20160125 Winter Sun (冰天的太陽)

Armed with a new focuser together with a clear sky, there is no reason not to shoot.

It's record breaking cold in Hong Kong, at 3 degree Celcius and strong wind, it's not bad to be able to shoot indoor.

First up is sun taken with crop mode, note the Newton's ring... 1403 (GMT+8):-

On using full chip mode, I could drift the sun around while capturing and that effectively remove the newton's ring, it's also much higher in resolution.  1407 (GMT+8):-

Click for full size.

A little adapter designed and 3D printed by a local buddy Jack Wong

The Skywatcher Sky Adventurer mount has a small polar scope illumninator, but then it has to be taken off before attaching the dovetail rail or a ball head.  It is not very convenient in the sense that 1) when the mount was moved accidentally, polar alignment could not be done without taking off everything 2) when attaching the telescope or camera, the setup might moved and then polar alignment has to be redone.

To solve this problem, a local buddy designed a small orange adapter and then 3D printed it so that the polar illuminator could be attached to the dovetail rail!

JMI NGF-CM w/DRO

I've been looking for a NGF-S or NGF-CM, but in vain.

Too great that I came across such a deal in CN classified, and better yet, the seller agreed to sell me because I had been active and helpful in CN!  It's not unexpected since there involves extra effort to ship overseas.

I'm excited, you know, this deal seems to be prepared for me.  That focuser didn't even come with a telescope adapter, not even for SCT, but I had one for my Ranger!

Solar imaging quality could be improved finally...

Finally got the tracking number, and it just left US last night:

cw796258549us

expect to arrive Hong Kong in 6-10 days, i.e. earliest arrival could be Monday.