Ha 1 - White Light 0

[Stu]

Had the kit out today for an hour or so. The conditions were not great, but at times the views in Ha were very good. Those in white light were very dull though, I could only really detect a little granulation and a small area of faculae that I could see.

There was, however, a lovely set of proms on the bottom limb of the sun (as seen in the PST Mod later this afternoon). There were also some very fine/faint ones extending a long way from the limb. The spicule line was very well defined with plenty of detail visible.

This was the first time I had used my 32mm and 40mm Celestron Omni Plossls and the lower mag certainly helped deal with the poorer seeing. The image was bright and sharp in both, but I preferred the 40mm in the conditions. I'm hoping that the 32s, and even my 25mms will be useful when the sun is higher in the sky over the summer.

Eye positioning was difficult at first with the 40mm. The eye relief is quite long so I had to work out where to position my eyes, and also play around with the inter-pupil distance but got there in the end. Adjusting the individual focus per eye really helped too.

The Giro-WR handles these two scopes very easily. When properly balanced the movement is very smooth and precise, with vibrations damping quickly. Even some moderate wind didn't really unsettle the rig.

[xtreemchaos]

great setup Stu, yer whitelight was very quiet today, seeing wasnt too bad here but i got my shots early the last vid at 9.30am , clouded out shortly after. the proms on the oncoming limb was very nice, and AR2650 showed well in the vids , but we coul do with a bit of new action soon. great report mate. charl.

[John]

Nice rig Stu

What OTA is hosting the PST mod - I see a Vixen focuser but the rest of it ?

[Ibbo!]

Glad you got out.

Need to get my PST mod rigged up again to get a bit more f/l and resolution.

[Stu]

12 hours ago, John said:

Nice rig Stu

What OTA is hosting the PST mod - I see a Vixen focuser but the rest of it ?

It's a Peter Drew special, Vixen 102mm f10 Achromatic PST Mod with internal D-ERF. I think it actually has the tube from a 90mm which keeps the size and weight down a bit.

It is designed to work well at high power with Binoviewers, and does it very well!

[Stu]

17 minutes ago, xtreemchaos said:

great setup Stu, yer whitelight was very quiet today, seeing wasnt too bad here but i got my shots early the last vid at 9.30am , clouded out shortly after. the proms on the oncoming limb was very nice, and AR2650 showed well in the vids , but we coul do with a bit of new action soon. great report mate. charl.

Thanks Charl. I'm pleased that the Giro-WR takes these two so well so I have a fairly portable setup.

AR2650 looked very nice in Ha, lovely detail swirling around it.

[Piero]

that's impressive..!

Very basic question: is the vixen permanently built for HA-solar observation?

[John]

12 hours ago, Stu said:

It's a Peter Drew special, Vixen 102mm f10 Achromatic PST Mod with internal D-ERF. I think it actually has the tube from a 90mm which keeps the size and weight down a bit.

It is designed to work well at high power with Binoviewers, and does it very well!

I thought I recognised the objective cell - distinctly Vixen

 

[Stu]

12 hours ago, Piero said:

that's impressive..!

Very basic question: is the vixen permanently built for HA-solar observation?

I will likely only use it for solar but the internal D-ERF can be removed easily (just a couple of screws to remove the holder) so it can be switched to astro use if desired. I guess if I only have room for one scope then this would be a good option.

[Highburymark]

On 15 April 2017 at 19:25, Stu said:

It's a Peter Drew special, Vixen 102mm f10 Achromatic PST Mod with internal D-ERF. I think it actually has the tube from a 90mm which keeps the size and weight down a bit.

It is designed to work well at high power with Binoviewers, and does it very well!

Stu - great set up - how do views through your PST mod compare with those through a Quark and an 80/100 ED?