Posts Made By: Paul Hyndman

Hi All,

High cirrus clouds moved in this afternoon, but I did have a chance to
grab a few images in between diagnostics (working on a fix for Newton's
Rings). This reduced SE quadrant was excised from a single 4008 x 2672 pixel
image full disk. AP Traveler, Coronado SM90, 4X TeleVue Powermate, SBIG STL11K,
processed in Images Plus and PhotoShop CS.

Paul



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

Hmmmm... Ever wonder what might happen if a couple of crazy old coots with way too much
time on their hands got together?

Well, when one of those is Barlow Bob, solarphile extraordinaire and caretaker of a Coronado/
TeleVue TV102i solar machine and the other is a self-proclaimed nut-case (allow me
to introduce myself: astro-nut! :S ) with a Coronado SolarMax 90, interesting things
can (and usually do) happen!

I opted to bring some smaller scopes (4" AP and 5" Tak) to this weekend's 14th annual Connecticut
Star Party, as my Mak-Newt is a beast to transport... besides, some really great big-aperture
stuff was going to be there anyways. The plan was to perhaps grab a few night time images
while schmoozing amongst the big-boy scope crowd, then to reciprocate by setting up the H-a
scopes for them during the daytime.

Setting up next to my good friend Barlow Bob would allow us to corral the attendees... er, facilitate
the solar viewing venue more efficiently, or so that was the plan.

Acute paranoia stepped in that Saturday morning though. My gosh, Barlow Bob's setup sports external
90mm and an internal 60mm Solarmax filters in a specially designed Coronado/TeleVue binoviewer
solar-screamin' machine! This puppy has been assessed by those in the know, as pulling down
to around 0.4ang of bandpass. Yikes... I'm set up a few feet away with my solitary 90mm/BF30 rig...
people will be complaining that I'm blocking the path to Bob's scope!!!

Well... I couldn't have any of that! And Bob, in his usual generous manner, graciously accepted
my proposition:



The puppy you are looking at is Bob's super-solar "Bob-O-Scope" with a slight twist: the
addition of another Solarmax90/T-max stacked on top (heheheh!) That's right kids: a
90/90/60 combination with only two ERFs (on the front filters), a single T-max tuner, an H-a
optimized Televue TV102I, and oh yeah... a TeleVue Binoviewer to boot! WooHoo!

The filaments (one on either limb and another stretching across the center) almost jumped
off the disk with such high contrast (and no, the images were not too dim), and the surface
was aboil with feature upon feature!

Nope... no images were taken, although we had the SBIG ST11K nearby. Clouds and openings
came and passed, but our number one priority was to share the views with those who happened by.
And happen by they did!

The Bob-o-Scope is now on the way to its winter home (Bob shares it with a friend in warmer climes...
I told you he's generous), but it shall be returned in time for next year's NEAF. Who knows what
insanity may accompany it there this year! :

Cheers,

Paul

PS: That's Barlow Bob in the yellow shirt, me (astro-nut AKA Paul) trying to reach my arm around
to steal his scope! :grin:, with some of our close astro-friends.

... but this one's already out there and polar aligned! :S

Just doing a late afternoon test run with a new PST. I'm not giving up my big rig just yet, but this puppy is one hot little performer... I love it!

Paul

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

Hmmm...

Coronado introduced technologies that allowed many of us to view the sun as so
very few had seen it before... all without need of specialized heaters, precisely
extended focal ratios, or the need to send filters back to the mfg for periodic
restoration (as did other sub-angstrom solar H-a setups).

They've given us views of a lifetime with equipment designed to last a lifetime,
helping to popularize solar H-a viewing. And now, with the PST, have brought solar H-a
viewing to the masses... a complete sub-angstrom solar scope with built-in finder AND
an eyepiece, at less than the cost of a premium eyepiece by itself!

They are among the nicest, most decent folks I've had the pleasure of meeting, and
deserve our thanks for their commitment to solar astronomy. So here's to wishing
Coronado the company and Coronado the people, the very best in the next stage of their
journey!

Now then... if only the PST mount was a tad less expensive! :S



Cheers,

Paul

(info on this image: http://www.astro-nut.com/sun-ha-04jul21.html )

Shhhhhh... not too loud!

Early reports from this weekend's Hands on the Sun (HOTS) forum at Coronado are that the attendees were treated to views through a prototype PST (Personal Solar Telescope) designed to work in the Calcium-K line!

For those unfamiliar with the medium, narrow-band solar viewing allows us to isolate and scrutinize specific spectral bands where interesting activity occurs.... and occurs relatively fast!

