Solar Proms help

[Mav359]

Hi guys

why can i never see any proms of the sun? i have a Baader Solar Continum Filter coupled with the Astro ZAP Solar filter.

Visualy the sun appears fantastic, i can see the surface in great detail and the sunsports are clear as day but never any proms.

What piece of expensive magic am i missing?

[johninderby]

You can only see proms with an Ha scope such as a PST, Lunt Ha etc.

John

[Mav359]

does no one make a filter/adaptor for a normal scope? seems a whole in the market.

Oh well

[johninderby]

You can buy filters to fit a normal scope but they will still cost nearly as much as buying the complete Ha scope. The PST or Lunt 35 are the cheapest way to do Ha observing but they'll set you back getting on for £500.00. You can easily spend thousands on an Ha scope. It's simply very expensive to make the needed parts.

John

[Merlin66]

Daystar supply a range of solar Ha, and other bandwidth filters for your scope:

DayStar Filters - ION Filters

[Mav359]

Nice!!!! if a little on the super expensive side.

Not sure i get what it is though, is it an eyepiece filter?

[Merlin66]

It's not an eyepiece filter as such. It's a very sophisticated multi-element filter which just passes a a very narrow band of light centred on the Ha wavelength. That is why they are so expensive.

[johninderby]

Take a look at this link. Although it only applies to Coranado solar scopes it gives you an idea of what range of scopes are available.

http://www.meade.com/manuals/C901901_Rev1_SlrMxIBook_1111610.pdf

Then there is Lunt

http://www.luntsolarsystems.com/

Also

http://www.solarscope.co.uk/Howto.html

BTW try not to be too shocked when you look at the Solarscope prices.

John

[PeterW]

You need to look at a very narrow band of h alpha light, so no eyepiece filter has a narrow enough bandwidth. costly, but well worth it, what other astronomical object is so variable and does not give you sleep deprivation! (unless you count the time needed for datarocessing!)

Anyhow with one of the scope listed you get proms and also a wealth of disk detail thrown in for free.... check out the pictures on the forum to see the stuff that is visible or imageable.

Cheers

PEterW