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Pentax 20x60 for solar?


Alfian

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I have been chewing over, again, whether to sell my Pentax 20x60s  and again every time I pick them up I persuade myself otherwise. Today I noticed a SG regular was selling some solar filters for binos. These were not big enough to fit the Pentax binos but it did make me think that the 20x60s might be good for solar observation. Does anyone have any related experience or other useful comments?

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I would probably agree with Michael, given the sun's current quiet state you probably wouldn't see that much. Would get better over the coming years obviously but still only the larger spots visible. I did manage a mercury transit with 10x25s which was cool :)

 

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As others have said, insufficient magnification to show you anything other than the larger sunspots. Also insufficient aperture to reveal granulation. For these reasons, I doubt they'd get much use for solar. Really, the only "sustained" solar observing I've found binoculars useful for is during partial (phases of) eclipses, and something the quality of your Pentax is wasted on that.

As you probably know, I'm not usually a fan of budget binos, but if you want a dedicated  "quick-look" 20x solar binocular, you don't need 60mm - a £30-ish 20x50 (20x don't seem to come smaller than 50mm) will show you pretty much the same if you filtered it. You'd then have surplus from the sale of the Pentax for some other astro goodies.

Of course, if you're keeping the Pentax for other observing as well, ignore that last paragraph! ?

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Thanks guys. I sometimes get these fanciful notions and go off half cocked so its useful to get reined in! It is, I suppose its an enviable problem to have in that I have equipment choices so when a (rare it feels)decent night comes along what do I do? This past awful winter its tended to be the 10x42s + my TS80. The poor Pentax' have got sidelined, but they are such a nice bino. Perhaps I better think it out again ... as the song goes.

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On 20/06/2018 at 11:30, Alfian said:

The poor Pentax' have got sidelined, but they are such a nice bino. Perhaps I better think it out again ... as the song goes.

Take a look at moon again with the Pentax and they stay. I really like mine. 

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5 hours ago, Eastman said:

Take a look at moon again with the Pentax and they stay. I really like mine. 

Thanks Gert,  the qualities of the Pentax' are not lost on me at all. The moon is good, but I think for me where they really excel is observing open clusters, double cluster, beehive etc

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On 20/06/2018 at 07:49, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

I have Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars and found them useful during the eclipse, and they have shown bigger spots in the past, but they are not much use at the moment

I have the same, and saw the new AR (almost dead centre) yesterday. Must be big enough because i could just detect a hint of penumbra.

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