Highburymark

Another all-Baader. All T2, with swappable 1.25” and 2” clicklock EP holders. T2 Zeiss prism, T2 BBHS mirror, and T2 amici prism (and Baader Herschel wedge!).

Sunspots are fundamentally photospheric features, which is why they are far better resolved through a wedge than an Ha scope/filter. Compared with solar film, wedges are a little sharper and allow higher magnification I find - you need excellent seeing and a well figured scope to really study spots up close, but the detail can be wonderful as mentioned above - a real step up from solar film. Agree that Ha and WL complement each other. Nothing better than a dual mounted set up on a clear day, particularly as the new solar cycle revs up.

Herschel wedges used to be cheap. The Lunt 2” is now £434!! It has rocketed in price over the past couple of years. At least with the Baader Coolwedge you’re getting a 2” clicklock and 2” continuum filter, in addition to the ND. Admittedly the Lunt 1.25” wedge is just about affordable (£200, though this has risen too), but much better value is the Lacerta. It’s a nice unit too. No need to pay Lunt prices. Totally agree with other posts - much better going for a wedge than film. Grab the Lacerta if it’s available.

Yes - lots. Search the archives and you should find examples. Michael Wilkinson’s early images on this forum spring to mind.

Good shout. Friday looks good, and weekend might have clear spells. The spots should be nicely positioned by then too.

RKE 28mm is still in production too. Have never seen them sold through a main astro retailer though. Have to buy direct. A while ago I bought two rubber eyeguards from Edmund Optics UK (for the Zeiss OPMIs pictured earlier in this thread) for around £20. I now get sent the humongous Edmund catalogue on a regular basis. It’s like an Argos catalogue for optics nerds.

Still looks like a very decent spot, and well worth getting the white light filters out this week, if we weren’t buried under permacloud.

The Docter 12.5mm is back in production under the Noblex brand - check out the price at APM - €839. The 2.5mm TOE is an incredible eyepiece in my opinion, but won’t divert the vintageness of the thread. Here are some more olde worlde orthos offering nice new worlde views.

I was using them the other night Steve and thinking how well they perform. Presume with expensive glass and ‘made in Japan’ they became unprofitable to manufacture. A year or so ago I found a couple of stores/websites still selling new examples in Europe, but they were expensive - £200-ish.

Some great eyepieces in this thread. And lots of reasons to seek them out as many outperform modern equivalents. I only have the 30mm in the Celestron Ultima range (bought from Steve I think?), but as Mike points out they are superb in a binoviewer. The Zeiss OPMIs are lovely microscope eyepieces from the 1980s designed for surgical applications. Leica HC Plan S are another ex-microscope pair adapted for astronomy - they have quickly become my favourite binoviewing eyepieces. Trick is to get a pair made in Germany, as current HC Plans are inferior and made in Singapore. I bought mine from the States - site selling ex-microscope gear.

Wow - thanks for posting Paul. I hadn’t checked any of the solar sites today. Looks like whatever produced this colossal outburst is about five days away from becoming visible.

What sort of mount do you have? Or would you buy a new one? With such a range of potential new scopes, this is perhaps the crucial factor. The FC-100DC is incredibly light and easy to travel with. Excellent optics as you know. The Vixen and TS would provide a nice jump in aperture though. I’d be very tempted by the Vixen if my only other scope was an 80ED.

Ditto Stu - sitting room turned into optics testing studio for past few days. I’ll give it a couple more days max before enforced return to normal use

Finally decided on a high-mag solution for binoviewing my Tak TSA-120. This will allow me to use my Leica HC Plan S and Zeiss OPMI microscope eyepieces (both 25mm) for lunar, planetary and white light solar, without relying on huge stacks of spacers.

Presumably the smoothside 5-element Meades were the pseudo Masuyamas made by Kowa? If it’s these you are talking about they’d be very nice. The equivalent Celestron Ultimas are really lovely eyepieces. Bow to Don’s greater knowledge on coatings though, and the X Cel LX seem to be well thought of.

I don’t have a car (have telescopes instead…..) but would be happy to travel somewhere by train.

I had an C6 Evolution. Loved the mount, never really warmed to the C6, as it wasn’t enough of an upgrade to my previous Maksutov. So I sold the C6 OTA and replaced it with a C8 - which I much preferred. That extra aperture makes a real difference on deep sky objects, and resolves more detail on planets. And the relatively light C8 sits happily on the standard Evolution mount. I didn’t feel the need to get the heavier tripod at all.

I’ve got Chroma 3nm filters that I’d love to try out on a 6” F/5.9 scope, if we ever get the chance to arrange a meet up. Am based in north London, but often working in evenings so rarely get the chance to observe outside the city.

If you’re concerned just clean one spot with your Baader fluid and a cotton bud. My bet is it would come straight off. As long as you’re not dragging any grit across the glass (ie blow and lightly brush the area first), you won’t do any harm. Telescope objectives are far more robust than they are sometimes made out to be.

Despite all the incredible solar pics posted by imagers these days, there’s something about Stu’s quick grabs and Ibbo’s short video in this thread that really captures the excitement of observing solar features like the current prom live. Thanks both for posting.

My guess is that the main body will still be there tomorrow, but the plasma trail will be thinned out significantly. But who knows? Weather not looking great though.

Excellent news Stu - glad to hear the etalon’s ok, and what a view to prove it’s working properly!

Nice report Dave. I think we probably ask more of our 20-25mm widefield eyepieces than any other focal length. Framing open clusters right to the field stop makes aberrations very noticeable. Sounds like the Axiom is an excellent alternative to the LVW.

PM me if it’s damaged Stu and I can put you in touch with someone who’ll know what to do. Otherwise, you can have the etalon reconnected professionally for around £250 - Beloptik in Germany do it.

Trying to imagine what this prom would like from above if it were a filament. On balance think we are getting the best view as a prom. 100,000km tall.