EPs for white light solar.

[russ.will]

Having off-loaded all bar one (and that's going too) of my 1.25" EPs, I suddenly remembered the other reason I've held onto my ES 80 Triplet was because it's nice for white light solar. However, this particular proclivity is satisfied by a 1/25" Herschel wedge and I'm darned if I'm going to the expense of a 2" alternative.

Thus, I need to avail myself of some nice little EPs, at a price that will sneak under the wife's radar, for this purpose alone. I'd like something for full disk and maybe 50% shorter as my ES Tele Extender will double up the number of focal lengths available and therefore cope with variable seeing.

What do white light solar viewers suggest for a 480mm FL scope?

Russell

[Qualia]

Russell,

In the TV 76 f6.3 with a Lunt Herschel Wedge, I find a 9mm B.G Ortho my most used eyepiece. It offers 53x magnification and an ample 0.7º True Field of View. If seeing is good and I want to hone in on a little detail, after sketching the full disc with the 9mm, I might skip up the power (8mm Plossl, 7mm, 6mm Ortho etc) and if the seeing is really, really terrible I might drop down to the 11mm TV Plossl. Nevertheless, for general viewing and solar sketching, I feel around 50x is sufficient.

Curiously, and I say this just in passing, I don't get along well with the 10mm Delos for white light. I don't know why, but I much prefer the little Ortho.

[beatlejuice]

I'm thinking that the 6.7mm ES would give you a nice wide 70x with a little more comfortable eyerelief than orthos or plossls.  Doubling up to 140x on sunspots when the seeing allows.   You may also find that you like it on the moon with that scope as well.

Eric

[jetstream]

Orthos. 18mm BCO-excellent in white light, great low power EP for you, 12.5mm Tak or kk ortho excellent, 10mmBCO excellent. BCO's offer the most for the money and I also love my Tak (Fuji) and KK (Fuji) orthos.

If you ever run across a 16mmNaglerT5...they are extremely  good in white light and barlows well.

All these EP's listed "pop" the granulation and are above average on faculae, plage and of course sunspots. Do you have a barlow Russ?

[nicoscy]

Orthos. 18mm BCO-excellent in white light, great low power EP for you, 12.5mm Tak or kk ortho excellent, 10mmBCO excellent. BCO's offer the most for the money and I also love my Tak (Fuji) and KK (Fuji) orthos.

If you ever run across a 16mmNaglerT5...they are extremely  good in white light and barlows well.

All these EP's listed "pop" the granulation and are above average on faculae, plage and of course sunspots. Do you have a barlow Russ?

Ditto on Orthos. I ordered nearly the full set from Kokusai Kohki specifically for solar observing. The difference may be only 5% - 8% but that last bit is what separates great views from jaw dropping views.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Orthoscopics are fine, but if you want eye relief, go for the Vixen SLVs, very good performers.

[Moonshane]

I have a full box of decent eyepieces including a TV 6-3mm zoom, BGOs and TV plossls but my best white light views have been with my Pentax 19.5-6.5 zoom. It's very convenient and provides excellent visual images. Close in performance but not as good mechanically is my Seben 8-24mm zoom. These comments apply in Ha too. The kicker is when you put the zooms in the scopes at night. The Pentax is very poor and the seben good but shaded out by Naglers, radians, BGOs and TV plossls.

If you want a cheap solution then a Seben zoom will not disappoint for about £30 used.

My comments relate to SW 120mm f5, Vixen 80mm f11 and Tal f10 achromats.

[nicoscy]

You also need another accessory for solar viewing and this is super critical.

A baseball cap or any other hat that shields the eyepiece and your eye from direct sun exposure - this increases contrast a lot!

[Moonshane]

Very true Nicos. I am thinking of making a little shade to fit onto the OTA as I am not a hat fan.

[nicoscy]

Very true Nicos. I am thinking of making a little shade to fit onto the OTA as I am not a hat fan.

Not much into hats myself but I ordered the Lunt solar hat just for kicks.

Trying to minimise gear quantity / size when exiting the door, so a shade fitting the OTA would take more space as opposed to a hat 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

+1 for the hat. In winter I use either my Barmah roo leather hat from down-under, or a nifty black fedora (felt Mayser Trecking, more accurately), in summer it is my Tilley. The Nebraska cow leather one is only used under rainy and seriously windy conditions, so doesn't get used for solar work.

But then, men should wear hats

As you may have noticed, I am a hat fan

I also use my WO Zoom II 7.5 to 22.5 mm a lot for white (and H-alpha) solar. Very versatile, and very decent eye relief. The Lunt Zoom (same as TS HR zoom is optically very good as well, but has 15mm eye relief: geneorus for many, too short for me with my glasses.

[nicoscy]

Well, I DO use a hat - a heavy Russian Sheep Fur hat in the winter when I take my dog for a walk at 4:30 am. When it gets below 5C, it's essential.

On another note, I could probably boil an egg or two during my walk as it traps heat extremely well 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Well, I DO use a hat - a heavy Russian Sheep Fur hat in the winter when I take my dog for a walk at 4:30 am. When it gets below 5C, it's essential.

On another note, I could probably boil an egg or two during my walk as it traps heat extremely well 

Below 5C or below -5C?

[nicoscy]

+1 for the hat. In winter I use either my Barmah roo leather hat from down-under, or a nifty black fedora (felt Mayser Trecking, more accurately), in summer it is my Tilley. The Nebraska cow leather one is only used under rainy and seriously windy conditions, so doesn't get used for solar work.

But then, men should wear hats

As you may have noticed, I am a hat fan

I also use my WO Zoom II 7.5 to 22.5 mm a lot for white (and H-alpha) solar. Very versatile, and very decent eye relief. The Lunt Zoom (same as TS HR zoom is optically very good as well, but has 15mm eye relief: geneorus for many, too short for me with my glasses.

