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Today I took delivery of my new Solar Scout SS60-ds, hereinafter referred to as the Scout. It only took 5 minutes and some orphaned dslr step-down rings to change it from f15.5 to f25 (aperture 37 mm). Contrast should be a lot better at a slower f ratio. That's the talk on the street anyway. Initial feelings about the scope is it seems fairly well made but it lacks finesse. There's a few small details that should have been done better, like the threaded end of a tiny screw randomly sticking out the tube by a millimeter. FLO checked the scope before sending it, so I hope it is a good unit. The tuning knob is off center, I am assuming that's the correct setting after FLO's checks. Tomorrow is sunny!

I have stumbled upon a very interesting site, upon seeing their products I searched them on SGL, and they seems to have a good reputation, even FLO sells it! I am interested on many of there products, some will be asked in a other thread, so here are some of those questions: 1. Can I see details on the sun with this kit, if not can I see a solar eclipse safely without solar filter? (Link: https://astromedia.de/Der-Sonnen-Projektor) 2. Is this a good, useable telescope? I am going to observe widefield stuff with this! (Link: https://astromedia.de/Das-Newton-Spiegelteleskop) 3. This is a really stupid question, but can I project a bright space object (Such as star clusters) to a screen with this kit? (Link: https://astromedia.de/Das-Kleine-Galileo-Teleskop) 4. Can I create a eyepiece with these lens (specifically plossl's) Link: https://www.astromediashop.co.uk/Components.html, Look at the acrylic glass section) Other questions will be asked in a other thread, thanks for reading! Clear skies!

Hi, new guy here just starting off. Lots of questions! I've just bought one of these & cannot move it with the toggle switch unless uold the power button....which is way too aggressive for centering.....any tips would be greatly appreciated...Jeff

Solar images taken in H-a during June 2012 The story of the PST Stage 2 modified Lyra Optic 4" f/11 refractor [media=] a one minute video taken through the PST Stage 2 modified refractor

Captured this afternoon in Mandurah, Western Australia. Taken with the ZWO ASI224MC and the Celestron 8i SCT with focal extension tubes and white light solar film filter. A two minute video was captured with the final image being cropped and having 10%, 112 frames aligned and stacked in Autostakkert 3, wavelets in Registax 6, edited in PaintDotNet.

