Luke

Lovely shot! I especially like the crispness of it. And it pops out of the screen, I could almost reach out and touch it!

Very nice image!

Lovely image! Would using PIPP to pick the best TIFs, crop and save out as SER possibly be of help with the AS!2 memory issue? https://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/ I've found PIPP very useful for my solar captures in the past.

Is that the F9 SW100? I have one, it is a fantastic telescope! I really love it. What a great first frac! Yeah the 150 does look a bit big!!! But it niggles me. It would be the largest I would go with a frac and would complete my frac lineup I think (60, 85, 100, 120). Soooo tempting! I have no funds for it but I must have something I can sell!!! If buying my fracs again I think I would buy the ED100 first. It's a bit long but light and I use it a lot, especially for solar with solar safety filters, and it goes nicely on a giro mount too for quick setup. Doesn't seem to take long to cool down. I hope it is not too long until you get the 100ED and they forget to put the clouds in the package!

If it was me I'd treat myself to a cooled CCD and push the budget a little more if needs be. You lost your mojo before with DSO imaging (I did too), and a more sensitive CCD stands a better chance of you keeping it this time. I imaged with a DSLR for a few years, I wish I had gone the CCD route (I ended up switching to solar imaging with a mono CCD). All the effort that goes into it, why not give yourself the best chance of getting images that keep you thrilled if budget allows?

A lot of models do seem to be out of stock, but they still have some others showing as in stock, like the Esprit Triplet: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/esprit-professional-refractors/skywatcher-esprit-ed-100-pro-triplet.html Or howzabout a Takahashi?: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/takahashi-fsq-85-series-refractor-telescopes/takahashi-fsq-85edx-f5-3-quadruplet-petzval-apo-refractor.html ("Sorry but they were out of stock of the much cheaper scope I wanted! I had to settle for this Takahashi instead.") Anyway, which scope was tempting you?! I've been sorely tempted by the Skywatcher ED150, but thankfully that is out of stock again. But yikes, more are on the way. Please buy 'em up!!!

Very nice! I often use my 85mm for oberserving in white light. Sunshine, one nice thing about solar is that the gear tends to get a lot of use. I use mine much more than my dob, alas, due to UK weather etc! And now is a good time to get solar gear, hopefully, with the sun early on in the solar cycle, and plenty of action to come, with any luck!

The Willam Optics stuff does look swish! I think all I have from them is an extension tube and diagonal, both of which are very nicely made! If they take that much care over an extension tube, I imagine their scopes are lovely.

Thanks John for all your posts on SGL! Your posts have been very helpful to me and no doubt to very many others. Here's to another 15 years, during which I look forward to your review of the Skywatcher ED300.

1) Solar Minimum It should be illegal for the sun to have no spots for even a day. 2) Clouds I don't think I need to explain this one here... 3) Late Nights I'm more of a morning person. What was I thinking getting into this hobby? 4) Coldness I hope the neighbours do not spot me doing kung-fu at 2am in the morning. 5) Cost of Gear £50 for a finder scope? I'll knock one up out of toilet rolls and a jam jar, thanks. 'Tis an amazing hobby, though! I did swear my next hobby would not depend on the weather, which turned out to be board games. Looking at the weather forecast, looks like I have time for another game of The Campaign for North Africa.

Sweet images! How do you find the Zwo Asi 178mm for solar? The results look great.

It's a shame the h-alpha gear is so expensive and that you had to sell your good double stack. I had to sell some stuff from my other hobby, boardgames, partly because we have an oil boiler that is on its last legs! It would be close for me too chosing either white light or h-alpha, which makes white light seem like a bargain... I've been impressed with the little 1.25 inch Lunt solar wedge. We have the more expensive 2" Baader CoolCeramic Herschel Wedge as well, and I haven't noticed much between them visually. For imaging, I guess the Baader is better for shorter exposure times and close ups especially when using a photographic-use-only ND filter. I can't really say re: the solar continuum filter! I've not done a direct comparison as far as I remember, and always use it these days. I do find that I don't really notice the green. The views I get are very crisp, contrast is good, and faculae are subtle but clear and delightful. If I remember, I'll try with and without the next time the sun next plays ball. There can't be much cloud left after today's rain. ☔

Congrats on your first solar images! That's some really impressive close up detail, great start! Could be a good time to get more into solar early in the new solar cycle, with hopefully years of fantastic spots to come. I've seen some nice DSLR shots of solar h-alpha, but most folks do go the mono camera route. On the plus, a really good camera for solar is a lot cheaper arguably than the equivalent really good deep sky camera! And it may work well for lunar too and maybe planets as well.

What a glorious spot! Commiserations on your camera loss. Best to really splash out to make up for the loss of the poor old Chameleon! I very nearly dropped a Baader Herschel Wedge, PowerMate and Point Grey camera years ago, if memory serves!

Very nice! Most of my observing has been through thin cloud of late! As for the night time stuff... (!)

I concentrated on imaging for a few years, with the intention to observe as well, but I didn't end up observing as much as I wanted to! So in my case, I found it hard to do both. These days I have retired from imaging but still get to have fun processing data (SDO and Hubble and my old data), which is what I enjoyed most about the whole imaging thing anyway. For some folks it is critical to capture the data but I have to admit I did not enjoy that part of the process much at all. It felt like a pain I went through in order to get some data. It is stunning though what is possible from the humble back garden and I can understand why it has so much appeal!

Lovely shots of a lovely spot! We've been getting quite a bit of thin cloud our way these past few weeks.

Nice one! I was happy to get another look at that beautiful big spot. I've been preferring the views in white light lately over h-alpha, there is so much nice detail to that spot and around it! A nice little bit of streaky white detail around the new arrival too. I was using my 85mm, Lunt 1.25 inch Herschel wedge and the Solar Continuum filter. Gosh, my Quark really is quite dirty inside - I was originally more interested in it for imaging so overlooked the visual side a bit. I'm not having much luck with night time observing lately but good old solar is getting me to blow the dust off some of the scopes!

I'd go with the Lunt and maybe double-stack it at a later date. For me it is aperture first, double stacking second for "best view". I like the more constrasty view double stacking gives you, which can make it easier to pick out details on the disc, but I like the finer detail you can see with larger aperture scopes more.

Very nice, my favourite is the first h-alpha. I personally didn't find much difference between Tele Vue's PowerMate and their Barlows for solar and lunar imaging, but I may have missed a trick. Some folks seem to swear by the PowerMates.

Ooooh, I have been wondering about a right angle finder, but funds are tight unless I sell stuff, unless I can find a cheap one... I figure I need a right angle finder as I am struggling with my straight-through one on my 10 inch dob. Trying to find stuff nearly straight up is almost impossible for me now unless I get some serious Yoga lessons. And many other positions are painful these days! I think this device would go quite some way to curing my woes! Though my funds are restricted at the mo (I am recently out of work) it has been lovely seeing all your goodies on this thread, it gives me some of the excitement without the cost!

A whopper! Good catch!

Very nice! I especially like the Ca-K. I am not sure if I will be able to catch the sun all year around this time, my usual spot was on a deck that is no more!

Looks like it is returning good details. Well done on your first solar shots!

Nice haul! That big spot is so lovely in all lights!