Meade Infinity 102

[Ray of LIght]

Sounds fascinating Dave! Perhaps a little too rich for my blood, $199, but something I will look at as I gain experience. Thanks for the link and I will do some reading up  on this interesting study. This is the first time I have found out that such equipment even existed for individual amatuer astronomers. I know it comes with a manual but I will search for introductory books on the subject so if I get the equipment I will know a bit about what I am doing. Thanks again Dave!

[Mak the Night]

11 hours ago, Ray of LIght said:

You got me thinking. Right now, as far as color filters, I have the 80A, the #11, the #8 (on the way), the #12 (kind of useless) as well as a couple of others you mentioned that are fairly useless also. Would you have any suggestions for any other filters that may work well with my scope? Some of them are pretty inexpensive. Possibly an ND filter too?

I've been thinking a bit as well, must be contagious lol. I think the 80A should work well, the No.12 may be a bit aggressive, I found it that on a 102mm Mak, but a refractor may cope better and it is a standard minus blue contrast filter.

I found this TS Optics Set.

So I've ordered a #23A Light Red Filter 25%, and a #82A Light Blue 73%. I think the #23A isn't too dissimilar to the #21 Orange 46% which I found useful on my Mak. I have a couple of 0.9 Neutral Density filters 13% (Baader, Celestron). The Neutral Density ND06 1,25" might be good for your scope as it has 25% transmission. The #23A, and #56 Light Green would be good for Martian polar caps. Although the #58 Green only has 24% transmission it doesn't seem too aggressive to me and may produce decent results on a 102mm refractor.

 

 

[Ray of LIght]

1 hour ago, Mak the Night said:

I've been thinking a bit as well, must be contagious lol. I think the 80A should work well, the No.12 may be a bit aggressive, I found it that on a 102mm Mak, but a refractor may cope better and it is a standard minus blue contrast filter.

I found this TS Optics Set.

So I've ordered a #23A Light Red Filter 25%, and a #82A Light Blue 73%. I think the #23A isn't too dissimilar to the #21 Orange 46% which I found useful on my Mak. I have a couple of 0.9 Neutral Density filters 13% (Baader, Celestron). The Neutral Density ND06 1,25" might be good for your scope as it has 25% transmission. The #23A would be good for Martian polar caps.

 

 

Great Mak, just what I was looking for! I was looking at the 82A so I will order that one and probably a ND06. I already have the #21 so the #11 and the #8 on the way should round out my useful color filters, I think. Do these sound like a decent set for my 102?

[Mak the Night]

1 minute ago, Ray of LIght said:

Great Mak, just what I was looking for! I was looking at the 82A so I will order that one and probably a ND06. I already have the #21 so the #11 and the #8 on the way should round out my useful color filters, I think. Do these sound like a decent set for my 102?

Yeah, I think they all have transmission rates which should work well for your scope. I'm looking forward to trying light red and green filters on Mars.

[Ray of LIght]

1 minute ago, Mak the Night said:

Yeah, I think they all have transmission rates which should work well for your scope. I'm looking forward to trying light red and green filters on Mars.

Is the GSO ND96-0.6 the right one? It is 25% transmission?

[Mak the Night]

1 minute ago, Ray of LIght said:

Is the GSO ND96-0.6 the right one? It is 25% transmission?

This is almost certainly the one in the TS Optics set.

[Ray of LIght]

Great, thanks Mak!

[Ray of LIght]

I ordered the 82A blue filter. I think that is it for now. I have the neodymium so the ND06 can wait until next week.

[Ray of LIght]

2 hours ago, Mak the Night said:

Yeah, I think they all have transmission rates which should work well for your scope. I'm looking forward to trying light red and green filters on Mars.

Please let me know how those work Mak.

[Mak the Night]

1 hour ago, Ray of LIght said:

I ordered the 82A blue filter. I think that is it for now. I have the neodymium so the ND06 can wait until next week.

I'm not sure of the usefulness of an ND filter, apparently they're good for splitting binaries, although I find they can make a very bright Full Moon easier to discern detail with.

[Mak the Night]

1 hour ago, Ray of LIght said:

Please let me know how those work Mak.

I will if I get a chance with the weather, unfortunately it's raining again! To paraphrase The Weather Girls: It's Raining Pants! lol

 

[Ray of LIght]

Any advice on sun filters for my scope?

[Mak the Night]

Not a sausage. I honestly don't know anything about solar viewing.