Hydrogen alpha, so-named because it is the first (hence, alpha) "line" for Hydrogen, is perhaps the most well publicized of these lines, as existing commercial solar filters target this frequency. But other energetic areas also exist... and Ca-K is one of 'em.

With the exception of highly specialized equipment or that fabricated by truly involved solar ATMers, the Ca-K line is not something us run-of-the-mill solar geeks are privy to... certainly not with our own equipment!

Rumors were circulating that Coronado was proceeding with work in that direction, but I had no idea that it might be in the form of the super-portable, affordable PST. WooHoo... where does the line form!?! )

To check out some Ca-K images, go to

http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/images/latest.html

or

http://www.bbso.njit.edu/cgi-bin/LatestImages

Hot stuff in the coming year... but don't tell anyone until we get our own orders in! )

Cheers,

Paul

I got the call, and my new AP160 will soon be here... WooHoo!

... So I am parting with my FS 128 Tak. It is a sweet scope (vintage 1999) in very good
condition (a few minor scratches on the finder scope tube and main scope
tube), but with the AP160 coming next month, I must make room and come up
with the moolah!

NO RESERVE and $3000 starting bid!
(Continental US Only Please!)

http://www.astromart.com/auctions/details.asp?auction_id=665



Thanks for looking!

Paul

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

I got the call, and my new AP160 will soon be here... WooHoo!

... So I am parting with my FS 128 Tak. It is a sweet scope (vintage 1999) in very good
condition (a few minor scratches on the finder scope tube and main scope
tube), but with the AP160 coming next month, I must make room and come up
with the moolah!

NO RESERVE and $3000 starting bid!
(Continental US Only Please!)

http://www.astromart.com/auctions/details.asp?auction_id=665


Thanks for looking!

Paul

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

Aloha!

After far too many days of work and/or clouds, I found myself home with clear skies and an afternoon sun grazing the tree line. Too low to view from the semi-permanent mount in the back yard, and me too pooped to set up the smaller mount and supporting equipment elsewhere.

What to do, what to do?!? AHA... an afternoon especially ripe for the PST (YES!)

So, in lieu of gathering images, I set up in the driveway and just basked in the sunlight (ahhhhh!), soaking up a much-needed solar H-a fix! I was greated 'n treated with the usual smattering of prominence activity surounding the circumference, two especially noticeable areas of plage, and two areas of large filaments... one surprisingly dark and blue-shifted.

Filaments near AR701 (on the Eastern limb) leapt into view as the tuner was slowly tweaked, with the base components of a much larger structure appearing to the North of AR700 (now midway on its trek across the face of the disk). Slowly adjusting the tuner brought more and more detail to the latter filament, growing ever darker as the amount of shift was increased. Finally, just before the end of the adjustment range was reached, it started to fade. Backing up just a gnat's-behind brought the structure into its fully glory... Mygawd that's a tremendous arch!

As impressive as the contrast was, so was the amount of shift... that puppy's not only moving up, up, and away, but doing it poste-haste!

Not a bad afternoon... nope, not at all! Thanks PST!

Cheers,

Paul

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

Bidding ends tonight!

I got the call, and my new AP160 will soon be here... WooHoo!

... So I am parting with my FS 128 Tak, ATA hard case, and Tak' accessories. It is a sweet scope (vintage 1999) in very good condition with the objective tested and rated as "very well corrected" by D and G... but with the AP160 coming next month, I must make room!

NO RESERVE, $3000 opening bid (replacement cost with the included accessories far exceeds twice that amount), auction ends tonight!
(Continental US Only Please!)

http://www.astromart.com/auctions/details.asp?auction_id=665



BTW, one of my solar H-a images taken with this scope is featured as the July image in Sky and Telescope's 2005 Celestial Wonders Calendar (from this session

http://www.astro-nut.com/sun-ha-08nov02.html

Thanks for looking!

Paul

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

Aloha!

Finally a clear day and some free time to check out ol' Sol! I was still dragging my tail,
so opted to set up the very portable Coronado PST (did I ever tell ya' how much I love that
little puppy!?!) to "scope" things out.

Not expecting too much, given the low pre-winter solar elevation and a cold front that
was chugging through, I was nonetheless quite pleased... active regions with plage and
several serpentine filament structures. Decent stuff... decent enough to warrant setting
up the larger scope!

Without further ado, here's the results from that quickie session:



Information for this image: http://www.astro-nut.com/sun-ha-04nov26.html

Cheers,

Paul