Posts Made By: Paul Hyndman

Hmmmm... must have "bloopered" on my previous message (maybe no header info?) Let's try that again!

Hi All,

Clear skies still prevail, allowing the capture a few more images late this afternoon! I followed
my usual itinerary of gathering up some full-disk, quadrant, and close-up shots, but for
a change of pace processed a quadrant set first and will go at the rest as time permits.

The western limb had quite a display going on, with AR0330 and its entourage of filaments now
broaching the horizon, prominences leaping outward (well... it had ME excited, at least! )

Info on this image is at:

http://www.astro-nut.com/sun-ha-03apr14.html

Bon apetit!

Paul

Yep... the hundreds of thousands here seem to be working okay!

After poring over Dick Suiter's "Star Testing Astronomical Telescopes" as well as numerous
other tomes and essays on the subject of "Star Testing", I've come to the realization that
it's a whole lot more fun to view the cosmos than analyze optics! )

Paul


(Image info at: http://www.astro-nut.com/m13.html )

Hi All,

Still needs some processing, but it's been a loooong day (almost 1AM now) and I've gotta'
get up early for work tomorrow. Soooo, here's one of a dozen or so solar images I captured
in between the cirrus clouds today. Loads of activity around and on the disk today!

Still some ring anomolies going on with my setup, but nowhere near as bad as with the
original CMOS chip (just replaced).

Cheers (Yawwwn!)

Paul

Hi All,

This may be of interest to those who are blessed with dark enough skies that they need some light to navigate amongst the equipment and charts. When both hands are otherwise occupied with chores (always!), I usually plonk the Rigel LED flashlight in my mouth and try my darndest to aim it where needed (and have chewed through many a lanyard over the years! ) Well...

At a recent observing session, a friend turned me on to the LED headbands that campers/hikers use. Both hands free, mouth unencumbered (so as to better talk to oneself! ), and light WHERE you need it.. a truly novel idea! Unfortunately, some of these units are pricey and few have anything other than white LEDs. But...

(If one is located near you) "The Sporting Authority" is having a sale on the model shown below... their normal price is about $20, reduced to $16, but NOW only 8 bucks!!!

The unit is light in weight, has a reasonably comfortable adjustable elasticized headband, and will emit light for an eternity using 3 AAA batteries. It has a Krypton bulb for when a high level of brightness is needed and three LEDs that can be set so only one is on or all three... I applied some red lacquer to the center LED and Voilá... astro-light! The other two LEDS or Krypton lamp can illuminate the area when searching for the thumb-screws etc that invariably get dropped during the session... whooops!

Cheers,

Paul

--- http://www.astro-nut.com/ --

Hi All,

Despite the most recent Solar Maximum having come and gone, the sun is again providing
a grand show!

Here's a link to view a blink sequence which spotlights the differences between the brighter
photosphere (what we usually see as the "surface" of the sun) and the fainter events
occuring higher above in the chromosphere (Hydrogen-alpha):

http://www.astro-nut.com/sun-blink-03oct24.html

Cheers,

Paul

(Info for this white-light image is on: http://www.astro-nut.com/sun-wh-03oct24.html )

Hi All,

I've got updated information on the Coronado PST... and it's good news! This new instrument is not merely <1.0 angstrom, but will be between 0.8 & 0.9 ang. IMHO, this should give excellent views of prominences and decent views of larger, more readily discernable surface details.

From a dialogue with Coronado this morning:

Snip--->

Our standard instruments at <0.7A are tuned to the ideal balance between surface details and prominences and, as you state, dropping below 0.5A the prominences start to fade....(which is why I'm always baffled to read posts along the lines of "...my 0. 3 Ha filter gives fantastic views of prominences....!" )You can add an SM40 to the PST and reduce the bandwidth to around <0.6A. Probably 90 percent of the SM40's /TMAX combinations out in the world will "match" with the PST but it is not something we will guarantee....some will definitely need tweaking and we'll deal with that on a one on one basis.

The PST has been 3 years in gestation....we set a price point goal some time ago and determined that we would bring in an instrument at that price. There is no compromise in optical and mechanical quality and it is a new a patented assembly process that is allowing the price to come down. It's not a process we will apply to the other instruments at this time. This one is aimed at the "I'd get into Solar if it wasn't so expensive" , "I don't have to ask my wife!", "got to have at that price" and of course our goal is to broaden the hobby beyond the traditional market and appeal to total neophytes with a passing interest in science and the Sun.

