Solar B

Probably best ignoring me prattling on Mark ... I'm just jealous 👽 😉 But Leica zoom or even the Pentax v TV plossls ! I know which id choose 🤔 Brian

I'm one of the few that doesn't recommend TV plossls & I've tried or owned all FLs , having said that I have a dear friend who uses a quark on an 100mm ( 7ish I think ) with a TV55 plossl and this combo seems to have tamed the quark somewhat ! I currently use inexpensive Vixen 25 & 30mm NPL s with my 60mm SS and find them a lot more user friendly than the similar FL TV pls. Brian

Ken I actually go for a look first and then confirm my findings on GONG and check to see if there’s anything I’ve missed. Brian

It was normally around 6 o'clock for surface with a quark I found ? You can obtain amazing views but they're tiring to use with the given mags. Brian

Is it me or has anyone noticed the amount of "wanted" ads on UKABS There's almost as much wanted now as there are for sale and I've noticed this grow over the last 6 months , I'm guilty of some wanted ads myself but the thing is hardly worth looking at any more me thinks 🤖 Brian

Might never see the likes again .... well privately ! as for mirrors uuuugh 💀 Brian

Nice ... It does help being clicklocked in given the quarks extreme mags ... Given the CL diagonal would help further. Brian

Solar Chat ? nope not heard of that 😉

I have heard of similar results using a 35nm/quark some time ago (5 yrs) but it's not my experience having used 2 quarks , they are most effective ERFs Brian

I was viewing the AR on Wednesday morning and it was clearly defined as being a dark arrow headish feature against the disk. Then when I returned in the afternoon it had all but disappeared .... I thought it must have erupted and perhaps you were viewing the eruption ! who knows ? Brian

Yes indeed I've got an unused 28

Thanks John & John 😅 It is a quite a beastie and I like it 👍 Brian

Can some give me the rough diameter dimensions of the body and arms of this mount ... to give me some idea as I think it's a bit beefier than I first presumed Thanks .... Brian PS ... there are never any astro shows (in Scotland) or really anywhere for me to see these things

Nope , you would be able buy a full aperture one off the shelf but it's generally accepted that the film is the best option as long as your taking all the necessary precautions. Brian

The seeing would play a big part with that aperture , of course you could simply stop it down , my advice would be to spend some time and make your own filter with the Baader ND 5.0 film ... given the right conditions views of the granulation should be well within your grasp plus of course spots with their unmbral and penumbral detail to if theyre not too small. Brian

The crux of the matter is insuring it for 2K and everyone's the same at this level ... so I'll just have to bite the bullet. Brian

Thanks Astro-Geek that's the one that I was after as I have used this service before a number of years ago 👍 Still as expensive to insure unfortunately 😑 Brian

Really weird it's actually coming in at near on £130 all in !! Brian Ah but I've no drop off option

Thanks Stu , I filled out the form and put its value in and it came out almost the same cost unfortunately ! so I'm still at square one 😑 Brian

Hi Folks I'm wondering given the current situation what would be the best way to ship some gear back to a supplier it's not that heavy about 8.5kg s but the P.O. were quoting almost £100 for the pleasure , the box is about 70cm long so was out with their SD option. Thanks .... Brian

Hi Folks Just to say that I've had a few dealings with Zoltan at 365 of late and can report that the service has been excellent , I have spoken to him a couple of times at length regarding some solar products and he has taken his time to listen and advise accordingly some great personal service here from a genuine family man 👍 Brian

There is no magic formula or easy access to what I consider to be quality solar views The 60SS is good but like all solid etalons it's subject to good seeing and "supreme" EP selection in the range of 25 - 32mm (so not as simple as the air spaced options) My exprience with quarks and indeed the 80mm SS (which is considerably better) bears this out. Ultimately there is still no substitute for air spaced etalons at their given aperture however here etalon finesse becomes critical ... which is hard to define but we do encounter plate flatness & parallelism here. An isle of man (solarscope) single etalon will exhibit a true 0.7A bandwidth by comparison a daystar quantum filter at 0.7A will not display the same detail as the solarscope (at similar apertures) as solid etalons lack the finesse of air speced ones. Brian

Agreed ... they shouldn't advertise as such and I don't know why (an attempt to differentiate themselves from lunt) as they don't with the SMIII90mm having said that I'd still have it over any LS60 and it looks 10 times better to 🌞 Brian

https://www.planetguide.net/astronomy-chair/ I was looking at this last night ... but it appears to be a poor guide and I much prefer taking some real advice from you guys. Brian

Richard if your going to spend a reasonable amount my choice would be more toward the SMIII 70mm , granted its actually a 60mm etalon but it is externally mounted and thus preferential to an internally mounted one. Brian