Stu

I am not bothered by what colour the Sun appears, just to see most detail so I use a Herschel Wedge, binoviewers and a Baader 7.5nm Continuum filter 👍

Interestingly Baader recommend the Continuum filter being closer to the scope and then the ND3.0, both on the eyepiece side of the wedge of course. This minimises reflections from the shiny Continuum.

The filter in my Mark II is a 7.5nm and I also have a polariser fitted which can vary brightness by moving the lever on the Wedge. I generally prefer it towards the brighter end of the scale, although sometimes granulation is easier to see with it a bit darker.

Stunning here, I drove just out of town and what a difference. Really clear, subtle pinks and greens visually but very strong on camera. Cant quite believe I’ve seen them from this far south. Amazing to see them change constantly, almost imperceptible but happening all the time.

Nothing visually here, but pointing the phone up and taking 3s exposures shows a lot of pink and hints of green…

I’m staying on the edge of Exmoor tomorrow night so would be great if this continues!

Can’t see anything visually, but my phone is picking up a lot of pink and hints of green, presume that is it????

3 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

Seeing dropped off too, plus transparency - there’s high level cloud giving the sky a milky haze. A few gaps though.

Those pics are good enough to give me a good idea. I’m wise enough to know that the actual views are far better. As I think I’ve said before:- it makes me want to invest in a similar setup! 

Yes, same here in terms of conditions.

Totally right in terms of the visual views being so much better. Visually in Ha there was plenty of fine flux lines arcing around the AR, bright plage areas which were so much brighter in reality. Well worth looking into, the views can be amazing.

16 hours ago, Leo S said:

Might have left it a bit late, but...

 

Can anyone recommend a good quality solar filter for the EF 800mm? It takes 52mm drop in filters. I'd prefer visible light, but not sure what is easily available.

Is the front threaded Leo?

Some very bad Ha pics, taken through the 102mm PST mod. Views were excellent for a while until seeing dropped off.

1 hour ago, Nik271 said:

Is that a double stacked PST mod? Looks fab, the views must be very good.

It’s actually only single, but the views are still fab. Proms are amazing, surface detail still very good. I have a 150mm too which is incredible when the seeing is good, surface detail is fantastic in that one.

Some very poor handheld phone images attached, mainly to show the image scale as much as anything.

Amazing views here. Seeing was good to start with but has dropped off now, views when good were incredible. So much going on in Ha in the big AR. Huge proms nearby too, and a nice filament by the AR.

Planning on putting the 102mm PST mod out today. Would love to get ‘the Beast’ out but don’t think I have time. Might do later if seeing is good.

32 minutes ago, Mr Magoo said:

is a Solarscope solar filter.

 

There are other, lower cost Ha options out there such as the Coronado PST and Lunt LS50 or Quark at the entry level, working up through larger aperture options.

10 hours ago, Mr Magoo said:

Would you say the Solarscope filters are superior to Baader Solar film? Is finer detail observable?

They are very different things. Solarscope filters are some of the best Ha filters which allow you to see prominences, filaments and other Ha features. Baader Solar film is the entry point to white light solar observing.which shows sunspots, active regions, granulation etc. A decent Herschel Wedge is the next step up for white light observing.

Am away tonight, and didn’t bring my scope which is a shame. Will have to grab a look on Friday if it is still around. Must keep a scope in the car!

I was driving up the A303 this morning in foggy conditions, and am sure I ‘spotted’ this AR naked eye with the sun shining weakly through the fog. Amazing!

Yep, I’ll go for a ‘Wow’ too! Really impressive. I do like the last one actually, got more punch to it but not overdone.

1 hour ago, AlcorAlly said:

Thank you Jeremy. It’s MaxBright II with 1.7 GPC, which just about reaches focus with 2-3 mm to spare. I feel the GPC gives slightly less than 1.7x magnification increase, 1.6 perhaps? 

Lovely sketch Ally, it’s a really nice asterism, especially in a wide field of view.

I think I’ve read that the x1.7 gives more like x1.5, although I’ve never tried to measure it.

Out of interest, is there a shorter fitting available between binoviewer and focuser as the Clicklock takes up a fair bit of optical path?

1 minute ago, Carbon Brush said:

We can all discuss these differences and appreciate how things change with latitude. But not everyone is like this.

On holidays near the equator....
I have immediately noticed how late afternoon the sun descends almost vertically to the sea. No scraping the horizon!
Darkness falls very quickly.
The sun ascends on one side of island, climbs vertically overhead and descends on the other side of the island.
None of the other (northern hemisphere) visitors I spoke to had noticed any of this. They just moved loungers to sun/shade as necessary.

Again on a near equator holiday. Where are the recognisable (northern hemisphere) stars? 
Let me locate Polaris to get started. Drat it is scraping the horizon. No way can I make it out.
Never mind. Look the other way (south) and enjoy the (never seen before) sights😁.
Again I was on my own noticing this. It was an island with little light pollution.

In Egypt on a night dive away from built up areas I remember orange skyglow from a town around 50 miles away.
I also remember how it suddenly got very dark when the (near full) moon dropped behind a big hill.
That has to be the measure of a clear sky. Again nobody else noticed.

Apologies for the ramble.

 

Yes, the speed it gets dark at those latitudes is very noticeable.

1 hour ago, Ags said:

I am thinking of a move to Kalamata, Greece, next year. It's not the equator but there is astro dark all year round.

I’ve often been disappointed with the transparency when I’ve been to places in the Med. Often it can be very hazy as pollution gets trapped down low. I guess exact location, winds and whether there has been recent rain all affect that, and I have had some excellent views but not always the case.

I thought I would post these up after some discussion on the thread about what people do during the ‘off season’.

I wanted to show what happens at the North Pole and Equator as the two extremes, unfortunately Clear Outside won’t go above 80 degrees N but it still illustrates the point.

So, from South to North…

Equator:

Crewkerne (My house 😊):

John O’Groats

80 degrees N:

So, I think I’ll move to the Equator! Fab views of all though MW objects and consistent night time length through the year 👍

The idea is to keep the eyepiece, objective or front plate JUST above the dew point, not to have it toasting away 😉. I agree with using them sparingly and on lowest setting to keep the dew away, but there are nights when the option is dew straps or pack away, so dew straps it is.

This little gem just turned up courtesy of @John. Looking forward to giving it a go. Hopefully might have a chance to compare with the 22mm Type 4 Nag, but that depends on the weather and when it sells. I hope I don’t regret the change, but doubt I will. This is either my second or third, I can’t remember 🤣🤣

2 hours ago, Richard N said:

It’s a good place to discuss clouds with geographically similarly challenged folks. 

There is a certain irony that members of the other forum actually see stars but the name implies otherwise, and this forum implies we do, but we don’t 🤪🤣

I would agree for visual, no need for Polaris, just setup North and level and that’s good enough. Option 1 for those Southern views.

If you need to reach other targets, it is quite possible to set the tripod up so its top is level on a sloping lawn, I do it quite regularly, that’s why tripod have adjusting legs 😉

Excellent sketch, really not easy to do.