Here is my little report from SGL11, a bit of a combination of equipment commentary and observing report. Staying true to my current minimalist approach to observing (thanks guys ??), I just had my Tak FC-100 and 8" Portaball with me. Last year I was armed with a 16" Sumerian, so I was interested to compare just how much I could see under a dark sky with so much less aperture. I managed to do a fair bit of observing each day apart from Saturday night really when it was clouded out. During the days, I did a nice amount of solar observing using the Tak with a Herschel Wedge and my TS binoviewers. On the Vixen GP mount the sun was tracked quite well even without polar aligning, and being able to pan around the surface using the motor drives without touching the scope was an excellent benefit over a manual alt az. Having never really got on with binoviewers before (this is my fourth pair), I'm delighted to say that I found the TS ones excellent. The self centering eyepiece holders were easy to use, as was the individual focusing and I had no problems merging the images even at higher powers. The sun took on a richer tone than single eye viewing, and when the seeing allowed, the detail was wonderful both in and around the active regions and also the surface granulation. Nice regions of faculae were visible in several places near the limb. As usual it was interesting to watch the sun over a period of a few days to watch how the features developed. Areas of faculae on the first day began to show small sun spots on subsequent days. The other revelation with the binoviewers was the moon. My floaters were much better controlled, and I did find viewing more relaxing than normal. The whole thing had a 3D feel to it and I felt like I was able to access more detail. The terminator was particularly lovely, and the contrast very strong. No false colour that I could see. I was using 25mm Ortho eyepieces and an AP Barcon to give higher magnification. I've got a pair of 15mm Vixen SLVs on the way so hopefully that will give me comfortable high power viewing. I do feel like I've found a great setup now. I will use the GP mount whenever I'm doing high power Lunar, Solar and planetary viewing. For everything else I will most likely use the Giro-WR as I find star hopping much easier in alt az. Onto night time observing... Until Sunday, my main viewing was of Jupiter due to the conditions. I used both the Tak and the Portaball and it was interesting to compare the views. The Tak was reliably good all the time. The image was stable and sharp with good detail at all times which got better when the seeing stabilized. With the Portaball, the view was more variable with the seeing. When poor, the view was blurry and worse than the Tak, but when the seeing was excellent, the resolution was clearly higher and there was lovely colour and detail visible. GRS was visible on all three nights I observed and showed a lovely dark orange colour to it with separation from the SEB. Not quite as good as the views a few weeks back but none too shabby. Finally DSOs. On the previous nights I had a quick scoot around a few of the more obvious objects. M42 looked lovely but I was only able to get hints of the E star in the trapezium due to the variable seeing. I did use my 22x85 binos on it too, with UHC and OIII filters fitted, with very good results. On the Induro tripod they can be positioned very comfortably at all altitudes including at the zenith due to the height capability of the tripod. I'm now keeping this one! On Sunday night once the moon had gone down I managed to get stuck into quite a wide range of objects. The seeing was fairly average, and the transparency not the best I've seen, but at mag 21.3 at the zenith the sky was probably as dark as I've been under with a scope of any significant aperture. I've listed all the objects I noted in SkySafari at the end. It's not an exhaustive list as I saw quite a few more galaxies and open clusters than this but was not able to identify them all. I'll just comment on a few notables here. I mostly observed with the 24mm Panoptic which gave x46 with a 4.3mm exit pupil and a 1.4 degree field of view. For higher powers I used the zoom giving anything from x61 to x123. M51 looked surprisingly bright, nicely defined haloes around the central cores of the two galaxies, and signs of the bridge between the two. I would only say there were hints of structure, I wouldn't go as far as to say I could see the spiral arms but it was very nice none the less. M101 was plainly visible, easy to find but just appeared as a large oval glow with a bright centre. No structure unlike with the 16" last year. M97 and M108 looked lovely framed in the same field together. At higher powers M97 showed hints of structure but no clear 'eyes' which I assume was down to the transparency. M108 showed some nice mottling to it. NGC 457 was as fun as ever, very nice in the 8", whilst NGC 2169 (the 37 cluster) was also a delight. The tiny double in the corner of the '3' was nicely resolved, lovely to see. I did see the 'black eye' in M64 though not as obvious as I've seen before, and M63 was just a fairly featureless oval, no hints of structure. Likewise whilst I found all three parts to the