Meade Infinity 102

[Stu]

21 minutes ago, Ray of LIght said:

Stu, Mak: do you think my 10mm Luminos (82 degree AFoV), which would give me 60x, is a good eyepiece to try for solar viewing? Most of my kit actually fits the bill, I was just curious about the Luminos in particular. Thanks again!

Often a case of try it and see, but in my experience, the simple optic designs such as plossls or Orthos tend to give better results for solar observing. Low scatter and excellent transmission and contrast are what counts, the more complex wide field designs are less likely to achieve this.

[Ray of LIght]

38 minutes ago, Stu said:

Often a case of try it and see, but in my experience, the simple optic designs such as plossls or Orthos tend to give better results for solar observing. Low scatter and excellent transmission and contrast are what counts, the more complex wide field designs are less likely to achieve this.

Thanks Stu, then I will try my Meade 5000 12mm and my 9 and 18mm  X-Cel's. My TV 25mm Plossl would need to be barlowed I guess. My HPS 2.5 Barlow would give me 60x with the TV 25mm. My TV 3x Barlow would give me 72x. What do you think?

[Ray of LIght]

My Baader solar filter just arrived, looks very nice. Have to give it a whirl. Have to figure out which eyepiece to try. 

[Mak the Night]

Be careful looking at the Sun. Mind you, I haven't seen it for so long I've forgotten what it looks like.

Does this help?

[Ray of LIght]

1 minute ago, Mak the Night said:

Be careful looking at the Sun. Mind you, I haven't seen it for so long I've forgotten what it looks like.

Does this help?

Yeah, me too! Time to make hay while the sun shines, they say. I don't know who "they" are but whatever, lol!! I guess farmers! Yes, will be careful, thanks my friend!

[Mak the Night]

7 minutes ago, Ray of LIght said:

Yeah, me too! Time to make hay while the sun shines, they say. I don't know who "they" are but whatever, lol!! I guess farmers! Yes, will be careful, thanks my friend!

Well, Will Hay was one of the first people to record seeing Saturn's Great White Spot.

[Ray of LIght]

Read the link, fascinating and coincidental! Good stuff, obviously not how he died though. 

[Ray of LIght]

I keep thinking that my TeleVue 3x Barlow/ TV 25mm combo at 72x would be exceptional to try for solar observing. I'm just really new at this and not sure barlowing is recommended. Not sure why it wouldn't be though. Well, I have the Baader filter so it should be safe enough. I wonder what my UHC and/or #56 green filter does for the Sun? This is kind of fun and I haven't even looked at anything yet, lol! Going to start that new book tonight!

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, Ray of LIght said:

I keep thinking that my TeleVue 3x Barlow/ TV 25mm combo at 72x would be exceptional to try for solar observing. I'm just really new at this and not sure barlowing is recommended. Not sure why it wouldn't be though. Well, I have the Baader filter so it should be safe enough. I wonder what my UHC and/or #56 green filter does for the Sun? This is kind of fun and I haven't even looked at anything yet, lol! Going to start that new book tonight!

That should be ok but it really depends upon the seeing. It really will be a matter of changing mag until you get a balance between sharpness and image scale.

The filters obviously narrow the bandwidth of light you are viewing, the UHC being tighter than the green. This has the benefit of removing any CA from the image (because there is no red or blue visible) whilst increasing the contrast on certain features, most specifically the faculae which are paler features often seen towards the limb. I wouldn't use any other filters at the same time, although if you find things too bright then a polarizing filter might help. Bear in mind that the sun is quite quiet at the moment so you may not see much until another active region rotates onto our side of the sun.

[Ray of LIght]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

That should be ok but it really depends upon the seeing. It really will be a matter of changing mag until you get a balance between sharpness and image scale.

The filters obviously narrow the bandwidth of light you are viewing, the UHC being tighter than the green. This has the benefit of removing any CA from the image (because there is no red or blue visible) whilst increasing the contrast on certain features, most specifically the faculae which are paler features often seen towards the limb. I wouldn't use any other filters at the same time, although if you find things too bright then a polarizing filter might help. Bear in mind that the sun is quite quiet at the moment so you may not see much until another active region rotates onto our side of the sun.

Sounds good Stu, thanks again!

[Dave In Vermont]

That's the usual complaint about the Baader film - the Sun is too bright for some. So any type of filter can help a bit. A Moon-filter, ND-filters, whatever-filter. And some say a Green can help on spotting the ever-elusive 'granulation' on the surface of the Solar-disk.

As with all filters - your mileage will vary.

Dave

[Ray of LIght]

43 minutes ago, Dave In Vermont said:

That's the usual complaint about the Baader film - the Sun is too bright for some. So any type of filter can help a bit. A Moon-filter, ND-filters, whatever-filter. And some say a Green can help on spotting the ever-elusive 'granulation' on the surface of the Solar-disk.

As with all filters - your mileage will vary.

Dave

Maybe I will try out my odometer on the #56 green then, or the UHC, since mileage  may vary. I have the polarizing filter set so if I need it I'm all set.

[Mak the Night]

I know nothing about solar viewing but I'd have thought a #58 Green (24% T) or #25A Red (14% T) and #47 Violet (3%) would be good bets.

[Ray of LIght]

13 minutes ago, Mak the Night said:

I know nothing about solar viewing but I'd have thought a #58 Green (24% T) or #25A Red (14% T) and #47 Violet (3%) would be good bets.

