Sol 7-5-23 Ha

[+Ibbo]

Ha lunt 60 with coronado RFT as D/S and 178 cam

 

[+Glafnazur]

Another great set of images Steve 👍

[+Bino-viewer]

Nice : looks like a big sunset grouping towards the centre.

 

I've not used my Herschel Wedge since nearly setting fire to it last time out.

[+Glafnazur]

8 hours ago, Bino-viewer said:

I've not used my Herschel Wedge since nearly setting fire to it last time out.

How did you manage to do that Rob?

[+Bino-viewer]

Too much aperture (140mm) so it got hot enough to become a hazard.

Some smoke came out of it, but that was possibly something else....maybe a small insect or other debris or dust burning....who knows ? (I am prone to a little exaggeration by the way 😉)

 

I seem to remember reading Baader recommend refractors in the 4 inch sort of range and that 5 - 6 inch scopes are too big and will cause heat build up in the wedge.

 

Another thing to consider is a scopes F/ ratio.

A fast scope will have a smaller image of the sun within the wedge so will get hotter, whereas a 'slower' scope will have a wider beam of light that will distribute onto

a larger space, so doesn't get as hot. Have i got that right ? My scope is F/7 so not particularly fast or slow.

 

But the main cause was proberbly this : my mount is alt az unpowered. I'd probably let the sun 'drift off' and away from the prism once too often, ie it was not centred, so some of the suns

energy was focused on the sides of the wedge causing a build up of heat.  And in this case it was very hot, and enough to cause me concern and end the session there and then.

So a lack of care and respect from me when viewing the sun, which needs to be done with more thought.

 

In future, i will need to either  : keep viewing very short, and turn the scope away to keep the wedge cool at regular intervals,

                                            : stop the scopes aperture down with a mask

                                           : use a smaller scope in the first place

                                           : use my powered mount to keep Solar properly centred on the wedge.

                                           : go with a dedicated HA scope 💡!!

 

I'm possibly going off on a tangent here and distracting things away from Steve's excellent solar work with my bad astronomy which is not my intention 😀

 

                                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+Ibbo]

Not had a problem with my lacerta wedge up to 132mm f7 or the 127 f9

[+Graham]

You have got some good hedgerows going on in there Steve. 👍