Setting up for solar imaging

[Kevdan]

Hi all,

Just wondered about setting up for solar imaging due to my new 250pds which is a month old is only capable of seeing clouds at night.

So if I wanted to do some solar imaging how do you set the mount up during the day ?

How do you polar align the mount when you cant see polaris

( I know at the moment you cant even see the sun which makes the whole process pointless)

Kev.

[RikM]

I just level the mount and point it North using a compass. That is normally plenty good enough to get 1-2 min avi's.

[x6gas]

Obviously make sure that you have an appropriate solar filter over the aperture of the scope - don't use eyepiece ones as these can crack causing serious eye damage...

Then you can do a rough polar align as said above. I haven't made a solar filter for my finder so I look down the focuser tube without an eyepiece fitted and then slew the mount to roughly get the solar disc in the middle... then use a collimation cap to further refine... then a reasonably wide angle eyepiece. This works for me.

HTH

[JamieW]

Some shade comes in handy when you're trying to focus.

[x6gas]

Some shade comes in handy when you're trying to focus.

Bit too much of that around at the moment... provided by heavy cloud!