Is half an hour enough?

[Swoop1]

Just, is my answer.

I have been waiting for my first opportunity to deploy the Astrozap clad SW150P to catch a sunspot and, having seen reports and images of AR2670 (or is it AR2665?) I was hopeful on seeing clear skies outside my bedroom window on waking this (yesterday) morning. Mrs Swoop1 had other ideas however. Before I could go off to work I had to do my share of the chores

By the time the chores were complete, the time to leave for work was only 50 minutes away! I discovered that I could gather my kit, deploy it, observe, image (poorly) and clear down all in the space of 30 minutes. That gave me time to get changed and sorted and still be out the door on time

During this magic 30 minutes I was able to get a look at the target and very happy I was too.

One thing that solar imaging on a DSLR does is helps the imager identfy that their camera innards need some TLC cleaning wise.......

[spaceboy]

I think we all struggle with time during the day. Especially given the lack of dry days we do get during the summer meaning a list of other chores build up in anticipation of some sunshine. I rarely get longer than 30 mins to observe the sun because of this and TBH on some hotter days I wouldn't want to be out longer than this anyway. For those rare days I did have free I had a solar observer hood that made it bearable to spend up to an hour easily in the blistering heat but sadly found the hood was far too large and demanding on my kit. Had they got one half the size I'd heartily recommend solar observers getting one. Again this is one more thing to set up and if pushed for time it can mean less time observing.

All said though I am more than happy to get out even if only for 5mins. I think this is why I favor grab and go set ups so much. Any observing is better than no observing and it takes minimal motivation to carry my scope and mount in one hand and eyepieces in the other. 

[Azelfafage]

Didn't originally intend it that way, but 30 mins solar observing was all I could do on Sunday before the clouds rolled in. Like the above poster, I had been otherwise engaged in domestic duties (including a long held promise to check the washer dryer pump)

There was thin cloud anyway which precluded seeing much detail, but at least I got AR2670 sketched and recorded its lat/long before packing up.