Michael, have you used the Lunt zoom or TS equivalent (despite eye relief issues)? I have the Lunt on the way for this specific reason (no eye relief issues, happy all the way down to 8mm).

[nicoscy]

That would be below 5C, not minus C. This is Cyprus after all!!!

[nicoscy]

Apologies for straying off topic, but it is important to provide proof when making a comment like (taking out the dog at 4:30). 

My favourite photo of my husky girl:

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Michael, have you used the Lunt zoom or TS equivalent (despite eye relief issues)? I have the Lunt on the way for this specific reason (no eye relief issues, happy all the way down to 8mm).

Mine was the Lunt. It was OK when the LS35 sat on the Great Polaris mount, but on light mounts the constant banging of my glasses in to the EP causes vibrations. My reports on the EP are here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/215190-lunt-h-alpha-zoom-72-215mm-first-impressions/

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/216172-lunt-h-alpha-zoom-72-215mm-second-thoughts/

[nicoscy]

Thanks Michael 

Just went through both. Given that I nuked my eyes (LASIK surgery 11 years ago), I observe sans glasses and therefore no issues with eye relief.

Looks like the Lunt is nearly up there with fixed fl eps which is great as I already have all the fixed fl eyepieces I need and just looking for a decent zoom when I don't want to faff around and change eyepieces.

[Moonshane]

OK. I admit it. Hats never fit on my head other than stretchy woollen ones.

[Stu]

The best eyepiece I have for white light solar is my Leica ASPH 8.9 to 17.9mm zoom. It's a quirky (and expensive!) eyepiece, not without its faults, but the light throughout is amazing and solar details show up beautifully.

More relevant though I think, I will strongly second Qualia's suggestion of orthos. In the TV85 which has a longer focal length than Rob's 76, the 12.5mm BGO works very well. I also find an 11mm TV Plossl excellent, along with a 9mm BGO for higher powers. I don't normally go above this to be honest, but would stick with orthos if I did.

Your ED80 will be very nice with the wedge. In many ways I think 80 to 100mm is a sweet spot for solar observing. I often come back to my 85 as a favourite.

Lastly, whether it is a hat or a coat over your head, a sunshade makes a huge difference to contrast as already mentioned.

Enjoy

Stu

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

OK. I admit it. Hats never fit on my head other than stretchy woollen ones.

I have had similar problems: "one-size fits all" caps never fit me. However, good hat stores can supply you with huge size hats. For me XL is generally a tight fit, I need XXL, or size 62-63 in cm or 7 3/4 to 7 7/8 in inches. I got the Barmah at a discount downunder because the owner (much to the chagrin of his wife) had stocked up on rather many XXL sized ones. As she told me: he's got a big head so he thinks everybody else has the same size.

[russ.will]

Do you have a barlow Russ?

Yes = The ES 2x Focal Extender (read Powermate clone) I mentioned in post #1. i do also have a GSO 2.5x Apo Barlow as well.

Russell

[russ.will]

Wow! I posted this after 2am and the first time I look at my phone today, I thought the SGL mail server had thrown a wobbly - 25 replies in the inbox. Mercifully, some of them were even on-topic! 

Great feedback, as ever, chaps.

In no particular order; I have no need of a hat. There is ample shading afforded by my neanderthal brow.

Somebody mentioned TV Delos - I didn't get on with mine, even at night. In white light solar, I found them horribly fussy about eye position. I can only presume that it's something to do with the massive eye relief interacting with my own pupil being stopped right down because it's daylight. To whit, I tried draping a large black snood like thing over my head and the back end of the scope, to block out incident light from the sides to see if it helped. It did a bit, but I lived in mortal fear of someone seeing me. I do have some caps/Aussie hats and do use them.

Back to EPs. There was a lone suggestion of the ES82s and indeed I did have these down to 8.8mm and really liked them. The 6.7mm and the ES FE would seem to tick some boxes.

Orthos. I had the 6, 7 & 9mm BGOs. Blisteringly sharp, I found the 6mm distinctly uncomfortable. I did wonder if a volcano top might be better for me, but as I'm now without a tracking mount, I also wonder if I may get hacked off by the narrow FoV too? I'll keep an eye on the classifieds as they're cheap, frequent and unlikely to loose money if it turns out I don't get on with them again.

Vixen SLVs. These had registered because of their ortho like sharpness, but friendly to use nature. I note that with the current £/Euro exchange rate, these can be had for £90. Probably a bit more than I wanted to spend, but the 6mm is attractive when considered as a partner to the ES FE. By the same token, this has made me keep a look out for second hand NLVs

Zooms. I was nearly at the point of buying a Leica Asph Zoom, when I weakened and bought the ES100s. The thinking was that this would make an awesome travel EP too - There's a nice zoom shaped hole in the 80 Apo carrying case - but the Leica is too rich for my blood for this purpose and also, in common with most other zooms, not short enough in focal length. I now realize, I had the perfect EP in my case, which was the Nagler 3-6mm zoom and deeply regret selling it. Again, I don't want to spend that much now.

Another thought I had was the WO SPL 6mm. I used one of these in daylight to view Jupiter in a 200mm F6 Dob at S'n'S one time and found it a very comfortable little EP. That was a long time ago and so my memory may be playing tricks, but it's the right sort of money.

I've also been thinking about the 7mm UWAN/SW Nirvana as that line seems to get Nagler like respect. anybody on here got/used one?

Russell

[nicoscy]

You could always get the Leica and pair it with the Baader 2.25x zoom so that you overcome the issue of short fl use    But since it is outside the budget, let it go.

I will throw a curveball now. How about TV Radians?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

BTW, the Pentax XF8.5 was great on solar too. I regret selling that a bit.