Solar B

8 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Sacrilege!!  

No - It’s good to hear dissenting voices Brian. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Vixen EPs for solar ha.
I have a 55mm TV plossl too - never used it with the Quark but maybe I should.
I didn’t mention that Pentax XF zoom or Leica ASPH zoom are just as good as TV Plossls.

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 

4 hours ago, Stu said:

I find that a confusingly marketed product as it clearly states a clear aperture of 70mm and has 70 in the model number yet has a front mounted 60mm etalon so can, by definition, only have a clear aperture of 60mm, same as the Lunt.

I’m not saying it’s not a good product, but think it is confusing in how it is described, many might think it is 70mm at first glance.

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