9/02/2010: Lessons from the Moon cannot always be applied to the Sun. In particular, stacking Barlows on the Lunt has not paid off as well as doing the same thing on the A-P. Also, the wavelet parameters that work so spectacularly for the Moon make a mess of the Sun.

I also discovered while trying to collect a few thousand frames of a relatively mundane sunspot (that is, one with no spectacular magnetic fireworks going on over it) that I don't know how to stream data to disk. Maybe it went somewhere on C: but it did not go to the USB pocket drive to which I have been sending buffered files.

Sunspot 1101 at the center of a magnetic hurricane. 500 frames, PGR Chameleon, auto everything, aligned on multiple points in Registax, mild wavelet sharpening, then some FocusMagic and USM in Photoshop. The usual.

That's with one Barlow behind the Lunt. That's about all that works today. Some good detail is visible with two Barlows, but the afternoon seeing is so bad that I can't get a good lock in Registax to align and stack images with substantially more scale.

Mechanical footnote: I machined a shallow groove into the FeatherTouch adapter so the focuser can't fall off the Lunt as a result of one of the three thumbscrews that hold it in place backing off a fraction of a turn. This works well, does not seem to have a downside, and I may need to deepen the groove now that I can see that it works without compromising fit or finish. Just don't overdo it.