20090601 Sun after cloudy weeks

We got the sun again! Better yet, we have a white light sunspot! I took my Herschel wedge and removed my 52mm adapter so that I'm using full 70mm aperture of my Ranger. I've used a green filter instead of the polarizer this time to see if it helps on showing granulations. Very poor seeing today at 1/10, occassionally it gets up to 3/10 during the best moments. Transparency so so at 3/10. No complain here especially after cloudy weeks!

First up is white light, one taken at prime focus and the other one take with a 5x.

1514 (GMT+8):-


1520 (GMT+8):-


Taken with a green filter, so the above is false color for sure.

Then, I pulled out the camera to have a look with a 13mm Nagler (5x), the contrast is simply fantastic! Herschel wedge is really nice to squeeze every little detail out. I'd say if the seeing is good, I shall have seen granulations, but this time, only floaters. By using a 7mm Japanese Ortho at prime focus, this view is sharper, no more floater but still no granulations.

Next, I placed that 52mm adapter back together with my Solarmax 40/BF10, I did a full disc shot with a 0.5x corrector at the nosepiece of the BF10, and then I proceeded to do 5x on AR1019, it's entirely different in H-alpha than in white light. Both are fantastic especially for a solar addict who had been hungry for so long!

1535 (GMT+8):-


1538 (GMT+8), 5x but slightly resized (around 85%) to reduce the amount of noise... poor seeing results in less stackable frames and thus the noise:-


Equipment list:

1. Tele Vue Ranger
2. NGF-CM
3. Meade LXD55
4. APM Herschel Wedge
5. DMK 31AF03
6. Tele Vue Powermate 5x
7. B+W ND3
8. Generic green filter
9. Solarmax 40 with BF10
10. 0.5x binoviewer corrector