White light solar 20.09.21

[+Bino-viewer]

It was a nice day to be off work.

Spent the afternoon fiddling around with telescopes, and I set up my 105m refractor

for a bit of terrestrial with my amici diagonal and binoviewers, looking at trees, birds,

the odd plane, a busty road 2 km distant and of course the sun.

 

 

This is my preferred grab / go set up (i'll be out with it later this evening) using my photo tripod

and small DM-4 alt-az mount. Tripod and mount are an easy one handed carry out.

The scope is a 105mm Russian made triplet, F6.2 at 650mm focal length, but looks quite big for a 4" refractor,

and indeed, is close to the upper weight limit for this mount & tripod. But its quite stable and handles well enough for a quick session.

 

The scope recently undergone some extensive modifications. 

I've replaced the entire tube and focuser. The new tube is a bit bigger, a bit lighter : its made of 'Kruppax', and accommodates a bigger 3.5" focuser.

The tube rings are custom built CNC made low profile and lightweight by Orion optics UK. I'm trying to source a scope carry handle, but have so far

found nothing that will fit.

 

The binoviewer you see here is also new. 

I sold my Baader Maxbright 2 (but still have the bigger Mk5) and am trying out a new Zeiss unit. It differs from the norm in that it only employs

one small prism (the beam-splitter) and then uses mirrors (instead of more prisms) to achieve a binocular view.

 

After a terrestrial session, i swapped the Amici for a Herschel wedge, and spent another hour in the sun and had an enjoyable solar session.

The seeing didn't seem too bad and supported 54x ok with my high power 12mm eyepieces.

 

The image below was just for fun, but you can make out sunspot groups 2871, 2872 & 2873

I've processed it a bit in Mac Photos (i think tweaked it a bit is more appropriate) 

It was taken at 12:25hrs at iso 160,  1/1250s

Thanks for reading 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

[BAZ]

It's always nice to be able to just sit in the sun and just check over and appreciate your kit. A pleasant read Rob.

[philjay]

Nice set up. 

I still kick myself for selling my 4" ed frac a few years ago. A very versatile scope.

[+Glafnazur]

Nice report and image Rob 👍

[+Graham]

Sounds like an idyllic way to spend the day. 

[+Streetbob]

Enjoyed your report Rob. May try some sun bothering myself. 

[+Bino-viewer]

Its fun, and you never get cold !!!

 

There are a fraternity of 'Sun botherers' on here........

[Nightspore]

An enjoyable read Rob. The scope looks great.

[+Streetbob]

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours bothering the sun this morning as a consequence of your report Rob. I used a full aperture filter on my 102 frac. Got good views of a large sunspot and a couple of smaller faint ones.  What is the advantage of a Herschel Wedge?  They are expensive have you found yours worth the cost?

[Clive]

As a first guess (not being a solar observer), if a Herschel wedge fails it will cost you more financially to replace but at least you will still have your eyesight?

[+Bino-viewer]

On 06/10/2021 at 15:16, Streetbob said:

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours bothering the sun this morning as a consequence of your report Rob. I used a full aperture filter on my 102 frac. Got good views of a large sunspot and a couple of smaller faint ones.  What is the advantage of a Herschel Wedge?  They are expensive have you found yours worth the cost?

I like to think its a little bit safer and more robust, and can show a bit more detail, but theres probably not much in it to a casual observer like myself.

As a mainly refractor user i've always like Baader stuff and its also easily adaptable for bino-viewing and imaging.

I purchased it about 7 years ago for an eclipse and Mercury transit that happened around that time. It doesn't get a whole lot of use, but 

i've never regretted buying it or wanted to sell it. Its a handy thing to have in my inventory.