My new solar telescope - 80mm PST for £600

[NickH]

here she is in all her glory, got first light yesterday, and the Sun, despite being blanker than a blankety blank chequebook and pen, was amazing. No astigmatism, very detailed, could really push the image scale/resolution both visually and image wise, though there was nothing much to image.

About the same length as an SM40, about the same aperture as an SM90 (it is a 90mm ERF), and a 0.7A etalon in the image train (direct a/b against the SM40, same level of detail)...only downside is the sweet spot from the PST etalon, but for saving so much money...I can live with that..

Wo80 s/h - £200

PST from the states in a stupidly stupidly good deal (BOGOF deal with a CaK) - $499 for the pair = £250 for the pair = under £200 each once all tax, import etc was paid up..

ERF - £187 (found the receipt...)

Adapters etc - mostly free, or under £30

BF10 - Currently on loan, pending me getting one.. :-), but the BF5 works as well! (part of the PST)

Sorted...

Dew is cus i just dragged it in from outside, where it has been for most of today, trying to see if anything happened on the Sun, between the clouds... a few small proms (one nice small looping prom), but nada on the disc

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Hmm. Why a WO 'scope? Surely a achro would do fine? How do you get the gubbins out of a PST, just saw the gold tube in half or what?

Looks good though, doesn't it?

Kaptain Klevtsov

[NickH]

The WO was chosen for two reasons

1: The back focus on this model is huge, no need to hack it down.

2: It's a very good night-time scope, so when I travel to China in 2009 for the Eclipse, this will double up for that duty as well

The procedure is relatively simple, but no sawing was involved, just a Boa Constrictor wrench tool!