Sun (Observations)

first light with new CDK20

Lunt + DMK

Lunt + DMK

Lunt + DMK

Partial eclipse June 2021

Sun September 2023

Sun 26 April 2024

Date	Observer	Telescope	Camera	Exposure	Calibration	Seeing / Sky / Transparency	Path
2013/07/25	Ulrich Heber, Christian Heuser, Norbert Jansen, Christopher Knauer	50cm	BACHES	5s, left upper cloud	Darks, no flats	ok, sunny, good
2013 (?)	Schindewolf, Beuchert	Lunt	DMK	ca. 40sec .avi-file	none	ok, sunny, good
2014/05/19	Schindewolf	Lunt	DMK	ca. 60sec .avi-file	none	ok, sunny,bad
2014/05/19	Schindewolf	Lunt	DMK	ca. 20sec .avi-file, over-exposed	none	ok, sunny,bad
2021/06/10	Weber, Hämmerich, Heindl	TS-Optics UNC20010 8" f/5 Carbon Newtonian	ZWO ASI1600MM Pro	Multiple Minute ser file	none	A cloud passed through the FOV exactly when the ISS would have been in the frame
2023/09/27	Dauner, Lorenz, Weber, Reh, Prucker	Lunt LS60T	ZWO ASI1600MM Pro	60s ser	none	sunny obviously
2024/04/26	Philipp Weber	Lunt LS60T	ZWO ASI1600MM Pro	60s ser	none	sunny

Setup using the Lunt LS60T Ha

This is a summary of the setup for solar observations using the LS60T telescope. It would be nice to eventually update it with images of the parts/setups as a visual reference, as some of the descriptions can be a bit weird to understand.

Note: The telescope has two filters, one on the tube and a second one in the diagonal, so always make sure you are using both!

Eye observations

Items you will need:

• LS60Ha telescope obviously
• Eyepiece (8-21mm I believe) found inside the case of the telescope.
• Tripod + EQ6 Pro mount.
• "Black mount" (CELESTRON CGEM DX) and concrete pillar as an alternative to the tripod.
• Weights and extensions for balancing.
• Cables and electricity box for connecting to the mount.

With all of these you are now ready to start :)

If you chose to use the "black mount", congratulations, you chose easy setup difficulty! The mount can be put up on top of the pillar next to the barbecue place. The screws are put in a way that the mount is already polar aligned once put correctly. Attach the telescope with the eyepiece. For balancing with the CGEM, a small extension (also used in the labs) is enough for the telescope + ocular.

To align, chose the Solar System Align option. Then, the SELECT OBJECT message will appear on the top row of the control. Use the up and down scroll keys to select the daytime object: choose Sun and press ENTER. Use the direction arrow buttons to carefully center the object in the finderscope (the sun light circle should be roughly on the upper right of the finder). Press ENTER once centered. Finally, center the Sun in the eyepiece and press ALIGN. Detailed information can be found in the mount manual.

Once the alignment is completed we can focus. To be able to focus the telescope you have to pull out the focusing length by half. You will notice the diagonal tube is especially long. That is because you have to attach it pulling it out roughly 3.5 cm from it's innermost position. Once you have this setup you can start looking through the ocular and use the wheels to adjust the focusing position until the Sun looks like a sharp circle.

Once the Sun is sharp, you can start playing around with the lateral screw, which changes the pressure of the filter, and change it until you are able to discern the different substructures of the Sun (rough surface, filaments, light spots, black spots, flares). You can find more information about the telescope and focusing setup in the telescope manual

And you are ready! Have fun observing the Sun!

PS: If you change the focal length of the ocular you will have to adjust the focus slightly, but it is worth to see better the surface elements!

With the ASI1600MM PRO camera (this is a work done in progress)

You will need the following:

• ASI1600MM PRO camera
• LS60T Ha telescope
• Mount and/or tripod
• M42 connector
• T2 connector (We managed with the Nikon T2 connector)
• Cables and electricity box (2 Usb cables and 2 power cables for the mount and the camera)
• Laptop with kstars and FireCapture available

To attach the camera to the telescope first take out the ocular adapter from the diagonal. What we found that worked is to attach the T2 to the diagonal and the M42 attachment between the T2 and the camera.

I will assume you have read the previous part and have balanced and aligned the telescope + camera setup (in this case for minor adjustments in the alignment use the camera view instead of your eye).

For focusing, we achieved focus having the diagonal taken out roughly 2 cm from the innermost position and starting with the focus at the middle point. From there you can play around with the screws until you achieve a sharp edge of the Sun.

This entry now needs to be completed with a bit of info about the program used for taking the images :)

For solar observations (similar to planetary observations), kstars is used to control the Mount (assuming the EQ6 Pro) and FireCapture for Lucky Imaging. On the observing notebook, in a terminal open kstars as usual and select the 'lucky imaging' profile, which should only contain the mount and camera simulator as devices. Once the mount is connected, start FireCapture in another terminal in the following way: on the observing notebook in the home directory you should find a directory named 'FireCapture_dir', containing several sub-directories named after the current software version. Navigate through the sub-folders into 'data/opt/' and launch 'start.sh' (type ./start.sh) to start FireCapture. It is important to start kstars before FireCapture, otherwise FireCapture will not be able to connect to Indi.