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Posts Made By: Tom Masterson

May 11, 2005 02:05 AM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

Can I play with you guys?

Posted By Tom Masterson
Mark:

Welcome to the solar fort!

Congrats on the PST. As for the image brightness, be sure you have it tuned. At either end of the range the bandpass opens up and the image gets brighter.

For my larger filter I sometimes use a Orion variable polarizer. You can dial in the brighness. I also use a pale blue or a pale green filter sometimes. These might be a bit much for the PST.

Clear, sunny and RED skies!

Tom Masterson

May 11, 2005 03:18 AM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

IT'S ALIVE!

Posted By Tom Masterson
Alan:

Great image! And great resulution too. What software do you use to build your animated gif?

My attempts result in too much compression of the individual frames. The end result looks terrible.

Tom Masterson

May 13, 2005 02:02 PM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

PST?

Posted By Tom Masterson
David:

Don't let the talk of the doublestacking mislead you into thinking the PST is marginal in its basic form. I too consider $500 to be a significant investment, but the PST is a Price/Performance VALUE for the $$$. Like Paul, I first owned a larger filter (and still do). When the PST hit the market I was curious but assumed I'd be spoiled by my bigger and better filter - too much so to buy a PST. Weeeeelllll, how wrong I was! My first look through a PST gave me a STRONG itch to get one. When I looked in the PST for the first time my socks started it roll up and and on my ankles by themselves - and still do when I use it! Now that I own one I can't picture myself selling it because it give me great views and is soooo P O R T A B L E. Also, I've found cheap generic plossls work very well in the scope. These can be had for $15 - 20 used.

Yes, doublestacking improves performance, but the single-stack view is, like frosted flakes - GRRRRRREAT!

Tom

September 8, 2005 04:16 AM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

Thrown for a loop!

Posted By Tom Masterson
Another quicky shot combining two exposures. Although not blended well, you can see the spot where this huge magnetic field was being blown out of.


WOW, my head is still spinning from this one. Visually it was amazing.

Tom Masterson


September 11, 2005 07:11 AM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

electronic EP

Posted By Tom Masterson
John:

After seeing a Electronic eyepiece at work on a Coronado set-up I was sold and picked one up.

Actually the B&W one gives the best images because all the pixels are being used. Because h-alpha is a monochrome image a color eyepiece only uses about a third of the pixels - just the red ones - which lowers resolution.

When adjusted properly, the electronic eyepiece can show things on the TV screen with better contrast than is visible with direct viewing. They are also great for showing live solar images to a group of people.

Clear sunny skies
Tom

September 11, 2005 06:02 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Nagler or Radian

Posted By Tom Masterson
John:

I've owned the big brother to your new refractor for nearly 20 years and the good news is, these scopes LOVE eyepieces - any eyepiece!

Deciding between the Nagler and Radian is more about eye relief and field of view than performance. If there one that seems to tickle your fancy (technical term) go ahead and get it. I can tell you from experience, the slots in an eyepiece case are like rental apartments. Some times the tennants stay a long time, other times they change rather quickly. AND, it's hard to know ahead of time which is going to be the "best" tennant!

Do you need the 20mm eye relief? A wide field of view is nice.

At the other end of the power spectrum, do you have a 2" wide field eyepiece for the scope? Looking at a big chunk of the sky with pinpoint stars can be a real jaw dropper.

Good luck.

Tom Masterson

September 14, 2005 03:51 AM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

New PST

Posted By Tom Masterson
Doug:

Congratulations on your first PST "high". Watch out though, that little scope is more addicting than cigarettes!

Boy is THIS a great week to get one. The Sun is putting on a welcome show for you with some awesome fireworks. Who said we are approaching solar minimum!?

I've owned mine for almost a year now and I still say WOW out-loud when I look through it.

Welcome to the club - of h-alpha addicts.

Tom Masterson

September 23, 2005 03:39 AM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

CaK PST Imaging

Posted By Tom Masterson
Mike:

I can give you an answer based completely on speculation so don't quote me.

I expect the focusing range to be similar to the h-alpha PST because it is more a function of mechanical/optical design than the wavelength observed.

I can't speak to visual capabilities of this new PST - yet. If I get a chance to look through one I'll report back. I did look through the SolarMax 70 prototype last year at the Hands On the Sun conference and was quite surprised at the image. I've always been told Calcium-K observing is a young person's hobby because the eye become more opaque to deep violet as it ages. When I got my chance to look I didn't expect to see anything, being 50 years old, but instead I found the image fairly easy to see. It was somewhat dark to me but I was thrilled to see anything at all. Because of this positive experience with the 70, I am holding out hopes the smaller scope will work for me too. If not I'd still like to do some imaging with it.

Yeeeeaaahhhh, an X-Ray PST! Hummm, the solid lead tube assembly might be a little hard on the mount though. =;^)

October 18, 2005 12:27 AM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

PST Cak

Posted By Tom Masterson
I'm in line for one too. Can't wait.

Tom

October 23, 2005 06:48 PM Forum: Coronado-Lunt-DayStar Solar Filters

T-Adapter for SM40/Nikon D70

Posted By Tom Masterson
Mike try here: www.scopetronix.com

They have adapters for many cameras. I believe you'll need a T to 1-1/4" adapter. This will thread into your t-ring and allow you to slip the camera into the focuser.

Hope this helps.

Tom

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