Is solar observing interesting?

[Dom1961]

Hello, I was wondering if solar observing is a interesting as normal night observing. If I were to start apart from the solar film filter would I need anything else? Also what details would I be able to see?

[Davey-T]

Well Dom, solar film is a good place to start and you can see sun spots and a bit of surface detail and you could possibly image it with your 200P, for more detail you need some sort of HA equipment and a mount/refractor to put it in, as with all astro stuff the amount you can spend is pretty limitless .

Dave

[Uplooker]

Hello, I was wondering if solar observing is a interesting as normal night observing.

Yes, yes and I say Yes. When you start off with WL you will quickly be sucked into Ha [emoji3]

Sent from my Fone

[nightfisher]

I do a little white light Solar, but i would not find myself rushing out to do so, i tend to use it as a fix for when i have long gaps in night sky work

[Dom1961]

Can I just ask, what's the difference between white light and Ha?

[Peter Drew]

It certainly is around these parts! Sensible time of day, warm most of the time, a small telescope is good enough, doubles your potential observing time, ever changing detail to be seen specially in Ha. What's not to like?, well the price I suppose. 

[jabeoo1]

It is great, every day tells a different story. I always avoid the GONG website or the solar imaging section of SGL if I am going to be observing so not to spoil the anticipation of the view.  Be careful as you will be wanting a Ha telescope with that solar film. 

[Saganite]

Hi Dom,

At Kelling Heath last September I got to look at the Sun through  a Refractor with HA filters , the lot! and to see the surface of our star, seething, with prominences  and sunspots

was simply astounding. It is expensive to have a set up to do this, but  worthwhile, when you consider that you are looking in close up at the surface of a star, the very thing that we all spend hours and lots of money to see as pinpricks of light at night.

I have not ventured down that road yet !

[jabeoo1]

This is the kind of caparison you could make between the Ha & White Light 

Ha

White Light

[Dom1961]

Oh right okay, so I guess to get a fair amount of detail I'll Ned to spend £££s (typical astronomy)

[nightfisher]

Oh right okay, so I guess to get a fair amount of detail I'll Ned to spend £££s (typical astronomy)

Yes, for HA detail prepare to part with a fair size wedge, white light is much cheaper

[John]

I do a little white light Solar, but i would not find myself rushing out to do so, i tend to use it as a fix for when i have long gaps in night sky work

Thats about my level with solar observing too.

A white light solar filter can be made / purchased for a reasonable cost (£20-£30ish) and that can show sunspots, surface granulation and the bright faculae. To see the wonderful prominences etc you need to get into Hydrogen-Alpha observing and thats when £hundreds are involved and some very specialised equipment. To be honest though, I still feel it's amazing that amateurs have access to H-A observing at all. It was the province of the professional observatories when I started out in the hobby !

[goose35]

When we had the eclipse a short while ago i watched it with eclipse specs and found it fasinating. At that time i also ised projection and sketched/recorded sunspots on the surface. Now i have recently purchased a bader solar sheet to make a filter

[Starcluster]

Hi Dom , I have only in the past couple of weeks , bought some Baader solar filter film and made my own filter with cardboard ( got the idea from video on internet) . With a wide angle 2 inch eyepiece It gave me a great whole view of the sun showing sunspots and a little granulation around the edge at x50 with my 1200 f9.5 refractor( see pic) as mentioned above by Night fisher , it can add a intermeshing alternative and excuse to get your scope out early , especially when you know their is a good chance of a clear night ahead. Cheers. Mark.

[Starcluster]

P.s you can buy a Orion solar filter for you'r finderscope , which you will medic for about £ 20 . Workes great on 9x 50 finders,

[Luke]

My wife knows to check my pulse if I don't rush out to do solar! We are all different though, you won't know until you try!

H-alpha is not cheap but depending on circumstances it can get a great deal of use. Star parties can be a good place to try, that's where I got my first views, from people who kindly let me have a look through their solar scope.

I remember when I got my first regular telescope, and looking at the craters on the moon, seeing a planet (!), seeing a galaxy    All jaw-dropping moments. Then I thought, what does one of these stars up in the night sky look like close up through a scope? I put in the Barlow, cranked up the mag, and it was...

...still a dot. That was my only mild disappointment of the night!

I am not sure what I was expecting to see, but the view of the sun through a solar scope blows my socks off, it sure ain't a dot.

Also, just me, I like familiarity, getting to know something well. I love seeing the constellations, they feel like old friends. And the sun spices it up by being different every day.

Normally we can't even look at the sun with our MkI eyeball, but it's such a huge part of our lives. We can feel its heat on our skin, it bathes our world in light. So getting to know the sun a little bit better, for me, also has something to do with it floating my boat. That very close relationship we have with our nearest star. Its light just minutes old, views feel very "live" to me and the sun very close.

