DayStar Solar Scout SS60-DS 60mm H-alpha Solar Telescope

[johninderby]

Clouds and yet more clouds. 🤬

Some sun is forecast for tomorrow though. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Once I’ve had the chance to get it tuned in waiting times won’t be a problem as won’t need to adjust the tuning very often. 10 minutes to warm up at the start and that should be it. About 5 minutes if adjusting tuning during observing.

 

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by johninderby

[steveex2003]

Yeah, it's been that way for long enough down here too.

[Miguel1983]

Just pulled the trigger on a Solar Scout SS60 DS, i hope it delivers, only experience i have is looking trough a Coronado PST and a Solarmax 2 60mm from astro club members.

 

[steveex2003]

Just now, Miguel1983 said:

Just pulled the trigger on a Solar Scout SS60 DS, i hope it delivers, only experience i have is looking trough a Coronado PST and a Solarmax 2 60mm from astro club members.

 

Please do update with as much comparative detail as you care to throw at it. I know I would really like a solar scope, but just can't make up my mind as to which way to go with it.

[Miguel1983]

2 minutes ago, steveex2003 said:

Please do update with as much comparative detail as you care to throw at it. I know I would really like a solar scope, but just can't make up my mind as to which way to go with it.

Will do

I wanted one since last year, but the price-tag kept me from buying one, this Solar Scout sure looks like a winner, even the Quark it self is more expensive, so, again, i hope it delivers.

[steveex2003]

 

Just now, Miguel1983 said:

Will do

I wanted one since last year, but the price-tag kept me from buying one, this Solar Scout sure looks like a winner, even the Quark it self is more expensive, so, again, i hope it delivers.

Yeah. Given it's absolute bargain appearance, there isn't a lot out there. It seems like you're getting (an albeit static) Quark for almost half-price. Removing the obvious ability to stick a Quark in anything you like, I would very much like to read some comparisons of a Daystar 60 and a Quark equipped Achro of similar aperture. Just to confirm all current Quarks are relatively equal so to speak.

[johninderby]

Just be prepared for lots and lots of cloud to come with it. 😢

I call mine The Cloud Bringer 😁

[steveex2003]

It's just unbelievable isnt it? I'm looking for a reason not to buy one of these, turns out sod all to look at is currently as good as it gets.

Edited June 15, 2019 by steveex2003

[johninderby]

Hazy sunshine this morning but at least good enough to get the scope out. Not much to see though. The sun is sooooo quiet. 👎🏽

However at least got to try the ZWO 120MM camera. Need a 1.25” spacer though to move the 0.5 focal reducer away a bit so I can get a full disc image. One ordered from FLO. Much playing about with settings needed to get an image worth looking at. 

Find with the TV 25mm Plossl the polarising filter is really needed wheras with the Nirvana 16mm not needed. The higher mag of the Nirvana does soften up the image very slightly but doesn’t lose any detail. 

Have been using Duracell Recharge Ultra. AA batteries and they work just fine. They hold their power output better than regular rechargeable batteries. 

[johninderby]

When testing the camera the other day and did notice some faint newton rings. Not bad but want to get rid of them. Looking at the scope the 1.25” adaptor is pretty short so decided rather than go for a tilt adapter right away perhaps fitting a longer more substantial 1.25” adapter would hold the camera more accurately.

Got one of the Rowen Quark T2 adapters and fitted a TS 1.25” adapter that I already had. Now to try it out when it stops raining. 😁

[6footgeek]

Did anybody manage to get some images with this yet? I’m so tempted to buy one!!!!

[Miguel1983]

On 29/06/2019 at 18:11, 6footgeek said:

Did anybody manage to get some images with this yet? I’m so tempted to buy one!!!!

i did 

 

[6footgeek]

11 hours ago, Miguel1983 said:

i did 

 

Thank you so much for sharing - looks like it will meet my expectations perfectly! 

[Geoff Lister]

I have used solar film fitted in the lens covers of my 90 and 120mm refractors, but realised that if I wanted more detail in the view, I had to get a dedicated Ha instrument. Last week, I received a parcel from FLO, (very speedy service, and with the usual "May Contain Clouds" sticker), containing a Daystar Solar Scout 60.

The sticker was correct, but last Sunday (6th) the sky was largely cloud-free. The package contained a plug-top 5V 1.5A USB A, PSU, but with input pins designed for USA mains sockets. I found an adaptor in my "bits box", but I also tried the 5V 2A supply that came with my Android tablet, and a USB battery pack with 2.1A output; both seemed to work. The battery pack fitted in the little satchel that came with my Skymax Mak., and hung from the mount's eyepiece-holder tray. I have a plug-in mains power meter, and I found that, whilst the unit was warming up, the input power to the supply peaked close to 8W, so the 1.5A supply may be close to current-limit at times. I also used a strap to support the power lead at the 'scope end - the lead has thick cable, and wanted to avoid the "tail wags dog" effect.

I borrowed the diagonal from my ST120 and started with a Celestron "Omni" 32mm Plossl EP. The adjustment knob has click positions, with "hourly" intervals from 1 o'clock to 11 o'clock, so I started at 6 o'clock. The view was clear and bright, but no obvious detail, except a minor ripple running round the disk (of similar amplitude and frequency to that round the Moon when I used another OTA as the Sun was setting below roof height). I tried each of the adjustment settings, but could not see any obvious detail on the disk (there was much more activity from my eye's floaters). I also tried my 8-24mm zooms (Celestron and Baader Hyperion Mk4); both gave reasonable performance, but no obvious improvement in detail.

