paulastro

Thank you Stargazer. The Altair 80 ED-R was set up in the lounge, with solar filter, camera and cable release on my Scopetech Mount Zero on a Vixen tripod. All I had to do was carry it out through the kitchen. Took me about two minutes to carry it out. Pic below, but without solar filter and camera.

Hopelessly murky yesterday, and all day today - except for six minutes starting at 12.32 pm. A little gap in the blanket of cloud, I had left the Altair 80 ED-R set up ready to go indoors just in case. Through cloud I managed six single frames, believe it or not, this is the best! It shows AR2396, AR2398 close to the E WIth AR2939 and AR2930 further E. Single frame at 12.38 pm, 1/20 sec at 320 asa, Olympus E-M5 Mk11. Nice to see AR2936 for probably the last time, if the forecast is anywhere near being correct.

What a fabulous photograph Mark, or should I say 'fab' - judging by the haircuts I presume you were all Beatles fans? I certainly didn't look that cool back in 1968. I don't recall the eclipse in 1968, but the pic below shows me with a friend waiting to see the partial solar eclipse on February 25th, 1971, I'm on the left with a pair of binocs. I'm afraid we waited in vain, it didn't clear until a few minutes after the eclipse finished. Seen one ot two since though 😊.

Thank you Mark. It's funny isn't it, as good as HA is, I wouldn't want not to be able to observe sunspots. I've been observing in white light for over fifty years, and I always get a thrill from observing sunspots - the bigger and more numerous the better. Of course, fifty years ago it was more exciting because you had no way of knowing if there were any sunspots on view or not. It was always a thrill to project the image and find out there was a huge sunspot on the disc 😊.

I managed my third solar obs on the bounce this morning, though if I wasn't trying to keep my run going, I may have thought twice 😄. After two storms on Friday and Saturday nights the wind this morning was ferocious as well, with gusts of up to 50 mph, I had trouble holding down the 102ED on the Scopetech Zero mount at times, the seeing was very bad, and views were affected by cloud, as was my single frame below. Kon's pic is much better, but I'm posting it anyway after all the difficulty I had obtaining it - just don't bother zooming in on it 😅. I agree with Kon, the two ARs coming over the E limb look very promising, I particularly like the look of AR2940. The solar cycle certainly seems to be gaining momentum, lots to look forward to 😊.

Happy birthday Huddo. 60, old? 🤣 I don't think so!

I was lucky to have a second clear morning in a row this morning - I might buy a lottery ticket later 😊. Good to see AR2936 again, plus AR2934 to the W. On the E limb was AR2939 plus another AR to the N, so far not numbered? Took a single frame with the Tecnosky 102ED F7 and Olympus camera at 10.30 am, 1/250 sec at 320 asa.. Reproduced below with a crop of the same frame. Earlier, I had an enexpected fly by. I had just pressed the end of my manual cable release, with just sunspots visible. The camera screen then flashed for a microsecond while it flashed up the frame that has just been taken before returning to the view through the camera again. I had a shock in that for that microsecond I thought I saw a plane with a con trail flash into view. I thought I had imagined it until I pressed the button to see the frame I had just taken. The pic is below. Over the years I've taken quite a few planes crossing the sun or moon. This is the first time that one has taken me by surprise as this one has, crossing the field of view in the time it took for the shutter to release and me never actually seeing it before or after, but just leaving an image. 😁.

Nigella, I'm not laughing, they are great pictures! Many congratulations on having some sunny skies at last 😊.

Thanks Pete, that's very kind of you.

Many thanks Stu, I hadn't noticed the second one 😊

A big thanks to all of you who posted here, it helped me to finally decide which device to purchase. Below is a pic of the one Amazon delivered to me today. Its robust and works very well, though I'm sure there are many others that would work just as well. It cost £16.95, rather a lot but it should last me my life time - as long as I don't lose it 😊. Thank you again.

The weather forecast was correct! Here's a single frame taken this morning with the Tecnosky 102ED and Olympus at 9.40 this morning. It also showsthe new spot coming round the limb.

I was pleased to have the opportunity to observe AR2936, one of the biggest sunspot groups of the new solar cycle, this morning. I observed with the Tecnosky 102ED F7, which showed a lot of detail in quite good conditions before it started to deteriorate after 10am. Below is a single frame taken with the Olympus E-M5 Mk11 at 9.40am, 1/200 sec at 320 asa. Low res, but it it gives an indication of what it was like.

Thanks Stu. No, I didn't know about it until today just before I posted the 'heads up'. It was cloudy most of the day anyway. I'll be ready to rock and roll when the sun peaks out 😊.

Looks fabulous Stu, I'm jealous 😄. I actually have a couple of hours of clear sun forecast for tomorrow morning, and we all know what that means 😁.

Sorry Stu, didn't see your posts before I responded.

Yes you certainly will see it. To be clear, the Baader filter must cover the lens of the telescope if you have a refractor, or if a reflector it must cover the open end of the telescope opposite the end where the mirror is. IT MUST BE ABSOLUTELY SECURE SO IT WILL NOT BECOME DETACHED, EG BY THE WIND. If you do this you can then look through the eyepiece as usual. DO NOT look through the finder to locate the sun. The best way is to use the shadow of the telescope on the ground to centre it on the sun. Ask more questions if you are unsure EXACTLY what you need to do. If in doubt do not proceed. IF YOU LOOK AT THE SUN WITHOUT THE FILTER COVERING THE APERTURE OF THE TELESCOPE IT COULD RESULT IN BLINDNESS !!!!!!

If you have a chance tomorrow, this is well worth a look, one of the largest of the new solar cycle.

Thanks John.

Many thanks John, it certainly looks robust enough. Probably a silly question, but can you use it with your phone in landscape mode? I was going to use it on a tripod without a head, so if I want to use it in landscape mode, it would have to hold the phone on its side, which is obviously less than 5.4 inches. Mind you, I do have a Ball - Head I could use which would probably do the trick?

Thank you. I wouldn't buy the cheapest, my phone is worth more than £2 😊. Actually, on Amazon I came across some that don't have a spring clamp, but have a 'screw down' device to hold the phone in place.

Thanks for that. I've looked at it myself in Poundland, but couldn't decide if the tripod was removable, couldn't open it as the box was sealed. The only thing is it costs £4 ( in Pound land!? ) Not a lot, but on Amazon there are loads for £8-9 which look a lot better. Thanks anyway.

Just to be clear, I'm NOT talking about mounting a smartphone onto a telescope, but directly onto a standard photographic tripod. I searched on Amazon and there were numerous adapters available, but of course the reviews were not that helpful. For every good review for an adapter there is another which contradicts it! If you have a specific one you have used, particularly for astro imaging, and found it to be particularly good, I'd love to hear about it. You could save me a lot of time, and possibly my sanity 😊. Many thanks Paul

Thank you Chris.

For me, it's always the highest magnification that gives the most detail in the prevailing conditions. And of course, this often changes during the same observing session.