Leo triplet, I could not say they were particularly bright. It's possible of course that my secondary was misting up/freezing for some of these targets. I tried to keep it clear but was not always successful. The Needle Galaxy was a very interesting comparison with the 16" last year. In the larger scope it was very bright, and the 'needles' extending out were very long and obvious, extending further with averted vision. In the 8", the galaxy itself and the arms were clear, but a shadow of the view in the 16". Still, it's nice to know I can be hitting these targets with a scope that is easily transportable on holiday and to dark sites. The last thing I'll ramble on about is Markarian's Chain. Again, I had spectacular views of this in the 16" last year so I was interested to see if I could find it in the 8". Of course, I could, and was pleasantly surprised by the views. Quite clear and I was able to trace the chain of galaxies all the way along. I hopped around the area identifying some galaxies by following it in SkySafari, then getting lost after a while and just panning around enjoying the view. I'm very pleased with the Portaball. Lovely views in a scope which is so easy to transport and assemble/break down. I've got some work to do checking out whether the secondary heater is working as the secondary was freezing up so frequently but aside from that it's all good. I was observing stars down to mag 14.47 (that I noted, probably beyond), and galaxies down to mag 12.07, again possibly beyond this in some of the unidentified galaxies. Last year I got a galaxy at mag 14.2 if I remember correctly which shows an indication of the differing capabilities of the scopes. An excellent four days, finishing with a pretty spectacular nights observing and a lovely full English breakfast in the morning before heading home ? List: SGL11 Owl Cluster - NGC 457 (Open Cluster in Cassiopeia) Double Cluster - NGC 869 (Open Cluster in Perseus) Chi Persei - NGC 884 (Open Cluster in Perseus) Polaris - Alpha UMi (Variable Double Star in Ursa Minor) Pleiades - M 45 (Open Cluster in Taurus) NGC 1502 (Open Cluster in Camelopardalis) Rigel - Beta Ori (Variable Double Star in Orion) NGC 1907 (Open Cluster in Auriga) Starfish Cluster - M 38 (Open Cluster in Auriga) Orion Nebula - M 42 (Bright Nebula in Orion) Messier 43 (Bright Nebula in Orion) Alnitak - Zeta Ori (Double Star in Orion) NGC 2169 (Open Cluster in Orion) Castor - Alpha Gem (Double Star in Gemini) Beehive Cluster - M 44 (Open Cluster in Cancer) Messier 67 (Open Cluster in Cancer) Bode's Nebulae - M 81 (Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major) Bode's Nebulae - M 82 (Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major) Algieba - Gamma1 Leo (Double Star in Leo) Messier 95 (Spiral Galaxy in Leo) Messier 96 (Spiral Galaxy in Leo) Messier 105 (Elliptical Galaxy in Leo) NGC 3384 (Elliptical Galaxy in Leo) NGC 3373 (Spiral Galaxy in Leo) Messier 108 (Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major) Owl Nebula - M 97 (Planetary Nebula in Ursa Major) Messier 65 (Spiral Galaxy in Leo) Messier 66 (Spiral Galaxy in Leo) NGC 3628 (Spiral Galaxy in Leo) NGC 3631 (Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major) NGC 3953 (Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major) Messier 109 (Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major) GSCII 984 (Star in Ursa Major) Markarian's Chain - M 84 (Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo) Melotte 111 (Open Cluster in Coma Berenices) NGC 4387 (Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo) NGC 4388 (Spiral Galaxy in Virgo) Markarian's Chain - M 86 (Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo) Eyes Galaxies - NGC 4435 (Spiral Galaxy in Virgo) Eyes Galaxies - NGC 4438 (Spiral Galaxy in Virgo) Markarian's Chain - NGC 4458 (Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo) NGC 4459 (Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices) Markarian's Chain - NGC 4461 (Spiral Galaxy in Virgo) Markarian's Chain - NGC 4473 (Elliptical Galaxy in Coma Berenices) NGC 4474 (Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices) Markarian's Chain - NGC 4477 (Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices) Messier 88 (Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices) Needle Galaxy - NGC 4565 (Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices) Whale Galaxy - NGC 4631 (Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici) NGC 4656 (Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici) Black Eye Galaxy - M 64 (Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices) Messier 53 (Globular Cluster in Coma Berenices) Sunflower Galaxy - M 63 (Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici) Whirlpool Galaxy - M 51 (Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici) NGC 5195 (Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici) Messier 3 (Globular Cluster in Canes Venatici) Izar - Epsilon Boo (Double Star in Bootes) Hercules Cluster - M 13 (Globular Cluster in Hercules) Messier 92 (Globular Cluster in Hercules) Vega - Alpha Lyr (Variable Double Star in Lyra) Double Double - Epsilon1 Lyr (Double Star in Lyra) Ring Nebula - M 57 (Planetary Nebula in Lyra)

