Comet C/2017 K2(PanSTARRS)

The next months it will be possible to observe (and image) a special comet. Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) is estimated to reach magnitudes around 8. So not visible with the naked eye but as it's the first and only passage near the Sun anything can happen. The comet is an Oort Cloud Comet and after it's passage it will leave our solarsystem.

Some special moments :

- June 18-23 near object IC4665 Summer Beehive Open Star Cluster

- July 14 closest distance 270 million km to Earth

- July 14-18 near object M10 Globular Star Cluster

- August 2-5 near object M107 Globular Star Cluster

ATT Essen Pictures

Some Belgian Friends at the ATT Essen (May 11, 2022); see this link for more pictures. 

 

Sun May28 - H-Alpha Full Disk

Some more trial and error using my focal reducer 0.5x with SolarMaxIII and ASI290MM. I noticed that the flats taken from yesterday are popping up when imaging in SharpCap Pro. I renewed the flat and after restarting SharpCap Pro the full disk image was much better. I could image on 80fps with an exposure time between 0.3 and 0.5ms - gain set on 100.

Setting: SolarMaxIII 70/400 f/5.7 DS BF15 and ASI290MM

Software: SharpCap Pro, AS3!, IMPPG, CS4.
Adding Color CS4 : RGB1,8 - R 1,33- G 0,44 - B 0,2

Full Sundisk H-Alpha

Using my ASI290MM on SolarMaxIII 70/400 f/5.7 the Sundisk could not be 100% captured. Therefor I bought a 2" focalreducer x0.5. 

The first result is promising.

Setting : SolarMaxIII 70/400 f/5.7 DS BF15with ASI290MM (and focalreducer 0.5x)

Software : SharpCap Pro, AS3!, IMPPG, CS4

Compilation of the Sun in H-Alpha, White Light and CaK

 

Sun H-Alpha with Sunspot AR3014

 Imaging the Sun today in H-Alpha. My objective was to use my new 0.5x reducer but I was unable to connect with my ASI290MM and missing the right adapter. So I made a couple of pictures with the idea to merge both images. It looks good but bot great!

Setting : SolarMaxIII 70/400 f/5.7 DS BF15 and ASI290MM

Software : SharpCap Pro, AS3!, IMPPG and CS4.

The sundisk shows also the region with sunspot AR3014. See this link for more information on sunspot AR3014 

Sunspot AR3014 in CaK and White Light

Sunspot AR3014 is still huge and about 940MH counting 14 individual spot and classified as EKC. As part of my learning I used a CaK filter together with Barlow x2. Beside CaK I also imaged AR3014 in white light using ND5.0 filter. 

Setting : TAL200K f/8.5, ND3.8, CaK and ASI290MM

Software : SharpCap Pro, AS3!, IMPPG, CS4