niallk

7 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Nicely spotted - I must have just missed this yesterday. Can’t afford to miss a second on the Sun at the moment. Whole disk is alive.

Yeah - I'm working a lot from home and just throw the scope out the back garden for the day, and I take the odd 5min break and take a peep if the sky is clear! 😎

Beautiful views again this morning, including what looks to me to be a lovely flare loop prominence I think coming from a bright active 'fissure'!  Seems to have a significant doppler shift going by my tuning to bring it (or at least the sides) out dark.  From Gong...

Update:

Looking at a movie on Gong, you can see it explode out - explains the doppler shift 🙂

https://gong2.nso.edu/products/scaleView/view.php?configFile=configs/hAlpha.cfg&productIndex=0

On 07/05/2024 at 23:10, John said:

I have wondered about the Heritage 130 newt as an alternative OTA 🤔

I got a 130p as a travel scope / grab'n'go, and am contemplating going the other way - an 80mm ED frac!

The 130p is a good scope, phenomenal for the money, but on my SW Az5 tripod, it suffers from vibration The plastic helical focuser is usable, but no Feathertouch 🤣

I can't adjust the secondary on mine - the screws feel like they're welded in place 🙄

7 hours ago, Richard N said:

no-one could fit it in their car and ultimately, no-one was interested, there wasn't any other option

Shame - a well designed dob that breaks down for convenient transport is key, unless one is lucky enough to not need to escape light pollution!

Looks like the fittings on an Obsession Classic scope.

I'm not sure if Dave Kriege sells these as ATM parts:

https://www.obsessiontelescopes.com/ATM_parts/index.php

You should try emailing him - he is very responsive.

22 hours ago, Hals said:

This solar cycle is turning out to be one for the history books.

See if AR3664 returns on the opposite limb in around 12 days.

You can track it's progress here https://www.raben.com/maps/

Great link - thanks 👍👍

Strong green and pink visible naked eye in Bortle ~4 skies in Cork.

I was watching it flaring in my LS50DS and thought - maybe there could be an increased chance of aurora for the imagers on the northern horizon... little did I think I'd see pink and green rays fanning down from overhead!

A lifelong dream to see with my own eyes fulfilled! 🙂

Yup, my lil' Lunt has been Christened a few times now too!!  Thankfully just the ota tube, not the objective  😎

Cooled my scope for 3hrs, poured over Interstellarum compiling a list of targets for possibly the last chance before losing astro darkness & packed into the car, went to my local darker spot - and NORTHERN LIGHTS!!!!

Didn't unpack the scope because no contrast - but I didn't care: first time seeing the aurora in my life 😎

Greens & pinks - like a fan of rays overhead ... WOW!

So chuffed.  And I'd being observing the wonderfully dynamic activity on the sun this week with my Lunt - saw really bright flaring early yesterday morning. 

My phone camera doesn't do it justice:

I drove home and got the family out to see it 🙂

- bright flaring

Great post - very interesting!👍

Very impressive work!  Looks pure class, and yep smooth movements are so important at the EP 😎

I bought the 10E first, and it is a beaut in my 15" f4.5 manual dob with P2.

I then bought a 17E, then a 6E ... then added an 8E 🙈😎.  They are all fantastic tbh.  When I bought the 10E, I had chosen to go with the 6-10-17 trio as my base set of EPs.  The 8E (and also a 31T5) are luxury additions.  Done now - haven't bought an EP for that scope in 7 years (- is that a record?! 😅)

I gave my vote to the 10E, but tomorrow it equally could have been the 6E.  It gets quite a bit of use...

I've an OMI mirror, tested at 550nm (green).

Here's their tech note on interferometry results:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080509195633/http://www.opticalmechanics.com/technical_articles/interferometric_testing.html

The numbers quoted for your mirror are very good!

Great thread!

One I've enjoyed chasing with some teasing success is detail in the Cat's Eye neb:

On 11/04/2024 at 22:58, Captain Scarlet said:

 

I'd saythat couple were rather annoyed with the photographer for ruining their dark adaption...

I use a 15mm TV plossl the most with my LS50DS, tbh.

I also have the TS badged 7-21mm zoom; same as the Lunt one.  It's poor at 7mm, ok/good above that.

Given the size of my DS sweet spot, I have gone back to predominantly just the 15mm, after chasing higher mag views for a while.

Love my lil' Lunt!

One night of exceptional seeing, I went to 560x on Jupiter in my 15" f4.43 dob: PMx2 & 6E.  However I backed off to the 8E ~480x for greater drift time across the fov, with a Paracorr 2 added.

On a night of very good seeing for planetary, I use a P2 + 6E for 320x.  On just a good night, I use P2 + 8E for 240x, ... and if it's not a good night I generally don't bother on planets!

You also asked about mirror quality: the cert I got claims 0.97 strehl for the primary (1/38 waves RMS wavefront), and 1/10 PV wavefront for the secondary.

So I go nowhere near 50x/inch under southern Irish skies!

19 hours ago, LukeTheNuke said:

I'd love a Lunt 60 double stack solar h-alpha telescope. It, or a single stack, could be in budget soon, but a dob is looking more likely to scoff the budget. Those solar scopes can get a lot of use during the year, though, especially if you can observe during lunchtime. So in a way, I think they're not as expensive as they look. Or perhaps a Solar Spectrum H-alpha filter.

I've a LS50DS, and yeah Ha is expensive!  I love it though - so quick and easy to throw outside for a quick few mins peep at what's going on... and now is a great time to have one with lots of activity.  Even after years of owning it, it still gets lots of use, even with Irish weather!!

(Of course a dob is a great thing too 😎)

I've seen it with a 15" dob - chuffed to see it

I've seen 4 or possibly 5 moons of Uranus with the same scope in good seeing and transparency.  They were fainter than Triton, as far as I recall.

The scopes I've had are: 130p, 250px, 15" dob, and a 50mm Lunt Ha.  I've given the 250px away, and I don't use the 130p.  The LS50 for Ha solar is my most used scope, but the one I'd keep is the 15" dob for DSOs and everything else bar solar.

So I've kinda already whittled it down to one scope for night, one scope for daytime - but I'm tempted to try a frac! 🙊

Sounds fabulous- hope to do it sometime! 👍👍

I too have the Moonlight - replacing the stock helical is a great upgrade for the LS50!

I find the 2-speed focusser invaluable: it really takes the fine adjustment facility to eek out the finest surface details (running double stacked).  I'm always amazed at how subtle structure resolves with the slight adjustment of focus.  I love my lil' LS50DS 😍

With a short drive, I can get to a darker spot, maybe Bortle 4 bordering on 3.

I've noticed nights of exceptional transparency - I'm guessing less back scatter of light pollution being an important factor (?) - and wow: noticeably much better contrast on DSOs.  Unfortunately, such nights have been rare for me, but the memories of what can be possible locally keep me trying!!

One needs a helluva lot of patience & tenacity in this hobby for so many factors & conditions to align for the best views - some of which we can influence,  most we can't.  But that thrill when you know things are looking much better than usual... 😎