[Ray of LIght]

Lol!! Sounds good. I know less than you!

[Mak the Night]

I know the Sun's the nearest star. I haven't seen it for a while because of the [expletive and pants reference deleted] clouds! My eyes are a tad photosensitive, I need to wear shades mainly during the day, and it isn't a fashion statement lol. So solar viewing doesn't really appeal to me.

I may have to move further south though, possibly New Zealand.

[Ray of LIght]

12 minutes ago, Mak the Night said:

I know the Sun's the nearest star. I haven't seen it for a while because of the [expletive and pants reference deleted] clouds! My eyes are a tad photosensitive, I need to wear shades mainly during the day, and it isn't a fashion statement lol. So solar viewing doesn't really appeal to me.

I may have to move further south though, possibly New Zealand.

Thought it would be interesting. Probably biting off more than I can chew!

[Mak the Night]

Well, the Sun is only 150 million kilometres away. It's the closest we can get to a star. I just probably have an aversion to sunburn, my Celtic ancestry gave me pale skin and red hair lol.

[Ray of LIght]

I am southern Italian so I can get a tan in front of a light bulb! I have no idea where to even start with solar filters. I will do some research.

[Mak the Night]

I can get sunstroke from a fluorescent strip light (tube light) lol. Good luck with the research. Solar gear looks expensive though.

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Ray of LIght said:

Any advice on sun filters for my scope?

There are a few options for white light solar viewing. Please make sure you fully understand the risks and safe ways of observing before doing anything, as it is obviously a potentially very hazardous thing to do if you get it wrong!

The cheapest would be a Baader Astro Solar film filter to cover the full aperture of the scope. You can buy the film on its own and build you own filter, or buy them ready made to fit your size of scope. There are two sorts, ND5.0 which is suitable for visual use, ND3.8 is for imaging only as it lets more light through to allow shorter exposures but is too bright for visual.

The more expensive option is called a Herschel Wedge which effectively replaces the diagonal in your scope. The prism inside this wedge filters out 95% of the heat and light from the Suns image, reflecting the remaining 5% towards the eyepiece. This is of course still way too bright, so you must also have an ND3.0 filter fitted to reduce it to 1/1000th of the brightness. Even this is a bit too bright for comfortable visual viewing so either a polarizing filter or solar continuum filter is used to reduce the brightness further. The continuum filter is a line filter in the green part of the spectrum and helps to enhance granulation and faculae on the surface.

You can also observe in hydrogen alpha frequencies which allows you to view prominences and filaments on the sun, but you are probably looking at over £700 as a entry level into this kind of astronomy so white light is the best starting point I think.

This is a very brief overview, do make sure you ask loads of questions before doing anything so you are fully informed about the risks and precautions necessary to observe safely.

[Ray of LIght]

Well Stu, forget it! Only kidding, but Mak was right, Im having enough expense etc with normal astronomy so this can wait! I really appreciate the info and advice Stu! You obviously know your solar stuff.

[Mak the Night]

Plus I've heard you can accidentally melt your scope with solar viewing.

[Stu]

21 minutes ago, Ray of LIght said:

Well Stu, forget it! Only kidding, but Mak was right, Im having enough expense etc with normal astronomy so this can wait! I really appreciate the info and advice Stu! You obviously know your solar stuff.

No probs, the info is there if/when you need it. The ready made filters are not overly expensive, this sort of thing would fit yours although you would have to check the outside diameter of your Dewshield.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/solar-filters/astrozap-baader-solar-filter.html

[Dave In Vermont]

10 hours ago, Ray of LIght said:

Sounds fascinating Dave! Perhaps a little too rich for my blood, $199, but something I will look at as I gain experience. Thanks for the link and I will do some reading up  on this interesting study. This is the first time I have found out that such equipment even existed for individual amatuer astronomers. I know it comes with a manual but I will search for introductory books on the subject so if I get the equipment I will know a bit about what I am doing. Thanks again Dave!

The perfect book for these particular types of spectroscopes - which is a Diffraction-Grating Spectroscope - is 'Grating Spectroscopes and How to Use Them' by Ken M. Harrison.

It's a good read, and you'll learn a great deal about this. Should you ever decide to take the plunge.

Best wishes -

Dave

[Stu]

16 minutes ago, Mak the Night said:

Plus I've heard you can accidentally melt your scope with solar viewing.

Well if you are very careless then yes, accidents happen so it's always worth being cautious and checking you've done it right. But done properly the rewards are there to be reaped.