[jabeoo1]

Its light just minutes old..

Lets not forget the ~10,000 year random walk from the core through the radiative zone, then the 30 day more direct journey through the convective zone.  That all comes before the 500 second sprint to our eyepiece !!

Timescales vary drastically depending on where you read.   

[philj]

In answer to part of your original question re comparing solar to night time observing it doesnt really because at night there are so many different things to observe which cater for all tastes, dso, planets, lunar etc. Whereas solar is observing the one object, our star the sun. However it is a fascinating object and in white light during active periods it has alot to interest, spots, granulation, faculae. Go to hydrogen alpha light and a whole new range of interesting things come to light :-), prominences, granulation, filaments etc.

Until last year

I ust used to take the odd peek in white light, now Im addicted, its a fascinating subject to observe and image

[brantuk]

It's very different to watching the night sky where most stuff is fixed and familiar. Watching the sun through Ha kit is utterly fascinating and addictive mostly because it's constantly changing. You can get a basic PST setup on the second hand market in good nick for around £450-£600 (depending on age and condition etc) - or brand new for around £750. So it doesn't have to be as expensive as you think to start observing.

[BritAngler]

Starcluster, what 'scope is that?

[Starcluster]

Hi BritAngler, it's a Opticstar 127 mill f9.5 achromat. Opticstar based near Manchester sell them mail order. It cost me £275, great value,build quality and service.

[paulastro]

Hello Dom.   It need not be too expensive to  start off with H Alpha Solar observing.  It's possible to buy a second hand Personnel Solar Telescope (PST) from as 'little' as £450.  A PST will show prominences, filaments and plage very well.  Indeed a PST will show virtually every feature you can see on GONG, not as well as more expensive gear but enough for some people that they are quite happy to stay with 'only' a PST.

 Ok, £400  is by no means an insignificant sum, but some people are happy to spend £500 plus for an eyepiece and not think it's too much - and you'll see an awful lot more with a PST than just an expensive eyepiece!!  Just go to a star party and ad up the total cost some people spend on their equipment - the  content of some peoples eyepiece cases with eyepieces  and filters of all types can easily exceed a couple of thousand pounds.

I've been observing for many years and mostly observed the Moon and planets before some nice clever person brought the PST into the world (around 15 years ago?) bringing the cost of H Alpha Solar observing to the 'masses'.  Now, the Moon and planets are fairly dynamic and changing compared with most celestial objects, but the Sun in H Alpha is the king of the lot if you want to see some action.

Anyway, I'd suggest you try and get along to one of the events organised this Sunday for International Solar Day.  Any of these events will have a variety of Solar equipment for you to try out and see for yourself.  After all,  what floats my boat might not float yours! 

PS Some places, such as The Astronomy Centre near Todmorden, provide Solar observing opportunities on a regular basis (like every Saturday afternoon!) if you can't get along to an event this Sunday or the weather is unkind.

[Chris]

What can I say, I bought a Lunt 35DX solar scope new for 770 pounds this year, and it's one of the best 770 pounds I've spent! Yes it's a fair bit of dosh but as said you can get a used PST for 400-450. It's so nice to be in the Sun looking at the Sun in detail. No two days are the same. 

Today I grabbed 20 minutes white light but for the first time with binoviewers. Wow that was good, my wife was upstairs working in the office but I had to grab her to have a look, she said wow too   

[paulastro]

I agree with you Chris, binoviewers make a HUGE difference in Solar viewing - white light and HA.  I've used a pair of six inch refractor binos at The Astronomy Centre with mylar over each objective, it's so good it makes your toes curl up!

As well as a PST (and PST mods and other HA gear at TAC) I own a Quark chromosphere and using a binoviewer with it takes it into another sphere for visual observing - so good in fact I almost never use a single eyepiece with it.  It's just a shame there doesn't appear a way to use a binoviewer with the PST or indeed with a PST mod - unless someone out there can tell me differently?

The other thing that makes a huge improvement is using a black hood when observing of course, I'm frequently amazed how few people use one routinely for Solar observing, it's the easiest and cheapest way of improving the image.

[Chris]

I'll give the hood a go Paul, I've not tried that before.

It's tempting to buy a second Lunt 35 next year and use them as an Ha binocular telescope!

oh dear, I think this illustrates to the OP how quickly money can be spent when it comes to solar observing.

I think a good compromise would be to pick up a Lunt wedge and binoviewer if yesterdays experience tells me anything, white light was 5 times better with BV's. I just wish my ED100 worked with them. The Skylight 60 was better than expected for white light, infact it was very good indeed