First Solar image not

[Davey-T]

Had the LS60ds for a couple of days, spent the first day modding the Meade piggy back camera bracket to take the weight, replaced the monkey metal bolt with steel and fitted a pin to stop the scope rotating.

Today spent some time actually finding the Sun, lol, the instructions could be clearer, it says the Sun appears as a red fuzzy ball but you get this effect anywhere near the Sun, instructions say set the diagonal about 25mm out of the focuser but I needed to pull it out at least 35mm to focus, twiddled the ss knob in and out but couldn't see much difference, could see what appeared to be a prom at about the 9 oclock position, how much surface detail should I be able to see ? don't know if any Sun spots were visible but didn't see any, should they be visible if tuned properly ? how far have folks got the tuning knob screwed in

roughly, how sensitive is getting it in the right spot ? so many questions 

This was with the single stack, haven't even fitted the front mounted one yet

Yesterday it started raining, today it clouded over 

Reading through this it's probably in the wrong section, should be in beginners.

This is the only image I managed

Dave

 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

There is a big, dark filament on the surface easily visible when the tuning is right in my LS35, so the LS60 should have no problems

[Montana]

It is always very difficult to begin with, it is a whole new style of observing and takes practice. This is usually made more frustrating by our weather. The scope will almost certainly be out of tune when you first view through it. Depending on your eyepiece field of view hopefully you will see a full disc through it. Try and find the Sun, there may be a ghost reflection in several places so these beasts pretend to be the sun. A very easy way of spotting these ghosts is that if you use the etalon tuner (unless you have the posh pressure tuned version) these ghosts will whip straight out of the field of view, whereas the real sun will stay rock steady in the centre. These ghosts are also impossible to focus, the real Sun will focus to a very sharp edge on the Sun's limb. Once you have the real Sun, cover your head with a towel and be prepared to just sit for 10-15 minutes and look at the Sun, your eyes will eventually learn to see the monochrome image and shapes will start to appear. During this time gradually twist the etalon tuner (or pressure tuner) and you will see shapes appear and disappear. Try and look for a position where you suddenly can see a darker red filament appear on the surface in best contrast above the red of the disc, or a prominence on the edge, a quick look at GONG first will help you aim to try and see http://halpha.nso.edu/index.html#top . Remember the images you see here have black filaments in real life this is monochrome red so you are looking for various intensities of the same colour red and this takes practice. Definitely master this before you even attempt to put the double stack on. It has taken me a year and half to master my double stack! but then I might be a bit slow and I also had technical problems.

I hope this helps, remember each session gets easier

Alexandra

[Davey-T]

Thanks Alexandra, as you say more tricky than I thought it was going to be looking at that great big star, appears to be harder than "normal" astro.

Not being sure of what I should see doesn't help, don't think I'll be posting images any time soon

Hey ho, another learning curve to struggle up.

Dave

[Montana]

Just check out GONG (see above) and try to match what you see in the telescope eyepiece to what is seen by the professional scope, it's just yours will be red on red and theirs is grey once you get it you will wonder why you struggled. Don't try to look for sunspots, in H alpha they are very indistinct unless they are super massive. This is because you are looking at the chromosphere and not the photosphere. Try to look for whirls a bit like the shape iron filling make around a magnet as the sunspots look like this. If you do see an image like a white image then you are super badly off band

Alexandra

[Davey-T]

Thanks Alexandra, just had another go in a clear patch, managed to get the s/stack bit tuned I think, turns out the pressure tuner needs screwing nearly all the way back on, not very clear from the instructions which say screw it in gradually from fully out which was taking forever, just thought it was showing more detail including round some sunspots at about 4 oclock in the eyepiece when it clouded over.

Have bookmarked GONG thanks for the link.

Here's a pic' of it mounted on the LX200, not it's permanent home but handy for practicing which I think there may be a lot of.

Dave