20091031 Sun

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

1604 (GMT+8):-


1605 (GMT+8):-


Firebird!

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:-

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:-

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.

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.

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:-