Sol in Ha 5 August 2018

[Hughsie]

Took delivery of the a Skywatcher Solar Quest mount on Friday from our friends at FLO. Very light mount and extremely quick to set up which was a joy having previously been breaking down, moving into position then setting up an AVX mount.

The assembly of the Solar Quest was straight forward and it is a solid piece of kit. Once all the batteries (it needs 8 AA batteries to operate) were installed and the mount switched on it took a minute for the GPS to locate a signal and put the William Optics Z61 straight on the Sun. A few minor adjustments to centre the Sun in an eyepiece were needed then a quick 'double click' on the power button was enough for it to know the Sun was centred.

The mount itself stayed on the Sun like a flea on a dog and all I needed to do was manoeuvre on to a point of interest and it remained locked on that area.

If there is one negative it is the vibration that goes through the mount when adjusting focus. In the end it was easy to make a small adjustment, let it settle, then adjust again if needed.  What you would call a 'First world problem!'.

Couple of images below in black and white and then some colour taken with William Optics Z61, Quark Chromosphere, ZWO ASI120MM-S and the Solar Quest mount. 2,000 frames, best 15% and processed through AS3 with a flat frame then fiddled with in Photoshop.

 

[Hughsie]

Prominence on the limb. Image taken 5/8/2018.

 

[Ewan]

Needed my sun glasses for those top 2 lol, very nice mate !

[Hughsie]

Thanks Ewan

[Hughsie]

Another image captured on 5 August 2018. This time an area of activity close to the NW solar limb.

[Lowjiber]

All very nicely, done!  Thanks for the shares.

I love that little Z-61... It's a keeper for sure.

Clear Skies

[Pete Presland]

Some fine images there, an excellent start!

[mariosi]

Excellent images !

Marios