is hanging outside, the moon is very bright today. Guess what, it implies that the transparency is very high! So I pulled out my Orion 100mm f/9 ED to have some scanning with my Pentax SMC XL 40mm...

Once I located something interesting, I will use my Nagler Type 6 13mm. You know, 13mm is really a magical focal length, it gives wonderful view indeed. M6 is superb, and M7 is fantastic... you will know why they got their names... amazing! Refractor view is really wonderful.

I tried to locate M4, and I know it's a very hard target in urban sky... I tried to locate it before with a C8 but failed. But then I tried to see it in darker sky with my 70mm Ranger and it's just so easy... I tried again this time with my 100mm and I did it this time. With the 40mm, I know it should be there but it is not. Pushing up with a 13mm, it's there really! Adding a 2x barlows helps a little bit further by darkening the sky. Very nice! Who said M4 is not detectable in urban sky! We got the moon tonight too! Patience is the king, just keep trying...

20090707 Sun (AR1024)

Seeing 5/10, transparency 7/10. Tele Vue Ranger, DMK 31AF03.AS tracked by Meade LXD55. White light taken with APM Herschel Wedge, also with B+W ND3, (polarizer or green filter or 52mm aperture IR filter), H-alpha taken with Solarmax 40 with BF10.

1426 (GMT+8):-


1429 (GMT+8) with 5x:-


1439 (GMT+8), with green filter:-

1442 (GMT+8), without green filter:-
The one with IR pass is very bad, I guess IR is more affected by poor seeing... and maybe green is the least affected? The green filter really helped a lot to push the detail.

Jupiter... I did try!

I really tried this morning despite it's pretty cloudy. It's so bright that it's just too attractive. I setup my mount, adjusted the mounting plate... but cloud stopped me from taking any image. Actually, I even failed to focus properly since cloud kept covering my view.

I will keep trying and at least I should have taken an image after the summer!

20090706 Sun

We finally got sunshine again! I have been longing to shoot AR1024 but no chance... It seems very promising from the images that I have seen, but today, I found that it's rather disappointing, since despite it's feature rich and complex, it's still small! I really hope that there will be some active regions such that I will need to use a reducer rather than a 5x to shoot.

Tele Vue Ranger with NGF-CM, Solarmax 40 with BF10, DMK 31AF03.AS tracked on a Meade LXD55... full disc taken with a 0.5x corrector at the nosepiece of the BF10, close up with a Tele Vue 5x Powermate.

1532 (GMT+8):-


1533 (GMT+8):-


1539 (GMT+8), can you hear the cracking sound out there? ;-)


1546 (GMT+8), it's changing, detectable even in several minutes:-


A good day, but I really hope there's something bigger coming!

Denkmeier Spectrum 60 PST Upgrade

Just notice that, you can go to Denkmeier website for some more information.

For a $599 upgrade, it is not bad, however, if you take Lunt's into the equation, such "hack" is not a good deal immediately. Of course, PST hacking by end user is still a very promising and viable way, but then it's not really so if you limit yourself to 60mm ONLY.

Of course, not everyone would be happy with a DIY hacking job, especially when you're doing that with a solar telescope. In that case, this latest offering might be attractive still.

Let's see how it works out, I'm sure that it's going to work out well, but considering the price and competiting product, we really need to be go one more step to be success in this complex market.

Items wanted

After selling a number of equipments, now I want the following, and if you happen to have any of them for sales, please contact me:

1. Canon 100mm f2.0 (got it!)
2. Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L (got a UW one!)
3. Takahashi FS60C Clamshell only (found cheap replacement)

Equipments come and go!

Goodbye my hacked PST

It was sold eventually. This is a final record about how I packed it and how to use it, this is more like a note for myself so that if I want to make another one in the future, I will know how to do so, and it's also a note for the new owner.

