Solar Granulation

[Steve Clay]

Hope not too dumb a guestion but to what magnification do I need to achieve to see granulation.

I'm using an ED80, lunt wedge, badder continuum filter and polarising filter.  I can push to 120ishx magnification with the seeing. Is this not enough? Should I try my ED120? Also using a zoom ep at 10mm with 2x barlow.

Cheers Steve

Edited April 13, 2020 by Steve Clay

[vlaiv]

You need over x150 I think. If you have very sharp vision, you could do it at x100 but cells would be very tiny.

I think that most comfortable observing of granulation is at x200 or so. You also need very good seeing.

As a guide - single granule is about half the diameter of Great Red spot - so you can roughly fit x4 of them. I'm talking here in arc seconds when viewed from Earth - not actual physical size. Granule is about 2" while GRS about 4-5" depending on Jupiter's distance.

[Peter Drew]

There may be some confusion between faint mottling of the solar surface and the resolution of individual solar cells.  On occasions I have seen a white light disc appearance of a cover of fine sand at around 75x, more obvious towards the limb, the whole impression moves if the telescope is tapped.  I'm not confusing this with faculae which are much easier to see.  Looking at high resolution white light images on solar forums it's obvious that considerable magnification is needed to clearly show the solar cells.   🙂 

[laudropb]

I certainly can see it using my ED 120 at magnifications of 180 x and over. The seeing has to be good and it is more obvious towards the centre of the disk. You have to be patient when observing and focus is critical. Often it seems to come and go as the seeing changes.