Sun animation today

[CaptainCook (Gary)]

Still waiting for decent conditions (Sydney is bad day & night nowadays!) but here is an animation from this morning.

Combined stacks (best 25% of 500 frames) every 2 minutes for 30 mins then every 10 minutes for half hour. Done with Lunt 30mm.


https://cdn-media.f-static.net/uploa...c5428a49af.mp4

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Nice. I've just come in from looking at the sun and I recognise the features on your video.

[CaptainCook (Gary)]

Thanks David. Unfortunately it doesn't loop on this website as intended; heres one that has a pause in at the end and runs 5 times so you get a better idea:

https://cdn-media.f-static.net/uploa...c88306cb7a.mp4

Last year I was getting much better quality but the conditions have been generally poor for a while and I stopped doing them as they are a lot of work for a couple of seconds! I was considering selling the scope tbh.

What solar scope are you using?

[Maurice]

Nice animation Gary.


Cheers
Maurice

[astronobob (Bob)]

Cool work Gary, think them 10min grabs are bit far apart, 2 mins look real nice, maybe every 3-4 mins for the whole hr,, or two if time allows, but yeah I not know what capable,, Good show though all the same..

[CaptainCook (Gary)]

Thanks Maurice.
Thanks Bob. When I don't see too much in the way of fast proms I ease off a bit...the other problem is disc space but also I am manually guiding the target on my AZGTi which is very tedious. Basically I put reticules on screen and nudge the mount just before captures, which some days is not too bad but every 2 min you go a bit mental. 10 minutes intervals seems like a holiday at that point...I get to have a cup of tea etc

PS managed to quickly image the X Flare at 6.30pm just before sun disappeared. No animation but it was X1.84 at the time. That might be the next Aurora?

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by CaptainCook

Thanks David. Unfortunately it doesn't loop on this website as intended; heres one that has a pause in at the end and runs 5 times so you get a better idea:

https://cdn-media.f-static.net/uploa...c88306cb7a.mp4

Last year I was getting much better quality but the conditions have been generally poor for a while and I stopped doing them as they are a lot of work for a couple of seconds! I was considering selling the scope tbh.

What solar scope are you using?

Lunt 60mm with the 6mm etalon and 9mm Vixen LV. It vignettes badly and has a tiny exit pupil so one must keep the head in just the right spot (I observe seated) and bring features to the centre of the fov. Once you do that the views are pretty nice. It's very entertaining to watch periodically for a few hours and see features evolve. This is my first solar max with a solar scope and so there are often days when I say 'I haven't seen anything like that before'. I'd love an 80mm but the pockets aren't deep enough for a new one and no one is selling during solar max.

[CaptainCook (Gary)]

Yes, its an extremely expensive end of an already expensive hobby. I dipped my toe into solar last year as a way of beating clouds during the night (only for the cloud to increase in the day too!?) but could only afford the 30mm. If I had pots of money I would definitely get a 90mm. At 30mm I tend to stick to animations as the moving image is a bit more forgiving for the lack of aperture. Do you do any imaging? I do need to remember to look down mine every now and then :-)