I like to observe the sky at night when I was young.uncountable stars
were seem and felt mysterious. Around ten years before I bought a 3 inches
Tasco newton telescope for my birthday gift.and starting my astronomy hobby.I
have no knowledge about the astronomy.don't know how to find the saturn,Jupiter....but
definitely knowing the moon and the sun.so these two objects were my first
observe target .lucky that I have look through the instruction menu before
used the scope.and notice that It was dangerous to direct observe the sun
with no solar filter mount on telescope.but have another method that used
the telescope project the solar image on the white wall or paper.this was
the first time I saw the solar image on the paper.a round white ball with
some black dots (sunspots)on it.quite interesting.
After I got the ETX90 in 2001.I got the white light filter and start to
direct observe the sun with telescope.this time I saw the sunspots clearly.many
big and small different shape black spots on a bright white disk.similar
to watch some bacteria cells on microscope.Oops...the sun have bacteria.need
to see the doctor (kid).
I search on internet to find more about the sun information.when I saw
the solar image took by Jack Newton in Coronado webpage.I was hook.and
found out it was another way to observe the solar in H-Alpha .seem have
big different with white light filter.I immediate place order in Corondo.I
wait for few months to got the solarmax due to Coronado move their production
to another place.but it's worth.it's not only have excellent view on solar.and
also made all my astro equipment come to alive.
my living place(Hong Kong)have serious air and light pollution.and always
have haze and wet weather too.so it was quite diffcult to observe the dim
sky object(deepsky or planet) at night time.my living place have only twenty
to thirty days have clear night in one year.and the rest of days.my astro
equipment were only a unuseful furniture,but even in clear night.I need
bring all equipment to suburban place to observe the night sky.observe
in city was still diffcult in clear night,thats why I need light weight
and compact equipment.
After got the solarmax.I change my observation in day time.I nearly use
my equipment everyday,even in haze day,I still could observe this bright
object.I have a good enough sleep now.and also say good bye to my noisy
hair dryer which prevent my telescope get wet at night.
Made me addict to observe the solar in H-alpha were the Chromospheric Features
change everyday.sunspots,prominences,filaments,plage,spicules....sometimes
if lucky I can saw a huge flare eruption in fast speed.very exciting.once
you've seen the sun in H-alpha.you will never miss to observe our sun which
is big enough to resolve surface detail with an amateur telescope.
Equipment:
I havn't a backyard or rooftop for a observing place.so when I observe
the sky.I need to bring all the things to go out.so I choose the light
weight telescope.
ETX90 was a long focal telescope.it's good for observe planet.observe the
solar with H-alpha.it gave me sharp image quality.due to my solarmax was
only 40mm and brocking filter was 10mm.viewing solar full disk will vignetting.so
suitable for viewing part of the sun.
Borg 76ed was a short focal refractor.it was good for viewing deepsky object
and planet as well.observe the solar in H-alpha was excellent.from full
disk to closeup.image quality was sharp with good contrast.but of couse
have limited magnification on such small aperture.I found the best view
on solar were used the televue binoview with two 32mm plossl or 26mm plossl
plus X 2 barlow.I could saw the full disk cover on whole eyepiece.it gave
me bright and good enough magnification to saw the disk detail and prominences
with a 3D feeling.
Mounting the telescope was used Takahashi TGSP2 EQ mount.it also light
weight and compact.it can handle my setup(Borg 76ed,solarmax,binoview,eyepieces....)tracking
well. I used Manfrotto 055CL tripod ,it was for my video camcorder tripod
and it also done well to support my whole telescope setup.
Observation Location :
I have no backyard or fix location to settle my telescope.so I need to
assemble all the things everytime when observe.I have tried to search many
place for observe but not suitable.finally I found a place that I could
easy to carried everythings to there within a minute.it was my living building
backstairs.I observe the solar everydays were on backstairs.the backstairs
have a big open window.but have a big metal frame mount on whole window.it's
prevent people suicide.my living buliding have 36 floor.so it was a good
place to jumping down.because of having metal frame.I need every ten minutes
to move my whole setup to escape the metal frame shadow drop on my solarmax.a
little bit trouble,but still a good place for me to observe.I can observe
the solar around two to three hours on a blackstairs(window face on east
side).and another two to three hours on another side of blackstairs.
