The suns western limb was looking very angry, with 2 large active regions getting close to the edge. It was not long after a M class flare that this picture was taken and the active regions show this. I think I have (finally) found an optimum for the tuning of the Quark as this setting shows the most detail on the disk. The image above is a 2 pane mosaic and was taken with the 70mm f6 refractor with the DMK31 camera and 0.5x focal reducer.
New active regions rotate onto the face of our star along with a nice large prominence. Taken with the 70mm at f6 with the DMK31 camera and 0.5x reducer on the Quark Chromosphere.
I think I have finally discovered the 'on band' position with the quark and the 70mm scope; this image shows oodles of detail that I would be struggling to get if I was doing it with the same scope and a PST mod. Taken at 1800mm focal length and the DMK31 all need now is more scopes to test the quark out on...
This active region is a monster now, but when this image was taken several days ago it was just an emerging flux region. Taken with the 70mm scope at 1800mm focal length with the quark chromosphere and DMK31 camera.
Starting to get the hang of the quark; this image is my most 'onband' yet and is a mosaic of several panes. The seeing is variable between some of the panes, but each pane is beautifully flat allowing seamless mosaics. Hopefully there will be some imaging possible in the weekends ahead as we approach winter so I can get somemore images from this great little device. This shot was taken with the 70mm scope at f6 with the DMK31 camera and 0.5x reducer.
Still not quite on band, but it's not far off! Another notch and should be just about there. Taken with the 70mm scope at f6 with the DMK31 camera and 0.5x focal reducer.
A quick shot of this active region as it is just about to pass over the suns western limb. Taken with the quark chromosphere, 70mm f6 refractor with DMK31 and 0.5x focal reducer.
Still slightly off band here, but not a bad surface shot with the Quark Chromosphere, 70mm f6 and DMK31.
I was really pleased to be able to get an image of the sun on sunday afternoon, and looks like we have a whole new family of active regions to look forward too in the coming days. Taken with the Quark chromosphere and 70mm f6 refractor with the 0.5x focal reducer and a DMK31 camera.
Really pleased with how much Ha structure the Quark Chromosphere is pulling out, and also pleasantly surprised at the resolution the 70mm f6 refractor is getting too. Conditions were far from ideal when todays images were taken, milky skies with cloud continually passing through the frame - this makes me pleasantly surprised with the result. Can't wait for a properly clear sky to see what this setup is really capable of.
I think I had the Quark properly on band for this image and are really pleased with the result, especially as was taken through milky skies on a sunday afternoon. I think I may be getting the slightest of vignetting with the focal reducer I am using, but for shots like this is not too important. When I get some decent clear skies for any length of time it will give me something to explore. Taken with the 70mm f6 frac with the DMK31 camera.
This is the first 'proper' image I have got with the new Quark Chromosphere, i'm really pleased with the way this has turned out especially as it was shot through hazy skies with quite a bit of passing cloud. The scope used was the 70mm f6 ED refector with the DMK31 camera and focal reducer. This gives a nice image scale I think. Just need some decent clear skies so I can have a play around with the thermostat setting on it to see which dial position works best with my setup.
This is the first image I took with the Quark and the 70mm f6 scope - this image is definitely off band as I was being impatient and it had not reached temperature, and some faint banding effects can be seen as a result. Hopefully the weekend will offer some clear skies so I can do some proper testing. This shot was taken right at the end of the day when the sun was very low on the horizon. I want to try using a focal reducer to get a wider field of view - which worked quite well with an eyepiece, and also try binning the pixels on the DMK31 to get closer to the 9 micron pixel size Daystar recommend when using this solar filter due to the long effective focal length and resultant sampling size...
First light taken in far from ideal conditions - the sun was very low and in quite a bit of haze / high cloud. Not convinced this image was actually properly on band, I think I can get much better than this, but just wanted to get a view through my new Daystar Quark Chromosphere. This image was taken with the 70mm scope running at ~1800mm focal length. There are a few hints of newtons rings here but on the whole i'm very pleased with this first light. Just need some sun for a decent amount of time now!
In true tradition now I have started back at work in september it looks like here in the UK we will be having a good dose of indian summer. Fortunately today I was able to get back in time to get some solar astronomy in before the sun rapidly started to head towards the horizon as we head towards the autumnal equinox. This full disk was taken with the DS40 at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
AR12152 is by far the busiest and most active of this trio of active regions that are heading towards the limb in this image, and is infact undergoing a minor c-class flare. Taken with the DS40 at 925mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
There seems to be alot of filaments visible on our star at the moment, here is another towards the eastern limb that I took today with the DS40 at 925mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
I managed to get a moment of good seeing with this image in otherwise poor conditions of this train of active regions all heading towards the suns western limb. AR12152 which is closest towards the lefthand edge of the image was showing some minor c-class flaring at the time this was took with the 40mm scope at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
While it looks ok presented at this scale the seeing was very ropey when I took this image, and viewed full size soon breaks down. Shot with the 40mm scope at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera and homebrew CaK filter.
I took a number of video files to get this image on sunday afternoon as the seeing conditions were not great and I was pushing it using 80mm of aperture and 1750mm of focal length with the DMK31 camera, but, the whole principle of lucky imaging is that if you take enough images one of them will always be the best and will hopefully be acceptable. I like the detail recorded in the penumbra of the main spot and the thin light bridge that crosses the umbra.
This trio of spots get closer to the suns limb in this image taken with the 80mm CaK scope at 1000mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the DMK31 camera.
A little late getting this up here, but here's the CaK full disk from sunday 31st august, taken with the 40mm scope at 700mm fl with the DMK31 camera and homebrew CaK filter.