During the last half-hour of sunlight, I replaced the EP with my (colour) GPCAM + 0.5 focal reducer, and took a few stills. I normally use the camera and laptop combination at night, and found that it was difficult to get a clear view of the image on the LCD - the strong sunlight washed out most of the contrast. This is a section of what was probably the best.

I found that by tilting the laptop's display slightly I could see a little more detail in the disc, but nothing spectacular. I need to spend more time imaging, to find the optimum SS60 tuning position and camera settings. A day without clouds and frequent showers would be useful.

I will probably get a case, similar to the one featured earlier in this post.

Question:- I noticed that, as the unit was going through its 10-minute warm-up, the LED flickered between amber and green many times before remaining green, and then, when established, showed flickers of lower brightness green. Is this normal?

Geoff
 

[Peter Drew]

Looks like a good start. The surface "granulation" is beginning to show through as should be expected with a DS "like" performance. There is little else to see currently, conditions significantly affect the end result.   😀

[RodAstro]

Hi 

I have watched this thread since it started and bought myself one of these scopes shortly after.

I haven't used the scope as is much until a couple of weeks ago, but used the Quark alone but that's another story.

What I found when I got the scope was it showed more detail than a PST but the image was not contrasty because it was two bright and I could  never get a good focus.

The  brightness issue was made a little better by the use of a binocular head but further use of filters ie cross polars did not help any.

As I say I have used the Quark unit alone on other scopes and It works really well so I knew it was not down to that part of the scope.

The telescope itself has languished on a shelf occasionally trying it put back together again but putting it back on the shelf again. I decided the problem was the lens, a rather large fast f3.8 lens is never going to give you a good image, you put rubbish in, you are going to get rubbish out, as the saying goes. With this in mind I decided to stop down the objective and see what happend, after all I had to much light anyway. So I got my set of filter adapters, screwed them together, taped them to the front of the scope and set off outside with a 37mm scope and a bino head. Wow is all I could say, I have a new solar scope. Even though there is very little activity on the sun, I can see loads of  chromosphere detail contrasty and I can see the proms better than before, sky is also blacker that helps. If I want to see the proms better I just use a single eyepiece.

This probably all sounds counterintuitive to all  of you night time observers, as it did me, but I see it working more like a camera lens, where using a larger f number increases depth of field and sharpness, obviously depth of field is not an issue here but it does help with focusing.

I have also done some initial imaging with it and although nothing much to see on the sun at the moment it looks very promising.

I hope this is helpful and any questions please ask.

Cheers Rod

[Peter Drew]

Interesting result!.      🙂

[RodAstro]

Hi

I forgot to answer Geoff's question about the LED flicker, mine does exactly the same I guess Daystar are using a simple PWM (pulse width modulation) circuit as this is the most efficient use of battery power for the heater. The basic idea is the circuit switches the power on and off (pulse) to the heater for specific amounts of time (width) and veries the time to what is needed (modulation) via a feedback circuit. I hope that sort of explains it, also the same circuit used for dew heaters.

Also Geoff your picture is exactly what I was getting with a colour camera before I stopped the scope down, a mono camera makes a vast difference on the sun, I started with a Opticstar PL131-M cool air nice and cheap starter.

Rod 

[simmo39]

Just pressed the buy button on one of these after breading this and other reviews, I hope I can make it work with a ASI 120mm till I can save some more pennys for a better camera. Let the learning begin!

[simmo39]

A quick question, is the power lead for this scope a micro usb  b or c plug? 

[Geoff Lister]

I'm fairly certain that it is a micro USB B.

Geoff

[johninderby]

From the manual.

USB power, 5v 1.5amp, Micro-B connector.

Edited June 3, 2020 by johninderby

[simmo39]

45 minutes ago, Geoff Lister said:

I'm fairly certain that it is a micro USB B.

Geoff

 

35 minutes ago, johninderby said:

From the manual.

USB power, 5v 1.5amp, Micro-B connector.

Thank you guys for the help

[RodAstro]

Hi

I hope your new scope has arrived and is working well.

The ASI 120mm camera should work fine although you wont get a full image of the sun.

I realise now why stopping the aperture down helps so much, a quark starts to work at f15 but not that good, it is becoming optimum at f30 and above so stopping down to 30mm brings you to f30. Stopping down to 37mm gives you f25 and is a nice compromise and a vast improvement.

One of the main complaints of the scope is the image is to bright so stopping down actually helps two fold. A simple cardboard mask will do fine as a stop. 

It will be interesting to see your results.

Rod

[simmo39]

2 hours ago, RodAstro said:

Hi

I hope your new scope has arrived and is working well.

The ASI 120mm camera should work fine although you wont get a full image of the sun.

I realise now why stopping the aperture down helps so much, a quark starts to work at f15 but not that good, it is becoming optimum at f30 and above so stopping down to 30mm brings you to f30. Stopping down to 37mm gives you f25 and is a nice compromise and a vast improvement.

One of the main complaints of the scope is the image is to bright so stopping down actually helps two fold. A simple cardboard mask will do fine as a stop. 

It will be interesting to see your results.

Rod

Hi Rod thanks for the pointers. Scope isnt here yet, thought it would be here today but no sign yet. With the rain coming down outside it may be a good thing! lol. I will post pics at the first chance i get. I have been doing some reading and research, getting the free software for solar stuff and generally try to get my head around it. It seems v different to the deep sky stuff i normally do. onwards and upwards!