Imaging:
I have been used digital camera few years.digital camea was a very useful
tool.it's not only took normal photograph.l always used it as a scanner,time
table,map....
it was very easy to took normal photograph with a digital camera.but for
astromnony,it's another story.taking night sky objects were not easy due
to high magnification(with telescope).wind,vibration or tracking fault.all
these things could cause the photos useless .
it 's not suitable to set fully auto in camera to took the sky object.I
need manual setting for match the condition to get the best result. the
best things of digital camera was immediate review the result.I could took
many photos in different setting and review the photos to knowing what
kind of setting can get the satisflied result,the unsatisflied photos can
be delete to save the memory.so I can took more and more photos to get
the experience.
Taking solar photos were easier than night sky,the sun was bright enough
that I don't need set to slow exposure.so even without tracking mount could
took the satisflied solar photos.
I used Nikon CP990 digital camera to took solar photos. CP990 have 3.2
mega pixles CCD digital camera.It's can gave me high resolution photos.and
also have many manual setting feature,it have some setting that can help
me to get the sharp focus.when took the solar photos in H-alpha.the whole
disk was in red color.it is not easy to saw the detail on LCD display.I
set my CP990 in setup >monitor options>hue> to minus.this setting
can change the display show the sun disk color in yellow,sunspots in black
color,and prominence in red.and then in setup mode Focus>focus confirmation>set
to on.this setting made it possible to determine in advance exactly what
area will be in focus.after setting.I focus the solar was much easy and
also more disk details could be seen on camera display.
Under the sunny day.digital camera display was not bright enough to clearer
seen.so I made a 4'x4' black cloth to cover my equipment and digital camera.it's
made me comfortable to solar observe or took photos.and prevent the sun
burn as well.made this black cloth shield was not diffcult,I bought a 4'X4'
black cloth(water proof or UV proof will much better) and join two magic
tape(or tie)on one side(middle),the magic tape tie down on dew cap.that
it.another side was place on the EQ mount balance weight rod.because I
inverse the telescope position,the balance weight side was on the top and
the telescope at low position ,because of balance rod have a hole,I insert
a antenna or a rod in this hole to made a T shape.then the other side of
cloth can place on it.with this shield,observe the solar was more enjoyable.
Turbulence in day time was more serious than at night.turbulence will cause
the photos burr and not sharp,so I will wait the astmosphere become steady
then to took photos.
T-Max turner was a very useful tool,not only can deturn to observe the
blue shift of CME ,it also can made the solar disk brightness more average
when turn in good position.I used it anytime.
Processing:
Final photos will used photoshop to enhance.the original solar photo was
all in red color.it's not easy to saw the detail on disk.I need to used
many photoshop command to process.depends on the photos condition(like
on cloudy,sunny or haze day),normally I will adjust the RGB level,select
color,color balance,unsharp mask,gaussian blur,hue and saturation,bright
and contrast to become a final photo.
more detail of solar image processing by Jack Newton can be find in here.
photoshop was a powerful images processing program,but of couse I will
not add something that wasn't there on my solar photos,it's actually what
I see what I get.just used photoshop to bring back the detail.I have found
that different camera will get different color result.I have try many different
digital camera to took solar photos but it could not used the same method
to process to the same result.I think maybe the CCD color filter and CCD
sensitive have different.processing the solar photos need patient and times.once
having good images processing result,it's worth of it.
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| Original | Processing | Final |
Summary
I know I'm living what kind of environment,even so I still tried my best
to observe the night sky,there were so many beautiful sky object out there!(I'm
not sure),I have tried over hundred times to bring all the equipment to
suburban place to observe the night sky in two years,well,below 10% have
clear night,for a beginner of me nearly want to gave up.after observe the
solar in h-alpha,it bring me back the interest of astronomy.light pollution
and haze weather were serious affect the night time observe but not in
daytime,I can observe the solar over 70% of proportion.not bad.....
(Sorry for my poor English due to English were not my mother language,or
I'm lazy when I'm in school,also forgive me the wrong grammar and tense.)Thanks
for visit.
Vincent Chan
Hong Kong
2003