Roy Challen

It's a few thousand miles to eastern Kazakhstan...but oh so worth it!🙂. Haven't been for two years now, so really looking forward to getting back there. Don't need anything other than bins, even they're not strictly necessary.

And let's not forget, a small scope is usually a portable one, so it'll likely get used more.

Fantastic!

Different Roy here, LP isn't just the bane of astronomers, it's the bane of everybody, except that most people don't realise it yet. I guess it has affected my choice of targets over the years, however, I now focus almost solely on visual observation of the sun and the moon and save DSOs for the bins and dark, foreign skies. So, LP doesn't really get in the way of my astronomy.

Sometimes that's all you'll see. But the sun is dynamic, so features come and go all the time. Check again tomorrow and chances are the sun will look different from yesterday. Some filters help eg, Baader continuum filter, but IMO they only make a small difference.

Was out an hour ago, prom looked great in the Daystar, could make out a couple of sunspots, but the seeing was rubbish and clouds got a bit much. Here's my first ever Ha image, taken on my phone.

Great post,very interesting results.

Not the greatest link, but this will do the job. I used one like it before changing the focuser on my Skylight telescope to a more modern 1.25in type. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/0-965-to-1-25-telescope-eyepiece-adapter-Metal-Brass-compression-ring/233440072260?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20180213162448%26meid%3D878bdea3680e4f5fabaa1de0c7d63a69%26pid%3D100930%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D332994030128%26itm%3D233440072260%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2332490%26algv%3DDefaultOrganic%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2332490.c100930.m5375

Oops! You are correct, I managed to confuse myself - should never mix imperial and metric measurements...and I'm definitely metric. So you do have 0.965 eyepieces, in which case you'll need to buy an adapter if you want to use 1.25, easily available and not too expensive.

You're using the gauge incorrectly. The mark isn't the one on the left, it's the one that most closely lines up with a mark on the 'ruler' part of the vernier. In this case it lines up with the mark that corresponds to 1 and a 1/4 inches.

I initially thought that this scope would have had 0.965in eyepieces. But looking at your vernier caliper measurements, it appears to be 1.25 in. Assuming that you have bought 1.25in bits from ebay, then you should be fine. 2in eyepieces won't fit. The diagonal/prism goes into the focuser drawtube, the eyepiece goes into the diagonal. It seems that the diagonal is just a push fit into the drawtube. Is there a little screw that holds in - can't see one from your pics. As mentioned earlier in this thread, the offset eyepiece is a prism that allows daytime use on terrestrial objects.

Agree with the above, just make sure the filter is properly secure before looking through the eyepiece. You can roughly align the scope by watching its shadow. When the shadow is smallest, the scope should be aligned (approximately, at least). A solarquest mount is a great thing for small telescopes, not sure what the weight limit is on it.

Some tough ones there, Stu. I'm going with Mare Marginis for the first arrow. Pass on the others for the mo, although I think Mike might be correct about Kastner.

After reading the threads on here about this scope, and having read my own white light reports from a few years back, I decided that along with lunar and planetary observing, I should also add the sun to that list. So, I thought about what I needed to do that. It had to be Ha, and it had to be light weight. As far as I can tell, the Daystar is the most affordable way in to Ha observing, so I put my order in. I teamed that up with the Skywatcher Solarquest mount which seems pretty popular, and put that on a Three-Legged-Thing carbon tripod. I carried the whole lot in one hand easily into the garden. After getting the tripod height right, I turned on the mount. It levelled the scope and searched out the sun. I could see the bright spot in the tiny finder on the main scope, it was dead centre in the crosshair. Looking through the eyepiece, I could see that it needed only the slightest correction to be properly centred. So, on the very first attempt, it located the sun and put it in the field of view of the eyepiece. Impressive. I set the tuning knob at the half-way point and waited for the green light. Initially, the disc of the sun seemed way too bright, but the eye gets used to it quickly. I do think that a polarising filter or neutral density filter may help as well. Wearing a baseball cap type hat also helps shield the eyes and eyepiece from the sun, reducing reflections. Once the green LED was on, I could make out prominences on the western limb, one was quite detached from the disc. Another was looping, and yet another was firing straight out from the disc. A single sunspot was visible, and plage area around it. On the eastern limb, two prominences close together could be seen, and yet another close to the 12 o’clock position. Granulation was visible across the whole disc, but was easier to see closer to the edges. Checking on GONG later, I found that my view very closely matched the image from Cerro Tololo, but with colour. That’s amazing! I adjusted the tuning knob anticlockwise, one click at a time, waiting for the LED each time. I couldn’t notice much difference, although it seemed a little more difficult to see the prominences and the disc seemed a little redder. Experience will no doubt improve with use. I tried the Zeiss Huygens and the Hyperflex zoom, but the fields of view are narrower than the Vixens. Overall the Vixen provided the best view, although there is an annoying reflection - I think it is the image of the sun being reflected in my eye back onto the eyepiece. This little telescope provided me with a never-before-seen view of the sun. Another genuine ‘wow’ moment. The setup works perfectly out of the box and is extremely lightweight and easy to use (the controls on the mount are very intuitive to use) which means that, weather depending, it will get a lot of use. An additional bonus of the tripod is that one leg unscrews and screws into the removable centre column to double up as a monopod - perfect for my bins and just the right height.

HaHaHaHa! No, really! Ha, as in Hydrogen-alpha! The postman brought me a nice new diagonal, a solarquest mount, a Three-Legged-Thing punky tripod.....and a Daystar SolarScout 60mm Ha telescope. Bits and bobs arrived during the week, had first light this morning. I'm seriously impressed!

Looks superb, great colour choice.

I thought you said gratuitous?😉

Nice! My kind of telescope.

It's so long and spindly! Had a half-hour session on the moon this evening with the Skylight. Had it on its original mount on top of a Horizon tripod. It's a bit wobbly but not too bad. Needs some adjustments to make it better, but it's a lot lighter than the Tak mount so it gets used! The views were fantastic, btw.

Tal stopped making telescopes a few years ago. Definitely old school, good quality but nothing fancy. Good achromatic lenses though, I'm certainly happy with mine. They do come up for sale every now and again, usually for not much money (mine was £110 posted back 2015). Put one on an AZ4/5 and you have a lightweight, portable 4" setup that performs well, that shouldn't be anywhere near approaching your budget. But I suppose the same could be said of the Evostar.

Luckily, the TAL 100RS lens cap has a removable centre section 30mm in diameter turning f/10 into f/33. I've never even tried it, should be good for lunar and solar.

Unusual focuser arrangement. Is that yours @vlaiv?

My Mum was Japanese, so I've been there several times. Last time was on honeymoon in 2012. Didn't see the Tak shop but did see the annular eclipse from Kyoto - my avatar was taken then.

I don't know much about this mount but have a look through this thread from CN https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/446507-takahashi-em-10em-11-mounts/ It does look nice and I reckon it'll do the job.

I wish I was, light pollution round here is really bad.