The Sun today. The good the bad and the ugly.

[laudropb]

Sky cleared here about 10 this morning so time for some solar observing.

I set up my Lunt 50 and was amazed at how active the Sun was. At least 8 nice sets of proms and 3 ARs all looking great under good seeing conditions. The new AR and the the one in the West we quite dynamic with the ares of plage constantly changing.

Time for some WL with my ST 102 and Herschel wedge. I intended to set it up along side my Lunt on my Skytee Mount. Bought new rings a nd dovetail for this. Unfortunately they rings were too far apart to mount the scope and I had to revert to my usual AZ 3 setup. This was my bad moment, but at least it let me see the Sunspots. Infact later I remembered I had a spare ADM dovetail  and did manage to mount both side by side.

On to the ugly. I recently purchased a WO binoviewer and this was first chance to try it out. It was a complete failure. No matter what I tried I could not bring it to focus, even with the supplied Barlow. I will leave the ST 102 set up and hopefully try them with the moon later.

So all in all a nice day out in the sunshine and hopefully a nice nights observing to follow.

[xtreemchaos]

great report John, great set ups mate, I carnt help you with the binoviewer focus I never used any. cloudy here allday hoping for better skys tomorrow. charl.

[Davey-T]

Makes a change to have Sun in Scotland and cloud down south.

I've got some Revelation bino' viewers that work on my LS60 but the focuser has a lot more in / out travel than the LS50.

Not used them much though as I couldn't get on with them.

Dave

[laudropb]

I have a feather touch focuser on the Lunt.

[Peter Drew]

I think the WO "Barlow is the glasspath type and may well need an extension to come to focus.  ?

[laudropb]

I was thinking that Peter.

[Stu]

Great report and lovely pictures John. When the sun shines, you have a wonderful setting for some relaxed observing  

[Floater]

Hi, John.

I found difficulty, too. Not enough in-focus. Sorted that with a WO 2x ‘nosepiece’ which came up on Astroboot. The binoviewer also works well with the Powermate 2.5x but the magnifications these produce mean I have to use long EPs.

Don’t give up on the binos - I struggled a lot to begin with but now find the views very nice. Floaters are less of a problem, too. ?

[Trikeflyer]

5 hours ago, laudropb said:

Sky cleared here about 10 this morning so time for some solar observing.

I set up my Lunt 50 and was amazed at how active the Sun was. At least 8 nice sets of proms and 3 ARs all looking great under good seeing conditions. The new AR and the the one in the West we quite dynamic with the ares of plage constantly changing.

Time for some WL with my ST 102 and Herschel wedge. I intended to set it up along side my Lunt on my Skytee Mount. Bought new rings a nd dovetail for this. Unfortunately they rings were too far apart to mount the scope and I had to revert to my usual AZ 3 setup. This was my bad moment, but at least it let me see the Sunspots. Infact later I remembered I had a spare ADM dovetail  and did manage to mount both side by side.

On to the ugly. I recently purchased a WO binoviewer and this was first chance to try it out. It was a complete failure. No matter what I tried I could not bring it to focus, even with the supplied Barlow. I will leave the ST 102 set up and hopefully try them with the moon later.

So all in all a nice day out in the sunshine and hopefully a nice nights observing to follow.

I got this for my WO binoviewers for use with 120 equinox. Best investment I ever made, works an absolute treat. They even do a 3x one if you need more correction https://www.365astronomy.com/Lacerta-2.6x-Lightpath-Corrector-Barlow.html

Well worth the investment.