Highburymark

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.

Another option is one of the high-payload super-light carbon fibre tripods which are coming onto the market in increasing numbers. I use a Gitzo 5-series with a TSA-120 and Skytee and it is rock solid. New they are expensive, but there are lots of secondhand camera stores where I found one for less than half price - about £400. Payload 40kg. Even with my dodgy back, it’s easy to lift the whole set up - tripod and mount - with one arm. There are cheaper alternatives to Gitzo if you look around.

Very nice solution.

Thanks for the tip off Paul - glad today is a work from home day……. Nice images too!

Agree - LS60. For visual, I’d prefer a double stacked LS50 to a single stacked LS60, but for imaging you can counteract the lower contrast of surface features with just one etalon through post processing to a degree. You may be fortunate and get a really good single stack which performs more like a double stack, but it’s something of a lottery. Must say I don’t understand the Solar Scout design at all. Quarks operate best at F/30 and over, so the superfast Solar Scout seems built to produce a wide bandwidth and lower contrast. And the fact that the quark/etalon is not detachable (though some enterprising owners have succeeded in separating it and using it more like a real Quark) means you can’t slow down the system with an extra extender or barlow. The fact that it’s advertised as having ‘double stack’ performance is marketing nonsense.

Here’s the difference between a 25mm orthoscopic microscope eyepiece and the Panoptic 24 looking at a squared target through a 60ED refractor. The Panoptic has a huge amount of pincushion distortion. Yet it’s a sparking eyepiece if used in the right scopes on the right objects.

I’d go Delos 14 too. Such lovely eyepieces. Though have to admit I’ve never looked through a Morpheus.

I suffer too. And this was before I acquired an APM 100 degree 20mm.

I can get 5.37x with a TV55, adapted to 67mm with a night vision lens, in my Tecnosky 60ED! Haven’t tried it to be honest. But I have used the little scope with an APM 20mm 100 degree for 18x, which is stunning under the right skies. Does show some field curvature of course.

Indeed. Rather wish I was up there. Would be nice to get away from the Earth for a while.

Magnificent image. I wonder if this was chosen as a galaxy-rich area to provide an impressive backdrop to the star, or is that just a random section of cosmos?

It’s fine - I used a DC with the Quark for a while, though no specific benefit from using a fluorite apo for solar Ha. You might just as well use a well figured achro. But if you’re looking to just have one scope for nighttime and solar, Quark will perform well in the F/8 DZ.

I really like the Maxbright II. On axis views won’t be noticeably (if any) better than your current pair. But you’ll get clicklock eyepiece holders (which retail for £60-£70 each on their own), a wider field of view, and T2 connections - together with the option to use Baader’s excellent GPCs, which minimise the light path, and makes sure you can reach focus with practically any set up. But all of that doesn’t guarantee that merging will be easier - only if you can determine that the eyepieces are misaligned with your WO pair. Was it high power eyepieces you were using?

Just be aware they are the etalons that didn’t make the grade for Daystar’s more expensive ranges. There is a lot of variation in examples. On average, they will show a less uniform view, with less contrast on surface details, than other options. But there are also good ones out there - some really excellent.

Agree - a very appealing design. The 82mm is actually marginally slower than the old 80mm Equinox, which used FPL53. Colour control with the Equinox was pretty good for a fastish scope. Will be interesting to see how this one matches up.