This optical tube is a marvel, at least with the Calcium K filter. Although there are some stacking-aligning issues left on the picture above, it is still the best I have ever made.

Instruments: ASI 178MM (cooled), Baader K-Line Filter 1.25″ (double stacked), TS-Optics 76/342 TS76EDPH, mountpusher, EQ3-mod

This is the first light of the APO tube I just bought, and put into the lunchbreak-heliobservatory: ASI 178MM (cooled), Baader K-Line Filter 1.25″ (double stacked), TS-Optics 76/342 TS76EDPH, mountpusher, EQ3-mod

I really like the design of the tube, how short it is, though its focal length needs either an expansion tube or the flattener, which I figured wouldn’t be a good fit for the Sun.

The tiny additions I put onto the tube: the focuser and the cardboard adapter for the ND3.8 filter I already have for the MC102/1300.

It was a really nice surprise to see the Sun in much more detail, than through the Canon EF 200mm f2.8L II USM

(tovább…)

ASI 120MM, Baader K-Line Filter 1.25″ (double stacked), Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM, mountpusher, EQ3-mod

I put together a rather modest setup: the Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM telephoto lens with an ASI 120 MM camera, and the CaK filter that has given me so much joy while observing Venus, all mounted on the EQ3. The goal wasn’t to image something never seen before, but just to blow the dust off my astronomy gear. I am lazy so I don’t like moving the dovetails around, and I  had a piece of hard wood — a dovetail it became.

(tovább…)