Tuning Effects

 One of the adjustments on my solar scope (Coronado Solar Max 2, double stack) effects the “tuning” of the scope. Truth is, that is the primary thing that can be adjusted, other than the focus. The object of tuning the scope is to allow the user to obtain more contrast on objects, eg sunspots. The tuning appears to be rather sharp. I often see the effect as the brightness spread across the face of the sun. Today, I took several images of the sun. However, a major difference today is the sun is too low to ride piggyback on the LX200GPS, so it is used as a stationary scope. Of course, that means that the sun drifts across the field of view of the scope. With no tracking (of the sun), stacking becomes more difficult and, generally, the images suffers from “motion blur”to some extent. With that in mind, what I want to show, is the effect of changing the tuning on the scope. As there is no method of measuring the difference in tuning, the best I can do is just show the effect. So, image 1 is with the tuning one way; image 2, another. Note the increased detail, however, in image 2. One of the main things the tuning does is change the center frequency of the light coming through the scope. Elements with doppler shift can disappear if tuned out of the bandpass of the scope. That's basically the effect seen in image 1. The bandpass was changed to favor the right hand side of the image, so elements barely visible in image 1 are now more easily visible in the 2^nd image.

 

Image 1. Note the white, hotter, area around the sunspots and prominence about 5 0'clock.

Image 2. Much more to be seen.

 

Some Catching Up

 There are several deep sky images taken and processed that I have yet to put on the blog. Today's entry is something that should have been appropriate for Halloween, perhaps. Its NGC7380, the Wizard Nebula, aka Harry Potter and the Golden Snitch. I can't say how it came by either of those names, but I guess that's why I don't name nebulae. NGC 7380 is a young open cluster of stars in constellation of Cepheus, discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1787. The surrounding emission nebulosity is known colloquially as the Wizard Nebula. The nebula is known as S 142 in the 1959 Sharpless catalog. It is extremely difficult to observe visually.

 

NGC7380 (open cluster of stars) and Wizard Nebula (S 142)

 

Views of the Mars

Finally, in this series, we have 2 nights of Mars. First from October 21, 2020, which apparently had the less good seeing of the two nights. Image taken at F10 (with the 8” LX200GPS). Then, the second night was November 9, 2020. I took one image at F10, the second at F20 for comparison. The seeing was good enough that I think the F20 image might be the better of the 2.

Mars, October 21, 2020. F10.

Mars, November 9,2020. F10.

Mars, November 9, 2020 F20.

Views of the Jupiter

 
Continuing …. Jupiter is continuing its westward movement in the evening sky. I my case, that means further towards the roof of the observatory. Problem with that is, the air rising from a somewhat hot roof will distort the air, essentially increasing the seeing, making it worse, of course. The first image is from October 21, the second from November 9, 2020. The blurring effect from the rising air is obvious. The November 9^th image is a composite of two images; one taken to get the better image of Jupiter, the other, taken as a longer exposure, to get the moon.

Jupiter October 21, 2020

Jupiter November 9, 2020. Composite. Moon most likely Io.

Views of the Moon

 Continuing posting from images taken since the last major posting, I took images along the terminator of the moon on October 21, 2020. Unless I have a specific target in mind, I “run the terminator”. Afterwards, I look for interesting things; things I haven't seen before. Often the way the light strikes the moon, subtle differences in shading will show different things. This is the case for me on the image below. I see an inverted “Y” is the shading emanating from the crater Cook B. The feature is visible in Virtual Moon Atlas, but is not as prominent in VMA. At any rate, the lower image is the same as the upper one, with the “Y” drawn in.

October 21, 2020. Cook B.

Inverted "Y". See if you see it in the above image.

Views of the Saturn

 Continuing from yesterday's post, today's post is views of Saturn. I can't say that I see much change over the last month.

From October 7, 2020.

From October 21, 2020.

From November 9, 2020.

Images from Nov 11

Views of the Sun

 Over the past several weeks, I imaged several objects when I could. Sometimes it was the sun, or a planet, or star cluster. What I have today is several images of the sun and I'm pretty sure you will know what the prime object in the image is supposed to be; ie sunspot, etc. 

 

Prom, October 6, 2020.

"Full" sun, November 04, 2020 Sunspot upper left filament at its right, Proms at 4 and 5 O'clock.

Closeup of above sunspot/filament, prom at 11:30.