Littleguy80

The ND3 filter arrived yesterday and I managed a quick 2 minute trial this morning before work. I now have a white sun instead of a green one. Not a lot to see. I possibly had some macro granulation though not as clear as with the continuum filter. I think this setup will be great for the Mercury transit. I’m also keeping an eye out for any ISS solar transits. I’m also looking forward to the next AR to see how that compares with just the ND3 filter vs ND3 and Continuum stacked.

Looks great. My wife makes fun of me for the joy I take in removing foam blocks to neatly fit new eyepieces into the case.

I'm pretty confident that I'm seeing macro-granulation (thanks Stu/Ken for correcting my terminology!). I used my 6mm BGO with the Baader VIP. The VIP has an extra T2 extension tube added so I think the magnification was around 186x. I wasn't able to pick anything out that appeared as individual cells. Could be seeing, could be inexperience. Either way, at least I have a better idea of what I'm looking for now

Thanks Dave. Found some good close ups from Freddie on AR's where you can see the granulation around the AR. Now for another look through the scope to see what I can see!

Brilliant. Thank you for the explanation. That's exactly what I needed. I'll pop an ortho in see what I can pick up

I'm still new to Solar observing and am only observing in white light. I've heard the term granulation which makes me think of lots of small points. I've been observing over lunch and what observe is more like subtle variations across the disc. Lighter and darker areas as opposed to fine points. I don't think is coming from poor seeing. Is this what's described as granulation? My Herschel wedge includes a continuum type filter which I've read makes the granulation more obvious.

Thank you. I only have a 2" diagonal so wanted to know if I needed to factor the cost of 1.25" diagonal into the price.

This looks great. I'd like to jump into the world of H-alpha observing at some point. Am I right in thinking that this only takes a 1.25" diagonal. Adapters are required to use a 2" diagonal? I wonder how the performance compares to use a Quark eyepiece.

Once I get the ND3 filter, I can try this with the TS wedge. It has an ND3 element stacked in the same cell as the continuum filter. It’s relatively easy to remove that ND3 element though. With the separate ND3 I can reverse the order and try this.

Funnily enough that’s one thing that does go through my mind when showing friends and family the Sun. I’d rather have more natural views for them. No one but me seems bothered though so I probably shouldn’t worry. I’m the same with planetary. I was never keen on coloured filters. The Neodymium filter is useful though.

I’ve only ever seen the Sun through the TS Wedge so a green Sun is all I know. I quite like the white light images taken without a continuum filter through the eyepiece. Once I’ve tried it, I’ll have a better feel of what I’m losing through not using the continuum filter.

Heard back from TS today and they confirmed an ND filter is used though didn't specify ND3.0. They made, what seemed to me, an odd suggestion of using a filter to switch between the existing filter and an ND3.0 filter. Feels like that's asking for trouble if you click into a sot with no filter. I think I'll pick up an ND3.0 filter and try that. I suspect after trying both, I'll find that I have a preference one way or the other and that will be the filter that stays in the wedge most of the time.

It looks like it’s stacked with an ND3.0 in a single filter cell. I’ve emailed TS Optics for confirmation

Email sent. I’ll report back on their response for those that are interested. Thank you once again for the replies

That’s a good point. I will ask that as well to be safe. Thank you!

Good shout. I’ll drop them an email and see if they can supply one

Thank you, all. I just had a further play. The filter installed in the eyepiece holder is, as suggested by John, stacked. The bottom part is the narrowband/continuum filter. On top of it is, I assume, an ND3.0 filter. I can remove the whole thing and it leaves a standard 1.25” filter thread. Looks good for replacing it was an ND3.0 filter. I’d quite like to figure out what the thread is where the eyepiece holder screws into the the wedge. It has a T2 thread on top of the holder but has a small diameter where it screws into the wedge. If I could get a second eyepiece holder with a filter thread then I can install the ND3.0 in that. I would then be able to change eyepiece holders depending on whether I wanted the additional narrowband filter or not.

I’ve taken my first steps into the world of Solar observing and am thoroughly enjoying it. I’m currently using the TS Optics Herschel Wedge with my SW Equinox 80. Details of the Wedge here: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p9409_TS-Optics-1-25--Solar-Prism-with-Polarizing-and-Narrowband-Filter.html One benefit of the TS Optics Herschel Wedge is that it includes a Narrowband filter which seems to be much the same as the Baader Solar Continuum Filter. This gives the Sun a green appearance but improves detail. I’d quite like to do some observing with a more natural colour. I’m wondering if I can remove the narrowband filter and replace it with an ND3.0 filter? The obvious concern is whether this will filter enough light to be safe? The narrowband filter looks to be screwed into the bottom of the eyepiece holder which unscrews from the main body of the wedge as shown below. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. I’m very aware of the risks of solar observing so don’t want to take any chances!

What a wonderfully written report. Very engaging and I actually learnt quite a few things along the way. Thank you for sharing

Fantastic, John. Really pleased you got it!

There's no way of keeping all parties happy in this situation. I just hope that everyone sticks around to try all the options that the admins come up with. A suitable solution will never be found if everyone leaves.

Excellent report, davhei! Really enjoyed reading it. I'm so pleased you were inspired to seek out this target out and successfully find it. Now you know you can go deeper, I'm sure you'll have many more challenging and exciting targets to seek out

I wonder how many people are nervously checking their bank balance on reading this... *checks bank balance* ... As others have already said, I’m sure the eyepiece case will recover in the fullness of time and you’ll have another nice scope to use them with

First time my case has contained a TV eyepiece. Starting to look full now.... but still some space ?

No problem, John. I'm sure you'll get it