3/3/2012. I finally mounted the Lunt solar telescope and its RoboFocus motor on top of the Ritchey and ran some sky trials after noting in Guide 9 that the Sun had reached a declination of -6°, the same as M42. So I knew it would clear the treetops for at least a little while this afternoon.

A comedy of errors ensued. You do this under marginal skies in order not to waste good ones when they come along. I did waste a long clear spell trying to focus on one of the secondary solar images. I didn't know that was what I was doing until I tried tuning the internal echelon for better contrast and the image moved. After recentering on the properly trimmed image, I found focus much more readily. Note that the high-density stream coming from the Chameleon slows the remote desktop app to a crawl. I'm thinking that instead of 15fps, the office computer is showing less than 1fps, and commands are seriously lagged. I had the desktop set to 1280x1024 which is big enough to see almost the entire frame at once. All that probably gives the graphics chipset in the Aspire One more than it wants to handle. Still. Everything works. I had some doubts because FlyCap relies heavily on function keys and interupts; just how well they would be passed through, I wasn't sure. It's not an issue. I used Maxim and the ST2000XM (OTA capped, chip uncooled) just for the "move" commands in the guiding dialog. I panned across the Sun in both axes just to be sure I could. Robofocus never skipped a beat, though I had to reset its limits once. Clouds and encroaching pines made life tough, but all this will work fine when the Sun is higher and the sky clearer. I think I got about a quarter of a second of actual video for 90 minutes of messing around and nothing at all to show here. Think about whether a tolerable balance can be found without the bronze counterweight. It's a bear to switch on and off, but that, too, is manageable. This is going to be great for staring at the Sun. Sitting at my desk is so much more pleasant than standing outside under the black observer's cloak (think of a secular burka) while trying to manage a keypad in one hand and the netbook in the other.

3/04/2012: There are three gaps in the trees that permit the Sun to shine through. The Sun reached the first gap around 8:00 AM, the other two in early afternoon. I needed them all to iron out most of the wrinkles in remote solar imaging. The best tips of the day:

• The two stainless weights suffice if moved all the way out at the end of the extended bar, but I think it's asking a lot of the servos. A-P says, keep the clutches tight and imbalance is not so important,
• There is a [pause] button on the data stream from RemotePC -- it appears that I can send to the remote while pause is selected; check that out and if so, use it to reduce bandwidth while adjusting this and that,
• Focus roughly out by the 'scope, then use Robofocus moves of around 40, 20, and 10 units to dial in,
• Remember that the image shown on the desktop indoors is a compressed and otherwise compromised version of what the netbook really sees (be sure RemotePC is configured for best image quality) and that camera will capture a substantially better stream,
• When focussing and framing, drop the frame rate at the camera to one that the computer and network can handle, but remember to run it back up to take data,
• See if you can use PHD Guide rather than Maxim [yes] to nudge the 'scope around because Maxim makes substantial memory and processing demands on the netbook and requires that a pricey CCD camera be connected (but makes no use of it in this application),
• You might also finally hook an RS232 line to the mount and learn to get a computer and the keypad play nicely together, but for some reason or for none at all I find that prospect daunting.

Anyway: we've got it working; now see about making it work elegantly.

Magnetic canopy above sunspot 1429
20s @ 15fps (300 x 12ms)
Dreadful seeing, but technologically OK. Remote solar imaging works.

Clouds, pine boughs, and dreadful seeing plagued every attempt; also a dead computer battery; a RoboFocus mutiny; and another adventure trying to use one of the extraneous solar images rather than the trimmed, on-band image. In mid-afternoon, I finally got a relatively clean capture with only seeing to fuzz the result. That's AR 1429 rotating into view. It's been throwing M-class flares. Even when quiescent, it lofts a complex plasma canopy.

3/05/2012: AR 1429 launched an X1-flare this morning when it was out of view, and an M-flare this afternoon just before emerging into the afternoon gap in the pines. Here it is fifteen minutes after that second blast, still cooling:

AR 1429 a few minutes after an M2-flare
20s @ 15fps (300 x 4ms)

03/6/2012: I took a morning glance at AR 1429 and its quieter neighbor AR 1430. The early morning offered reasonably steady seeing despite the large air mass, but there was not a lot to see -- nothing like yesterday afternoon. Later, the seeiing improved (though not to yesterday's standard) and this is what was going on when the Sun cleared the meridian pines. Does it look to you as if something big is looming beyond the horizon behind this active region? We'll see in a few days.

AR 1429 one day later, throwing weaker flares
20s @ 15fps (300 x 9ms)

The outfit for this year is a little different. The Lunt is mounted on the AT10RC with its own RoboFocus motor, both semi-permanently mounted on the Mach1GTO. I've moved a big case to the north end of the trailer (not the little one shown below) with the idea that the AT can be stored for short periods there when the A-P refractor is preferred. It's all part of a plan to avoid carrying heavy, expensive gear around more than necessary.

Robofocus-equipped Lunt Solar Telescope on top of AT10RC
Robofocus motor with "Mandel" pulley and timing belt held by tension
against the fine-focus knob of a Feathertouch 2-inch adapter. Kirk, RSS,
some Arca knockoff dovetail clamp and a few bits of strap steel and hardware-
store aluminum stock hold all the pieces in place. The same motor assembly swaps without
tools to a 200mm Nikkor for widefield photography using DSLRs or the CCD.

The Nineteenth Fairway — waiting for the Sun to reach
the first gap of the day.

3/10/2011. AR 1429 has been extremely active these last few days, but my sky has not cooperated until today. I tried reducing the image scale by reducing as far as possible the extension between the Barlow and the PGR Chameleon's chip. Not much change as yet, but what there is is for the better. I'd like to reduce the scale more, either with a custom adapter or a less aggressive negative lens. I'll think on that. Today, the air is cooperating and the usually excessive image scale is working out OK. See?

AR1429 cooling from a bright M-flare
It's "only" M2 or so here
300 frames @15fps, 4.5ms per frame
AviStack 2, Registax 5.1 for wavelets, Focus Magic in PS CS4

Same tech specs.
About an hour later, fading back
to C-flare levels. Steadier air, better focus.