200 frames total. (this one gave me a bit of trouble aligning!)

Made a solar finder out of a spare skywatcher finder-scope using the pinhole camera principle. Removed lenses, covered front with foil and added a pinhole with a needle. Held in place With elastic bands (could use something more permanent but this is very easy to replace). The lens cap still fits over the foil for protection when not in use. On the rear I used some kitchen parchment taped to the inside of the adapter that holds the “eyepiece stalk” and added a crosshair. Pinhole projection gives a solar disk about 3-4mm and whole thing is adjustable as per the normal finder-scope. Tested yesterday and works a treat, I can now get the Quark on target without having to use the WL wedge with 25mm then 8mm to get it aligned first.

So, with the pending eclipse, I have my glasses ready and some pairs for the kids, but thought I might as well make the most of it and try and view with the telescope and, just maybe, take a couple of basic shots to commemorate. So I spent the weekend making a solar filter to use on Friday...which, judging by the forecast, will end up being used a week later when the sun can actually be seen, but I am still hoping for clear skies. It is a very basic model, but I thought I would share my efforts here in case anyone else was thinking of having a go. Materials were very simple. Baader Solar Filter sheet - A4 Corrugated Cardboard Gaffer Tape Sticky back black felt Double sided sticky-tape. Compass Stanley Knife Ruler ScissorsI also bought a 10inch Embroidery Ring to clamp it down onto the scope (I built it for a 200p Dob), but may not need it other than as extra safety a the whole thing is pretty tight when it goes on. So here goes: Firstly I took two, roughly 12inch square stiff carboard squares that came from two paintings I hung at the weekend and cut two circles from them, a little larger than the aperture of the scope. I couldn't go "full-size" for the filter as the A4 sheet wouldn't cover it, so I also cut a 170mm aperture from the centre of each circle, so I ended up with two rings that would eventually sandwich the filter material between them I then wrapped a 6 inch-wide piece of corrugated around the end of the scope and secured with gaffer tape to get started on the main body of the filter. I did this with 3 pieces of card to add rigidity and so that the width of the cylinder matched the diameter of the discs prepared above. I can't give you the exact measurements as I kind of went on a wing and a prayer when doing that! I then simply taped up the edges to hold everything in place. (Sorry about the orientation of this pic!) When the edges were done, I then "flocked" the inside of the cylinder with two A4 pieces of felt cut in half. Then on to the Solar Film. I basically laid this flat on tissue paper as per the instructions that came with the filter paper and took one of the pre-cut discs, covered it in double-sided tape... ...and then lowered it on to the film so that it stuck. Be careful to make sure you don't stick it to the side with the clear protective film (or that you have carefully removed) because, otherwise, the disc will lift away from the solar film when you lift it as it will be stuck to the protective film. I also covered the inner edge of one of the rings in gaffer tape as this would be the top ring, exposed to the elements and it would be impossible to cover once the solar film was in place. Anyway, I forgot to take a photo at this stage, so you will have to use your imaginations I'm afraid. Having stuck the film to one ring, I took the other ring (already covered in double-sided tape) and connected the two to sandwich the solar film in between. I then trimmed the excess Then it was just a matter of joining everything together. So I took the filter rings and placed them over the cylinder And secured everything in place And then just covered the whole thing in gaffer tape to "seal" it all up And there it is. It fits very snugly on the scope and seems to be doing it's job. I still have to test it with the sun, but it blocks out the light from various halogen bulbs around the house with, seemingly, no leakage around the edge where the cylinder joins the discs. Will hopefully get a chance to test it out before Friday. I don't know if the filter sitting 2-3 inches away from the natural scope aperture will be a problem but I can easily adjust it after testing if it doesn't work - I am sure it will be fine though. It's not pretty, but it seems to work and, if I look after it, I should be able to get some use out of it! And I have just enough solar film to repeat (on a smaller scale) for the finder scope. Hope that is helpful to anyone thinking about doing the same! Just remember to check the film before using it to look directly at the sun and, if it is damaged in anyway, don't use it!

I currently have a ZWO 178MC OSC planetary camera. Everybody tells me that I need to get a mono chrome camera for solar imaging. I have narrowed it down to two cameras the ZWO ASI178MM or the ASI174MM. The ASI174MM is quite a bit more expensive and I am not sure why? I have a Lunt 60MM HA f/7 Solar scope and looking for recommendations.

My Lunt LS60 is finally back from Lunt where i had it retrofitted from tilt to pressure tuned, haven't had a chance to use it yet due to horrible seeing but for everyone interested i will be doing an in depth review of the new retrofit. I must say though that it certainly looks impressive and tuning seems to be very smooth upon turning the cylinder.