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SOLAR PHOTOGRAPHY REPORT FORM
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DATE/TIME:
Enter the Universal Time (UT) as follows: YYYY MM DD HH:MM:SS for example 1993 12 21 14:55:25 UT.
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ROTATION:
This is the Carrington Rotation Number for the date of observation. This can be found in any good astronomical almanac.
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CEN.MERIDIAN:
Enter heliographic longitude of the central meridian. This can be found in a good astronomical almanac and interpolated to the time of observation. Accuracy of 1-degree is good enough for most purposes.
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A.R.:
Put the Active Region identification number, issued by NOAA/SESC, here, if applicable.
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ALT:
This is the altitude of the sun in degrees FROM the horizon. Do not put in the zenith distance or hour angle!
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SKY COND:
All that is wanted here is a one word description of the sky: hazy, cloudy, clear, etc.
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SEEING:
Put in the seeing in arc seconds where: <1" is where granulation can clearly and steadily seen, 1-2" granulation can just be seen, 2-3" penumbrae are mottled but individual fibrils cannot be made out, 3-4" no penumbral detail can be seen, 4-5" penumbral/umbral boundary not clear, >5″ penumbrae not distinguishable from umbrae (you should probably not be working!)
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CLOUDS:
Put in your estimated percentage of cloud cover. This may require a note underneath to describe cloud type. For example, if you are observing through hazy cirrus that covers the whole sky. Your percentage would be 100% and without a note explaining that it is haze or cirrus this would be confusing.
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WIND:
A simple indication of none (0), light (lt), moderate (mod), and heavy (hvy) will be enough. This may be important when trying to determine if shaking was an observing problem.
OBSERVATORY TYPE:
Circle the description that most closely matches the type of observatory you have.
TELESCOPE
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INST. TYPE:
Enter your telescope optical configuration: sch-cas, refractor, Newt., etc.
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MOUNTING TYPE:
Here what is wanted is something like: Dobson, German Equatorial, Fork, etc.
CLOCK DRIVEN?:
A simple yes or no is all that is needed.
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TYPE OF DRIVE:
Let us know if you have worm gear drive, spur gear drive, poncet mount and drive, sector drive, falling weight drive, pendulum drive or whatever.
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FULL APERTURE:
This should be self-explanitory, but choose your units of measure carefully because you will need to maintain them throughout the rest of the form.
FOCAL LENGTH and f/:
Give this in the same units as the aperture.
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APERTURE STOP TYPE:
Enter the diameter of the stop and whether it is on or off axis.
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FINAL f/:
Redetermine the f/ratio with the stop diameter as the aperture.
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PHOTO SYSTEM
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TYPE:
Circle the appropriate configuration used.
EYEPIECE TYPE:
We don’t care so much about brand names as much as optical design: Kellner, Orthoscopic, Plossl, etc.
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FOCAL LENGTH:
Again, this should be in the same units as the aperture.
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EYEPIECE/BARLOW TO FILM DISTANCE:
Give this as accurately as possible in the same units as the aperture.
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FILTER TYPE(S):
Enter the types of filters used, both full aperture (pre- telescope) and any auxillary filters. For those using Kodak’s Technical Pan Film #2415, you will obtain much better results, less affected by seeing and altitude, by using a deep red filter like a Wratten 25, or 25A. This film has a strong sensitivity at H-alpha (656.3nm) in the red.
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BRAND:
The brand of the primary light reduction filter (the full aperture, pre- telescope filter) is needed here. We have noticed that this sometimes can be significant to the problems of an observer.
FILM TYPE:
Record the name of the film you used to make the negative. We recommend that observers in the U.S. use Kodak Technical Pan Film #2415 but any fine grained litho film will give good results.
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FORMAT (SIZE):
Most observers use 35mm film. Some are using larger film sizes or formats. Enter yours here.
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EXP.TIME:
This is critically important. You want to get your exposure time as close to 1/1000 sec (0.001sec) as possible. THIS MEANS REDUCING YOUR FILTRATION BELOW THAT SAFE FOR VISUAL OBSERVATION!! Be sure you do not reduce it too much and burn your shutter, and use additional filtration when looking through the viewfinder. If you are at all unsure of yourself here then use normal filtration.
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CAMERA TYPE:
Here you can use the brand name, but do include model number too.
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DEVELOPER:
We recommend using Technidol with Technical Pan film. Some observers use high contrast developers. This is suitable only for photography of individual active regions. If used on whole disk photos it will exaggerate limb darkening resulting in severe loss of detail toward the limb and center of the disk. It is better to make a “flatter” negative and add contrast as needed in the darkroom! This process is much less irreversable.
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TIME:
Put the total time of development here.
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TEMP.:
Enter the temperature of developer.
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OBSERVER INFORMATION
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PHOTO.FILE.NO.:
We want YOUR file number for the photograph here in case we have to contact you for more prints.
ADDRESS:
This should be your mailing address, preferrably a home address and not a P.O.Box.
PHONE NO.:
Give both a daytime (work) number and a night number. Remember, we are working with solar astronomers around the world and get requests for data and for observing at odd hours. Don’t worry, we won’t contact you in the middle of the night.
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COMMENTS:
Put any notes about unusual conditions or equipment, or observations made concurrently, here. Typical comments tell of settings for H-alpha filters (whether on-band or off-band and by how much), or of events observed to be happening on the sun during the photograph (flares, rapid motions, etc.).