Boy, wish I had one of those. I have the #56 green and #21 red. No violet. Out of luck I guess. I do have the UHC, as you know. Maybe the green and red I do have would work? 

[Mak the Night]

17 minutes ago, Ray of LIght said:

Boy, wish I had one of those. I have the #56 green and #21 red. No violet. Out of luck I guess. I do have the UHC, as you know. Maybe the green and red I do have would work? 

I was just thinking about the light transmission. The #56 and #21 are light green and red. I'd have thought an aggressive filter would have been better for solar.

[Ray of LIght]

They are fairly inexpensive so maybe ordering those filters is a good idea for this endeaver? Possibly the #58 first, or both. Which would you get first Mak?

[Stu]

I've used a UHC and it is definitely better than a simple green filter. The tight band pass is what is needed to give you the boost in contrast, the UHC being much tighter. The sun is plenty bright enough  

[Mak the Night]

8 minutes ago, Ray of LIght said:

They are fairly inexpensive so maybe ordering those filters is a good idea for this endeaver? Possibly the #58 first, or both. Which would you get first Mak?

I think Stu's onto something with the UHC filter. Although a #47 Violet wouldn't be expensive, but I don't know if violet colour helps with solar viewing.

[Ray of LIght]

1 hour ago, Mak the Night said:

I think Stu's onto something with the UHC filter. Although a #47 Violet wouldn't be expensive, but I don't know if violet colour helps with solar viewing.

Just a thought: my Baader UHC is a broadband filter which I bought for DSOs etc, so I think I will order the #47 since the GSO is very economical and buying another UHC filter would not be, to say the least. Can not go very wrong buying a color filter, IMO. Could be wrong here but it does make sense, besides I'm going broke ?!

[Mak the Night]

21 minutes ago, Ray of LIght said:

Just a thought: my Baader UHC is a broadband filter which I bought for DSOs etc, so I think I will order the #47 since the GSO is very economical and buying another UHC filter would not be, to say the least. Can not go very wrong buying a color filter, IMO. Could be wrong here but it does make sense, besides I'm going broke ?!

Gotta be cheaper! I have a Lumicon UHC, TS Optics are now charging around £170 (229 USD) a piece. Scary, isn't it?

[Ray of LIght]

9 minutes ago, Mak the Night said:

Gotta be cheaper! I have a Lumicon UHC, TS Optics are now charging around £170 (229 USD) a piece. Scary, isn't it?

Very! I ordered the GSO #47 violet from Agena. Sure it will find a use. I will try it out on the Sun and see what happens. 

[Mak the Night]

34 minutes ago, Ray of LIght said:

Very! I ordered the GSO #47 violet from Agena. Sure it will find a use. I will try it out on the Sun and see what happens. 

From what I've been reading it is actually quite useful for finding faculae far from the limb. So it should be useful. Light green is also good. So you should be OK and not bankrupt. lol

[Ray of LIght]

6 minutes ago, Mak the Night said:

From what I've been reading it is actually quite useful for finding faculae far from the limb. So it should be useful. Light green is also good. So you should be OK and not bankrupt. lol

Sounds good, should get it in a few days. Will let you know. Until then I will use what I have which is quite extensive now ?!

[Dave In Vermont]

I've been thinking about trying my red-filter in my solar-designated ST80. I (of course! ) have a violet-filter, too. And I have the darkest UV-filter you've ever seen in your life! It's an older Schuler Venus-Filter. Here's a report on it's characteristics:

"The Astrodon-Schuler UV filter has traditionally been used for imaging Venus. It is
made from several colored glasses, but only transmits ~ 65% of incoming UV light in the
300 - 400 nm region."

It may simply make the Sun vanish altogether though. I don't know why I haven't bothered to test-pilot my collection on our local star.

Stu: What UHC-filter do you have? I have several (of course ) of them. My colour-filters are all made by Hoya in Japan. Bought them back around 2000.

Thanks to all for the inspiration!

Dave - Resident Filter-Nut

[Ray of LIght]

14 hours ago, Mak the Night said:

From what I've been reading it is actually quite useful for finding faculae far from the limb. So it should be useful. Light green is also good. So you should be OK and not bankrupt. lol

So Mak, Dave and Stu, I did some solar observing this morning. Got to test some stuff. Didn't do too bad for my first outing I guess. I went out, as Stu advised, about 9:00 AM eastern, so the Sun was in a good position even though it is a very bright and warm day. Not a cloud. Anyway, I used the TV 25 as a finder and dropped in the 18mm X-Cel once I had my target in the eyepiece. It was odd trying to locate such a bright object against a black background. After I got over the shock of seeing the Sun like that I switched to the 9mm X-Cel. Even though the Sun was quiet, it was an eerie, beautiful and hypnotic sight. The X-Cels performed great. I tried my HPS 2.5 Barlow with the TV 25mm and was underwhelmed, maybe was me. I put my Baader UHC in the 9mm X-Cel and it did seem to help. The Sun also turned blue! It was sharp and beautiful nevertheless. I thought my WO helical  focusing diagonal performed perfectly. I was able to make fine adjustments that made the Sun's limb look very sharp indeed. Solar filter worked great, as far as I could tell. I can still see, lol! It was a good experience that I'm sure will get better as the Sun gets more active. I probably made some errors so feel free to impart pointers.