Highburymark

All looking very positive Ags. I love playing around with different eyepieces when solar observing. Keep reading good things about the 32mm Baader plossl, which I haven’t tried. There’s also the option of adding some aftermarket eyeguards to blot out extraneous light - I found some from Edmund Optical which fit a pair of Zeiss microscope eyepieces and work well.

Very nice Stu. All bases covered. I’ve just booked a couple of flights for July (U.K. to Spain, easyJet) and the cabin baggage rules have changed - it’s now an extra £30 if you want to use overhead lockers with one of the full size cases that were previously accepted as cabin baggage (which I need for my TV85). And it’s an extra £70 for standard hold luggage - don’t know if all airlines are the same, but the days of ‘bargain’ air travel seem to be well and truly over.

Nice report! Have to admit, the first thing I do when we’re planning a holiday is check the Moon situation. Never tell my better half that I’m more concerned with the Moon and prevailing light pollution than I am with hotels or other such unimportant details. Doesn’t always work though….. (PS: ‘In the Sky’ website is very useful for plotting future trips - can tap in any location and date and it’ll show precise details of night sky).

I suspect the 80mm Lunt (internal etalon) will have similar power limits to my 70mm Solarscope (external) filters. Normal seeing, with binoviewers, I observe at 75x-80x. Good seeing - 100x. And under best conditions, I use 11mm Delites or Plossls - around 140x. At that power, the double stack 70mm view is quite dim, but well worth the effort. With the brightness of a single stack LS80, you might be able to go even higher - particularly on prominences - but it will be seeing dependent.

Excellent Ags - and congrats. Hope it exceeds your expectations. You can experiment with the aperture and tuning to find the best compromise. If it’s a really good etalon, maybe you can use wider aperture. The step down rings are a great idea!

Have you tried pushing the Lunt to 60-70x with a binoviewer Gavin? Your LS60 should be capable of higher powers in good seeing - especially at the moment with so much surface activity. This should bring out better detail of proms and filaments, without dimming the image too much. I find that different magnifications are needed for different features. I start at 65x with 25mm eyepieces - often that is all the seeing will allow, but under better conditions go up to 100x, and sometimes 11mm eyepieces and 2.6x gpc for 135x with TV85 and 70mm filters. Obv at those powers the filaments aren’t as dark but still show new detail.

Wonderful image Nigella!

Great report! And even better news - you’re currently only operating at F/24. Quarks really fly at F/30 and above. If you have an F7.5-F/9 scope, you’ll find the surface detail (filaments in particular) gets even better, as long as you’re not pushing magnification too much for the seeing. Another way to reach those slower speeds is to stop down the aperture of your scope. An interesting summer awaits!

I think there are two Tecnosky 70mm EDs - a triplet, and a doublet which I think uses FPL-51 (?). The 70ED was cheaper than the FPL53 Tecnosky 60ED I bought a few months ago, so presume it’s FPL51. If this is a comparison between a fluorite Tak 60 and an FPL51 70ED (which is pretty fast at F/6), you’d expect a clear difference in performance.

Prices are going up I’m afraid. The Solar Scout (£895 in the U.K.) is now more than a Lunt 40mm at the stores I was checking today. Might be cheaper in the States, but other Daystar products have shot up in recent weeks - probably because mica’s becoming more expensive and difficult to source. Haven’t seen any Solar Scouts deliver the detail and consistency of Chris’s image above. Maybe that’s because at F/15 the scope is way too fast for the integrated Quark, which really needs to be operating at F/30 or above to get the best out of the etalon. The only way to achieve that speed is to stop down the aperture to 30mm - but then it would make more sense to buy a Lunt 40mm.

Very nicely captured!

Baader film will give better results than cheap glass filters - like the one in your link. Film is a great way to get started if you’re on a budget - in fact the results are pretty close to those provided by a full Herschel wedge.

Looks like UK will get some clearer weather on Saturday - real shame this week’s been so cloudy. I’ve only managed about 10 minutes viewing each day. Hoping the activity continues.

Very interesting. The last time I read about the progression of the new cycle I think the conclusion was that activity wasn’t necessarily higher than predicted, but that Cycle 25 had just started earlier than expected - hence why we were seeing activity rise above the curve. But this suggests that both might be happening! A great summer ahead. Thanks for posting Paul.

Very quick scribble of today’s sun. Even during solar minimum and the start of the new cycle, we’re used to seeing impressive proms and active regions. But large dark filaments like these have been almost entirely absent since Cycle 24 was still highly active.

Still there today - only had five minutes of sunshine but the filaments are beautiful - best of this cycle that I’ve seen so far.

If you’re near a hydrogen alpha solar scope - grab it now! Amazing prom system and filament on show.

Confirmed mine has a 3/8” bolt Gerry, though for anyone thinking of buying a Gitzo they should check the specific model as they have different top plates

This is what I meant earlier when I said to be ultra safe for high magnification astro purposes, take the advertised payload and halve it. I was told that by an experienced wildlife photographer who also enjoyed astronomy. I’ve had two refractors and a Skytee on my 40kg Gitzo - probably 18-19kg - and it was great. But not sure how it would cope with 40kg!

Superb images Pete. First one is absolutely stunning. Well worth sending to one of the astro magazines.

You’d be fine - no problems at all with that set up. Yes they do - I often use that option when travelling rather than take counterweights.

One word of caution with carbon fibre camera tripods and larger scopes - you need counterweights. They are very top heavy.

I think it attaches directly Gerry but am away from home at the moment so will need to check. There are different Gitzo top plates available too I think. The best advice I picked up when researching tripods was to: a) take advertised payloads and basically reduce by half to ensure strong stability and dampening for astronomy purposes. So I treat my Gitzo as a very capable 20kg tripod rather than expect it to carry 40kg. b) stiffness is more important than payload. Am sure the brands suggested by Victor would also be well worth a look.

Interesting Roy - think your comments are still relevant as a lot of people consider the Solar Scout for imaging, and stopping it down to 30-40mm is a good option. It’s just odd why the original design was so fast.

I thought AR2976 was the star of the show today - really intricate activity. I was at 220x this evening through the binoviewer - 5pm-on is best time of day here in London, even though I’m looking through more atmospheric gunk the seeing stabilises.