Binoviewing in Ha

[nicoscy]

I purchased a few months a Lunt 60 Tilt tuned single stack scope and until a few days ago, I was doing monoviewing. Great for proms, not so great on surface features, although using filters to dampen down the brightness did bring out some surface details. Discovered that simple eyepieces (in my case the Takahashi LEs) had a distinct advantage over more complex designs (e.g. TV Delites), in terms of the ever present red hue, providing a much better contrast.

Enter a few days ago, my supercharged Zeiss binoviewers from Denis, with 26mm Plossl eyepieces and a 2.6x GPC, yielding 50x and an effective focal length of 10mm. The sheer amount of surface detail was astounding, hence why I am abandoning the double stack route.

I am curious to hear if anybody else has had this experience or if you have any tips to share about binoviewing the sun which will improve the experience further. I did order a set of 32mm Plossl eyepieces to reduce magnification to 40x with effective eyepiece focal length of about 12mm.

Anything I am missing? Any tips? Any similar experience set out there?

[Highburymark]

Excellent Nicos - glad to hear you’re getting great results with the binos. I do all surface observing with binoviewers. Apart from the extra detail, it’s also much easier to view in comfort over long periods. I also find proms are best viewed with a single eyepiece - normally a Pentax XF zoom or TeleVue plossls. Just out of interest, have you tried adding the double stack filter while using the binos? You might be even more impressed.

[nicoscy]

Hi Mark,

Really did not have time to test properly and I am losing interest in doing so, as what I see is perfect for me. I will test weather permitting (when it is not too hot to fiddle around in the heat), but I just don't see me becoming enamored with double stacking (yes, yes, famous last words)

[Highburymark]

Well double stacking doesn’t work for everyone - dimmer, heavier, and often proms can suffer. So sounds like you’ve found a perfect set up. If you could just send us some of your sunshine.......

[nicoscy]

Uh, you DON'T want to do solar viewing in the summer. However, we get a ton of opportunities in the winter, which is why I bought the solar scope in the first place. 

Plus if I can push myself, maybe plug in a camera and try my hand at solar imaging

 

 

[Peter Drew]

I use binoviewers exclusively on my Ha solar scope. The aperture is 150mm operating at a native F10. I use a standard SW Barlow lens screwed into the nosepiece of the binoviewer. This arrangement with 40mm Plossl eyepieces produces 150x magnification which equates to a 2000mm diameter image viewed from from 1.25m.

The images are bright with very high resolution achieving my long sought "holy grail" for solar observation.   😎

Edited October 8, 2019 by Peter Drew

[Rusted]

Run, do not walk, away from H-a imaging.

Rage, rage, against the dying of the visual light.

Imaging only proves you were there for the TV programme.

But [actually] seeing is believing.

I bought pairs of 40mm eyepieces for low powers because I just could not believe Peter's claims about high powers and wide fields were correct.
So far I have never used them. His method of adding a 2x Barlow to a binoviewer nose is pure magic!
You can have high powers and still have a full disk. Or gob smacking views where you hover over the Sun's surface.
Though you do need a bit of aperture to supply enough light for the really big stuff. 200x? Suits you sir!
 

[nicoscy]

12 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

I use binoviewers exclusively on my Ha solar scope. The aperture is 150mm operating at a native F10. I use a standard SW Barlow lens screwed into the nosepiece of the binoviewer. This arrangement with 40mm Plossl eyepieces produces 150x magnification which equates to a 2000mm diameter image viewed from from 1.25m.

The images are bright with very high resolution achieving my long sought "holy grail" for solar observation.   😎

We both work at nearly the same exit pupil, so we have more or less the same brightness. Obviously different resolution and image scale

But since 32mm Plossls are so cheap on AliExpress, I ordered them to get slightly less magnification and more brightness. Just to see

Edited October 9, 2019 by nicoscy

[nicoscy]

10 hours ago, Rusted said:

Run, do not walk, away from H-a imaging.

Rage, rage, against the dying of the visual light.

Imaging only proves you were there for the TV programme.

But [actually] seeing is believing.

I bought pairs of 40mm eyepieces for low powers because I just could not believe Peter's claims about high powers and wide fields were correct.
So far I have never used them. His method of adding a 2x Barlow to a binoviewer nose is pure magic!
You can have high powers and still have a full disk. Or gob smacking views where you hover over the Sun's surface.
Though you do need a bit of aperture to supply enough light for the really big stuff. 200x? Suits you sir!
 

Hey, I am a rabid starhopper by night and only rarely do I do EAA. As for solar, I did buy a camera, but have yet to find the urge to skip the eyepiece and plug in a camera. Maybe in the future, maybe now.

I get a full disk at 50x but I think this approaches the limit with the Lunt 60mm in terms of a balance of brightness and magnification. Of COURSE I will try more magnification and see where that takes me. I have a pair of ES 20mm 62°, which will give me a magnification of 65x and see how that goes.

[Rusted]

"Rabid star hopping" sounds like a hobby for our younger members.
I prefer to keep both feet firmly on the ground.
Except when I'm running away from marauding hedgehogs!
Which is why I took up "solar." To avoid the constant fear and alarm.

[nicoscy]

Ah, not many hedgehogs here. A safer place

As for rabid star hopping, it will be over in a few years courtesy of light pollution. But I will always have EAA, some limited traditional eyepiece viewing and will probably enter NV territory as well.

Plus solar of course

[BGazing]

Would it also have to do something with bino light rays coming out polarized?

[nicoscy]

No idea about that!