First of all, it is how a fully assembled PST should look like. The etalon is sandwiched between the golden OTA and the black focuser body, the black focuser body also contains the built-in solar finder and the visual back. The visual back is also some sort of blocking filter, but I found that it couldn't be used as an alternative of BF5/BF10.


This is how the etalon should be placed between the adapters. The etalon should be inserted into the focuser of the scaled up telescope, and the other end should be fitted with a BF5, BF10 or BF15 before a camera can be inserted.

Notice that this scaled up setup should be used for imaging only, visual usage could be quite dangerous and it is not recommended. Never risk our eye.


I have packed the PST black body into a pink box fitted with peanuts... this metal block is very strong by itself and it should be safe for transportation.

Next, I have bubble wrapped the etalon with its adapters, the PST visual back, the PST keller and also the 52mm bonus ERF in another box.

Finally, this is the 6.5" ERF, I used it like this... but in order to avoid the screws from being bended during transportation, I have removed those screws and placed in inside a small plastic bag. The recessed locations are used to lock the ring with the OTA...


Since this is the biggest piece of glass, I have packed it, and then surrounded it with some big foam in the hope to give better protection, then the whole monster is bubble warpped further like below.

Everything is then placed in a box filled with peanuts inside a bigger box like below. BTW, I have included a bonus piece of heat absorbing glass in the package, but it is not required for the setup, of course, it might be useful someday if you found your setup too hot? Anyway, it's there and if you found it useless, just throw it away.

The whole package will be shipped via airmail in the post office, the tracking number has been email'ed to the new owner.

And finally, here is a list of summary which one might find useful to use a hacked PST setup:

http://osastrolog.blogspot.com/search/label/pst - this is my adventure with this project
http://oldfield.sinaman.com/star/projects/cerf.html - my log of experiments
http://www.dd1us.de/Downloads/Modification%20of%20a%20Coronado%20PST%200v6.pdf - another very useful document

Last but not least, solar observation or imaging could be very dangerous, so in any case if you have question, don't risk and try to ask first. Irreversible damage could occur and thus, take no risk. Good luck to the new owner and I believe that it's going to receive more sunshine than it was with me, I simply couldn't use this big setup for most of the time from inside my home.

Jogging under the stars

I live in the urban center of Hong Kong. Other than the strong light pollution and air pollution, there are just too many tall buildings around so that the amount of visible sky is very narrow and scattered.

Recently, I have developed a new hobby in night time - jogging. Around an hour after my dinner, I would walk for ~10 minutes to a playground to have some jogging. That playground gives a much wider field of view, and the sky is a little bit darker there as well. While I am jogging, I would look up (guess what, this is a "signature" of amateur astronomer) to see what's in the sky. When the sky is clear, I could identify some constellations. And while I'm jogging slowly, I also notice that the stars are "moving" slowly as well. The stars pattern shift a little bit from night to night, and occassionally due to my schedule, I needed to go out later, but then I would soon notice the difference!

The stars are jogging with me, and they're telling me the time. The time of the day and the time of the year. Stars keep moving and life should keep moving. They know where they're going and I know why I'm jogging too. When we're getting older, we just need a little bit more physical exercise. I would go home after each jogging session and the stars were at their home forever (compared to human lifespan), moving and telling us the history of the universe.

I found that I love all sorts of natural activities at night, camping, hiking and now jogging, guess what, they all originated from my love to the night sky!

20090701 Sun

It's pretty sunny today, solar activities remain low. Seeing 3/10, transparency 8/10. Solarmax 40 with BF10 fitted on Tele Vue Ranger, DMK 31AF03 was used for imaging and the whole setup tracked on a Meade LXD55.

1637 (GMT+8):-


1641 (GMT+8), with 5x Powermate:-


1642 (GMT+8), with 5x Powermate:-

Jupiter in place!

Early this morning at around 4:30am, I could see the Jupiter hanging outside in favourable location from my home window.

But it was pretty cloudy so I guess that it could be hard to take any shot, so I gave up.

The bottomline is, when the sky gets better, I could!