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Oooops! I'm on fire!

Knighty2112

By Knighty2112
in Observing - Solar

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Knighty2112

Knighty2112

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As it was a nice sunny day here, I was out earlier observing the sun with my Lunt Wedge I got just after Christmas, firstly with my ST120, and then with my ED80 'frac after swapping it on the AZ4 mount I was using. Later on after lunch I though I would see how the Wedge performs on my longer 'frac's with my Omni 120mm f8.3 and my Starwave 102mm f11 'frac, but decided this time to mount them both on my Skytee II mount at the same time. After first using the Wedge on the Omni 120mm 'frac, I switched the Wedge across to the Starwave 102mm 'frac. Whilst enjoying the view through the Wedge, I suddenly smelt burning and saw smoke coming from my Celestron Omni scope. Quickly aiming the scope away from the sun on the Skytee mount I thought at first that there must be something in the Omni scope that was scorching. As I knew that there was no plastic elements in the equipment I used I was curious how this could happen. It was only then that I suddenly realised that my left shoulder must have been catching the suns rays through the Omni scope (which I didn't realise was so close to the tube end) and it was my coat that had singed and burned in the heat with the outer of my coat been a plastic substance for waterproofing. Oooops!

Note to self: make sure you cap the front end of any scope before you take out the Lunt Wedge when doing solar work. ;) 

Well, at least the coat wasn't a new one, and was in fact an old work coat that I used to wrap up in when cold outside when doing astronomy, so apart from a silly schoolboy mistake nothing major lost apart from been made to look a little silly in my forgetfulness!

(The damning evidence below!)

 

IMG_2038.JPG

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xtreemchaos

xtreemchaos

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ive burnt through the focuser cap morethan once, in fact maybe once every year but havnt set fire to my self yet, but I did burn my fingers once on a metal astrophis  focuser cap. alls well that ends well, you burn you coat but got a good story to tell. charl.

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Knighty2112

Knighty2112

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1 minute ago, xtreemchaos said:

ive burnt through the focuser cap morethan once, in fact maybe once every year but havnt set fire to my self yet, but I did burn my fingers once on a metal astrophis  focuser cap. alls well that ends well, you burn you coat but got a good story to tell. charl.

Yeah Charl, I did that once with some binos when setting focus for each individual eyepiece. Instead of capping the front end of the eyepiece I was using I capped the eyepiece end instead! Hehe! ;) 

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Knighty2112

Knighty2112

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1 minute ago, cloudsweeper said:

Glad it wasn't too serious Gus, and you can still use the coat!  That great big nuclear fireball in the sky might be 93 million miles away, but it's still mighty dangerous!

Doug.

Yeah, I stick some duck tape over it and still use it when outside doing astronomy at home. :)

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Charic

Charic

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..........it doesn't take long either for things to go so wrong.
I walked the South coast once,  Dover to Deal and was amazed  by  the  amount of telescopes folk had on display  in their conservatory's, I recall one of the group wondering if the Suns rays could focus on the floor, starting a fire?

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Alien 13

Alien 13

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As said its a good reminder of what optics can do if un capped/filtered the same goes for finders and surprisingly spectacles, I took mine off once when observing the sun and placed them on a bench it was a few minutes before I noticed that hot smell you get before the smoke appears.

Alan

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VilleM

VilleM

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1 hour ago, laudropb said:

A timely reminder. I am a bit paranoid when it comes to solar observing and always cap the objective lens when not viewing.

Me too, also I close roof or turn scope away from sun to avoid heating astrosolar filters. With Coronado PST I ofter close dome of the observatory its in or turn the dome and use it as sunshade.
I dont think you can be too carefull with solar observing. Expecially when your eyes are at risk, cameras are replaceable but eyes arent.

-V

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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I think with the safe solar kit available we often become to comfortable and overlook or forget the inherent dangers involved with solar observing. I almost made the king of all fups when trying out binoviewers for WL observing. With all the faffing  trying to get focus and a momentarily loss of sanity, I took my lunt HW to see if I could reach focus straight through. Thankfully my fairy god mother gave me a swift slap around the cranium and my senses returned before I knelt down. 

It was almost as if it was muscle memory coming in to play. As if I was out on a cold night using my kit with out a care in the world swapping out one eyepiece for another so to speak. I knew at the time something didn't feel right but it goes to show how easily you can get lost in the moment.

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Knighty2112

Knighty2112

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5 minutes ago, Paul73 said:

A cautionary tale to be sure. And an easy mistake to make.

The solution? White light on one side and Ha on the other!

Paul

 

A scope for Ha is sadly out of reach for me for a long while yet, unless a great offer comes up on a second hand one. 

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Pig

Pig

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You don't have to be solar observing for this to happen.... any scope without a front cover pointing upward may cross the sun at some point during the day .... admittedly the chances for accidents are greatly increased if you are tracking the sun :happy3:

As mentioned above make sure your objective is capped and in a horizontal position if you keep your scope in your conservatory or in the vicinity of windows.

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JOC

JOC

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I had already decided that a filter for the eyepiece wasn't going to work for me - I think this confirms my decision.  On my Dob if I fancy a look at the sun a full aperture filter seems recommended and I've got the instructions to make one from my Wanted posting - it sounds a nice rainy day project.  However, I also think reading above that I will have to remember to not to put on the finder scope!!  Or do people make little solar filter for the ends of these too?  I do have a right angled lens finding scope so wouldn't need to risk catching my eye on the sun away from the finder EP as a straight through finder might do.

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Macavity

Macavity

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Easily done! - Even with the best of intentions? (Know-how)  :o

Changing stuff on the fly --  I've "Seen the flash" & singed skin!
One can forget *diagonals* point upwards etc. During daytime
(camera) "setting up" the scope may pass close to the SUN etc.

Now persuaded to leave SOLAR setups in one (dedicated) piece.
Probably the BEST for me (and my memory re. such things)! :)

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