Jupiter and Transit of Io with Shadow and outbreak in NTrZ

 

Transit of Io on Jupiter with shadow. Moon Ganymede can be seen left on above picture. Also visibel is the "outbreak" in the Northern Tropical Zone (NTrZ).

The ADC with my Barlow x2 was replace with a Celestron Barlow X3 (on loan from Helios colleague).

Mars

Image of planet Mars. It's the first time I could image Mars since the last opposition of 2022.

Setting:

- TAL200K with ASI224MC

- IR/UV cut and Barlow x3

- SharpCap, AstroSurface and CS4

Sun with Sol'Ex Feb 2

Very good seeing this morning and a blue sky., so perfect Sol'Ex time.

Setting:

TLAPO60/360, Sol'Ex Pro version and ASI678MM

Herschel Wedge

Software: SharpCap, Inti, JSolex and CS4

Slit: Gen2 7micron and 10mm width

Sun with Sol'Ex Feb 1, 2025

First time this year .. a blue sky .. the entire day. Imaging the Sun using my Solex v3 Pro version on TLAPO60/360 and ASI678MM camera. Solar protection was done using Herschel Wedge.

Some learnings: even though I decreased ROI, the camera did had a limit on fps. This had an impact on sx/sy values. I need to deepdive into this.

CaIIH Line with Sol'Ex 2nd Gen Slit

Image made on Jan 19, 2025 with Sol'Ex Pro with 2nd Gen Slit of 7micron and ASI678MM camera.

BlueSky @pascalhilkens.bsky.social

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First light with 2nd generation Sol'Ex Slit - Observation of Sun in Spa-Francorchamps

A couple of weeks ago I installed my new slit which is the 2nd generation with a width of 7 micron is stead of 10 micron. The 3D slit holder was made by colleague Johan. Unfortunately I could not test the setting due to continious bad weather. 

This weekend I took my chance as a clear sky was predicted south of Belgium. My car was packed with all nescessary material including food and hot drinks. Special winter clothing due to freezing temparatures. I left early in the morning and picked of Walter to support the test. Destination was Spa-Francorchamps. Weather was perfect with a blue sky and an open space filled with snow.

For the test I used my EQAZ6 with Sol'Ex Pro and ASI678MM camera. My TS-TLAPO60/360 was also equiped with a Lacerta 2" Herschel Wedge. The mount was powered with a battery and PC with a Power bank Xtorm (in case of...).

Conclusion:

Weather conditions were very good, transparency and seeing very good. 

H-Alpha and H-Beta images with a lot of details. CaIIH en CaIIK have more details but unsharp. I made aswell images of Na D1, D3 and He D3; Mg b1, b2, b3.

My first image of H-alpha had a redshift of a filament of an incredable speed of 470.000 km/h (131km/s)

Second generation slit of 7micron gives more and finer details. 

Setting: 

Software : SharpCap 5, Inti, JSolex, CS4