04/26/24 Sun in W/L and CaK

[Thefatkitty]

Hi all

Fairly clear here today, though it hazed up a bit when I got in. Of course. I

I decided to try my white light filters, a Baader 7.5nm Continuum with a UV/IR cut behind it, as well as my usual Ca-K filter in my William Optics 61mm. Normally I use the white light with my C80-HD and a DSLR, I thought I would see if there was some improvement in said telescope with my ZWO camera. There really was!!

The drivetrain is this: Baader 3.8OD film, the W/O scope, Explore Scientific 2" diagonal, Antares twist lock 2" to 1.25" adapter, 1.6X Antares barlow, then my ZWO camera with whatever filter(s).

The Sun seems to be a bit quiet at the moment, hopefully something comes around soon...

Calcium-K:

And white light:

A bit "grainy"; by the time I got to doing this the Sun was getting low. I would have been better off an hour before, but oh well

Still, it's a good example (I think) of the difference between the filters with the same scope/camera for both.

OK, must eat, have a good night/day all!

[messier 111]

the sun seems a little calmer, perhaps the calm before the storm. nice set of photos Mark, thx.

[Solsearcher]

Great job Mark !! nice sharp focus and great detail

I have to disagree about the "quiet" sun , what I saw was very active and everything I have been waiting for

[Lady Fraktor]

The granulation is much easier to see in the Ca-k images, well done.
The weather here is cool and wet so no astro for a bit

[Graeme1858]

Well captured Mark. Less sunspots than a few days ago but more granulation, as said.

And your images are showing just what spaceweather.com was showing yesterday, unfortunately though, the cloudy SE UK sky was not!

Graeme

[Xio1996]

Great images Mark. Your Ca-K filtered images really enhance the details over the white light image.

I had heard of Ha Solar imaging, but I had never heard of of Ca-K Solar filtered images until seeing them on Sky Searchers. Maybe they didn't register in my non-Solar mind . You and the other Solar contributors inspire and teach. Thank you.

If I can save up my "pocket money", is the Baader Planetarium Calcium filter the one to go for? It is quite pricey at 245 GBP, but the Ca-K images look a step up from white light imaging.

https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/c ... -lpfc.html

Have fun.

Pete

[StarHugger]

Nice session Mark ! always fun to try something new...

Still under the cloud for today, Maybe tomorrow we'll see.


Best of Luck Everyone !

[Thefatkitty]

Great images Mark. Your Ca-K filtered images really enhance the details over the white light image.

I had heard of Ha Solar imaging, but I had never heard of of Ca-K Solar filtered images until seeing them on Sky Searchers. Maybe they didn't register in my non-Solar mind . You and the other Solar contributors inspire and teach. Thank you.

If I can save up my "pocket money", is the Baader Planetarium Calcium filter the one to go for? It is quite pricey at 245 GBP, but the Ca-K images look a step up from white light imaging.

https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/c ... -lpfc.html

Have fun.

Pete

Hi Pete, so sorry for the late reply! I totally forgot about your question; it's been a week

And yes, that is exactly what I have; I had to order it direct from Baader; this was last July when the CMOS filter replaced the single and double-stack and no one in North America had stock. I checked and it's still the same cost it was almost a year ago.
Look at that; one thing that hasn't gone up in price!!

It might not be as good as a Quark or Lunt for detail (I think it's pretty close; IMHO), but it is the cheaper of the three options by far!

Hope this helps and apologies again for my brain fart

All the best,

[Bigzmey]

Nice captures Mark! There was a beautiful 3654 group yesterday. I hope you had a chance to see it.

[Xio1996]

Hi Pete, so sorry for the late reply! I totally forgot about your question; it's been a week

And yes, that is exactly what I have; I had to order it direct from Baader; this was last July when the CMOS filter replaced the single and double-stack and no one in North America had stock. I checked and it's still the same cost it was almost a year ago.
Look at that; one thing that hasn't gone up in price!!

It might not be as good as a Quark or Lunt for detail (I think it's pretty close; IMHO), but it is the cheaper of the three options by far!

Hope this helps and apologies again for my brain fart

All the best,

Hi Mark,

Thank you for the information. I hoped that was the filter you used. It's still expensive (for me), but judging from your excellent images something to save my pennies up for. I saw Geoff's images using the Lunt Calcium Module and they were also extremely good. Then I looked up the price of the module (on its own) and sat down for awhile!

Many thanks for your help.

Pete