<---Snip

So there ya' have it guys and gals.... a lot of oomph from this new entry!

Cheers,

Paul

--- http://www.astro-nut.com ---

PS: I re-iterate that I have no connections with Coronado or their dealers and have enjoyed views through other brand H-a filters... this is just one old goat's view on what appears to be an exciting new entry into this medium! )

Subtitle: "Oh no... yet another Orion's Sword image!"

Ahhh, a break in the weather... AT LAST!

Santa obligingly cleared the skies here by about 8 PM-ish last night, affording the opportunity
to gather first light with the AP Traveler he left under my tree. M31 was already well
past the meridian, headed deeper into the thickening slice of atmospheric muck and the
murky sky-glow of a distant New Haven (don't those Yalies go home for the holidays?!? ).

But what's this?!? Orion brightly poised well above the horizon, soon ready to march across
the meridian... YES!!! By the time everything was set up andready to roll, he had fully
cleared the tree-line and (clouds willing!) would allow several hours of uninterrupted
image-gathering if need-be. By 12:30 I figured I had gathered enough images to
assure decent selection for processing. This sweet little scope produced 20 images,
all of which were "keepers"!

My only regret for the session is that Saturn was by now beckoning, but I had not brought
out the big gun (8" Mak-Newt). But I needed to grab some
ZZZs before an early day at work
(yawwwn!), so no harm no foul (but gosh, the skies seemed so steady!)

Enough blathering... here's a the image (Looks like this little scope is gonna' provide a load of fun!)

Cheers,

Paul

Image info: http://www.astro-nut.com/m42-03dec25.html

Ahhhh... finally a generous FOV and low f/ratio, opening a path to large diffuse targets that previously eluded me. Hallelujah, I can see! )

I've corrected the prismatic flaring present in the prior night's images (the chromed end of the 2" adapter was the culprit), and have started to process the images taken last night.

Leading my list of "gotta gets" was M31 as it crossed high overhead. Target at 12 o'clock high, clear skies, a crescent moon below the horizon, and no skunks or other critters hanging 'round... ahhh life can be so sweet! Here's the M31 shot (be gentle with me... this is just a 4 inch scope and consumer grade digicam )

The Flame/Horsehead area shots are on the back-burner, as I zigged when I should have zagged at Alnitak, making for a veddy veddy poor job of framing the intended area. If I weren't so cocky, I would have checked one of the shots BEFORE embarking on a fourteen image toot!

My Encounter with Saturn was a washout, as one of the ToUcam drivers was missing on my laptop (probably got trounced when I loaded DVD drivers). I've since reloaded the software and am now ready to give it another go... not tonight though, my arse is dragging! )

Cheers,

Paul

Image info is at: http://www.astro-nut.com/m31.html

Aloha... ah... ahh... choo!

Being too bushed to set up the equipment in the snow after work (yes the skies are finally
clear tonight!), and anticipating scads of scintillation as the cold wave pushes through,
I took the easier path to astro-Nirvana tonight: reworking a previous rush-rush image set!

One of the benefits of clicking away like mad when the conditions do oblige, is a deeper
pile images from which to scavenge through... er, draw upon... during leaner times. So
the stage was set, allowing me to wuss out (me afraid of the cold temps? nah! ) under
the guise of "still got them there images to tend to ya' know"!

I contained some of the flare caused by the chromed t-adapter end (I've since blacked
out the offending metal rim), massaged away some of the digital graininess, and boosted
the curves a tad. Images Plus and Adobe PhotoShop CS (AKA v8.0) to the rescue!

Without further ado, here's the reworked image set...

(4" AP Traveler and Canon 10D... further info at: http://www.astro-nut.com/m42-03dec25.html )

Cheers,

Paul

Hi All,

I'm running on empty, but did have a chance to grab a few full disk and prominence solar
shots this afternoon. Here's a quickie quarter-scale blackout prom shot from the
sequence (Northeast limb).

Single shot using 5" refractor, Solarmax 90/BF30, and Canon 10D).

Now I've got a few images to dabble with during the next cloudy spell, if work ever
subsides (...sigh!)

Cheers,

Paul