Telescope through a window?

[xtreemchaos]

i do all my solar imaging from indoors with the window open mosty, i have Lupus which dont let me go out in any sunlight, it can be done with good results, if the thermals are bad ive been known to close the window but at cost to detail. charl.

 

[Thalestris24]

My West-pointing TS APO  Small window, lol

 

Louise

[xtreemchaos]

west facing Louise, sol would be in range for you every morrning, mine s/w facing, lovely set up mate.  charl.

[Thalestris24]

Just now, xtreemchaos said:

west facing Louise, sol would be in range for you every morrning, mine s/w facing, lovely set up mate.  charl.

Hi

Well I rarely do any solar. Apart from it being mostly cloudy here  the sun is only really do-able at certain times during the summer months and, anyway, I'm much more into dso's . The camera is a qhy minicam5s - effectively a cooled qhy5l-ii mono and it's really far too sensitive for white light solar even with a narrowband filter. I might move around some cameras before too long - not used the qhy8l in ages!

Louise

 

[Ben the Ignorant]

Before I moved my windows were horrible for stargazing: at a humble 10x the Moon undulated in my binoculars. But now I can use telecopes at low and medium power through them. Of course some astigmatism makes the stars look like little Christmas knots, especially at grazing angles, but the astigmatism is often less damaging than long-range turbulence. The compromise is OK. By the way, when I defocus a lot, I see crisscrossing grooves in the diffraction pattern, the marks of the tool that polished the window glass, and they are not that bad, but not all industrial glass makers have the same polishing standards. I discussed this with other people who told me their industrial glass is not flat enough at all.

When it was cold and I had the flu, I could still scope out despite remaining inside. Right now I have to give medications to a cat, creating drafts is out of the question, again scope through window is the solution. Sun and Moon and moderate powers show the main features, and even some finer features when turbulence freezes.

Sometimes short-range turbulence because of the difference in temperature between my place and the outside is so strong, I'm also better off shutting the window and cope with its astigmatism instead. As a side note, while I adjusted a scope as a raintime activity with the windon opened, I noticed turbulence is extremely weak when its rains, 160x with a 150mm newtonian, and barely a tremble, aiming at the horizon through the thickest possible layer of air! No rain but heavily overcast dampens turbulence a lot, too. Too bad this is 100% incompatible with what we do, but wildlife spotters might exploit it.

[Thalestris24]

Windows have to be open for imaging... Can't escape some turbulence which affects guiding, unfortunately. The result tends to be a softness in the image: 

Louise

[GuLinux]

I have done lots of visual observing and imaging in the past, through a window... this one being one of the best shots, probably: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gulinux/27313732632/in/datetaken-public/lightbox/

The more you can keep your windows open to help thermal equilibrium, the better the results. Of course, it will always be worst than a backyard, but still it's not something impossible per se.

My best suggestion for you is to try and buy a very lightweight telescope.. with an altazimuth mount, otherwise the counterweights will get in the way. Maybe a small maksutov (130/150mm) will be your best option.

Also, if the telescope is light enough, it will also be much easier to carry around for some "special nights". The problem with mine was that being too bulky and heavy (SC 8", with an HEQ5 mount, more than 20kg total) I never felt like carrying it around, so I got stuck with my tiny window...

 

 

[Stardust Dave]

That pic at the flicker url .WOW!

 Fantastic Lunar shot thru a window!   Shadow detail on Theophilis and Cyrillius super...Nice work,