Peter Drew

So true. Just have an SGL whipround and buy me one and then you can all come round and use it for free!. I already have a suitable mount. 😀

Excellent solar viewing today. Good transparency following the recent (always recent!) rain. Nice range of prominences on show and crisp surface and spicule detail. 😎

Metoo! 😀

A number of us are wondering the same. Very few reports so far, maybe unsurprising considering the current lack of solar activity. 😀

Where are you based Derek, maybe someone nearby can help you, amateur astronomers are everywhere. 😀

A little bit of extra history concerning "Fullerscopes" as it was originally. In the early 1970's Rob Miller was working at Fullerscopes on the mechanical side, Rob was full of advanced ideas and was keen to make telescopes to a better mechanical design and standard. Ultimately, judging that this was unlikely to happen at Fullerscopes, Rob approached David Hinds and myself to form a consortium to create a new company and "AstroSystems" was formed. Understandably, this didn't go down too well with Dudley and he even threatened to stop purchasing optics from David Hinds if he had anything to do with the new company. As Fullerscopes were David's main customers he withdrew his directorship leaving Rob and myself as co-directors. The rest is later history. 😀

Coulter. 😀

I used to have one of their original hand typed brochures complete with small sample pieces of their plastic tubes sellotaped inside. I still have one of the later printed versions. Dudley's Fsc stood for "failed school certificate". His "E" type Jag registration was DUD 1. 😀

SRB in Luton used to provide standard and one-off adaptors. 😀

The 50ED unit used with a RA diagonal will give an erect image but laterally reversed, might be an issue for terrestrial use. 😀

"Banksy" been in your neighbourhood lately? 😀

Given a choice, I would prefer a tilt tuned system over a pressure tuned, less to go wrong. The best 60mm Lunt views I've had were with a tilt version. 😎

The light path inboard of the Maksutov corrector lens actually diverges so if, for instance, you have a 6" corrector and a 6" primary, some of the peripheral light from the corrector misses the primary. Hence the need for an "oversize" primary to address this. 😀

Always use a genuine dealer and correct authentication. The sequence astronomically is Meteoroid = Particle traveling in outer space, Meteor = particle burning up in the upper atmosphere, Meteorite = what's left of it that survives. 😀

I use a binoviewer with a 2x Barlow lens element screwed to its nosepiece exclusively on my 150mm Ha telescope. The minimum magnification with this arrangement is 150x and on a reasonable day gives excellent results, 300x on excellent days. I have several binoviewers, William Optics, Celestron and Revelation, they all seem to work well. My solar binoviewer is a Denkmeier. 😎

Like Ben, I had a browse through the listings on ebay and aliexpress and couldn't really find anything to recommend. A used binocular of decent quality despite the extra shipping cost would seem the best option. 😀

I have a 8se mount and it would be ideal for a 60mm Lunt. 😀

Very happy birthday from me as well Gina. 😘

Double stacking a Ha solar telescope reduces the bandwidth of the original instrument. This significantly improves the contrast of surface detail at the expense of the prominences due to the darker image. It's pretty much down to considering which aspect you prefer. Imaging gains the most benefit. Good as the Lunt versions are, the recently offered Daystar Solar Scout could be a good compromise between performance and price. 😀

Starting to narrow this down to a result!. I'm not familiar with aliexpress/ebay offerings but most normal binoculars of the type recommended so far would be suitable. A further recommendation, avoid ones with "ruby" coatings or other weird colours and any described as fixed focus. 😀

The low magnification range of zoom binoculars have narrow fields of view which negates the main benefit of non zoom binoculars which is their wide field. 😀

I would definitely avoid this binocular or for that matter, any zoom binocular as they are not particularly suitable for hand held astronomy. Suitable 10x50 "conventional" binoculars which would be ideal for your purpose can be commonly found within your budget. If you find something else that interests you, get back to us for further advice. The Andromeda galaxy can be seen with the naked eye from a dark site, even better in a suitable binocular. 😀

I think it's unlikely that you would image a full disc, around 600mm focal length is usually the maximum, your combination would be working at over 2000mm. Not sure about a DSLR though. 😀

I think you are going about the procedure in the correct way but are encountering the almost unavoidable problem of locating the object with a small sensor camera. The focus of the camera will be in a different position to that of the eyepiece, if Jupiter is well out of focus it may well disappear. Welcome to this forum and good luck. 😀

A 50$ - 80$ binocular will be a better quality instrument than a 50$ - 80$ telescope. 😀