Show us your set up in action during the day.

[Highburymark]

All started in 2014 with £20 Baader solar film on Mak 105. Took me about an hour to find the Sun...... but once I did, got the bug bad.
Progressed to Lunt 50 and then 60, doubled stacked. Currently have Solarscope SF70DS with TV85; Quark on Tak FC-100DC; and Baader wedge for photosphere.
Do quite a lot of observing from my kitchen - hence not all pics outside. 

[Nigella Bryant]

1 hour ago, Highburymark said:

All started in 2014 with £20 Baader solar film on Mak 105. Took me about an hour to find the Sun...... but once I did, got the bug bad.
Progressed to Lunt 50 and then 60, doubled stacked. Currently have Solarscope SF70DS with TV85; Quark on Tak FC-100DC; and Baader wedge for photosphere.
Do quite a lot of observing from my kitchen - hence not all pics outside. 

Show's everyone once bitten by the solar bug that's it, lol. Watch the bank account dwindle, lol.  Mine has evolved too, lol. From little beginnings to full blown, Hydrogen Alpha, CaK and White light. Next is to triple mount them all, lol. 

Edited April 13, 2021 by Nigella Bryant
Pic added

[vineyard]

My day time kit is packed away just now, but yep its a slippery slope.  I started w a Lunt50 ("just to give it a go") - am now on a SF50 (motivated in large part by @Highburymark's reports) on an old TV76 & v glad about the upgrade.  That triple-mounting looks amazing @Nigella Bryant - has it been easy to get alignment - I've tried to get the two saddles on my old EZtouch to align but I can't get it precise (it's always a wee bit off).

Cheers

[Nigella Bryant]

52 minutes ago, vineyard said:

My day time kit is packed away just now, but yep its a slippery slope.  I started w a Lunt50 ("just to give it a go") - am now on a SF50 (motivated in large part by @Highburymark's reports) on an old TV76 & v glad about the upgrade.  That triple-mounting looks amazing @Nigella Bryant - has it been easy to get alignment - I've tried to get the two saddles on my old EZtouch to align but I can't get it precise (it's always a wee bit off).

Cheers

Thankfully they aligned ok. Really love the way it's gone and never used telescope's so much. So easy now being in the dome. A couple of clicks of the mouse and they're pointing at the sun. Means I can observe when there's a small break in the clouds. 

[RT65CB-SWL]

My TeleVue Ranger and Lunt Herschel solar wedge mounted on a Manfrotto 055PROB tripod and ball head.

[Nigella Bryant]

17 minutes ago, Philip R said:

My TeleVue Ranger and Lunt Herschel solar wedge mounted on a Manfrotto 055PROB tripod and ball head.

Lovely Lunt wedge, I've got the same for white light. 

[Highburymark]

1 hour ago, Philip R said:

My TeleVue Ranger and Lunt Herschel solar wedge mounted on a Manfrotto 055PROB tripod and ball head.

Nice. Like most TeleVue scopes, looks like it was bought last week. 

[tuckstar]

Do day time moons count?😉

 

[John]

The most important bit of kit is the Stargazers Lounge mug

 

[Stu]

42 minutes ago, tuckstar said:

Do day time moons count?😉

 

Lovely one! Nice scope 👍

Hope the Giraffe liked the view 😉

[RT65CB-SWL]

21 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Nice. Like most TeleVue scopes, looks like it was bought last week. 

Thank you @Highburymark - it is twenty-plus years old at time of posting.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Philip R

[RT65CB-SWL]

My other white-light solar setup in action with my Lunt Herschel solar wedge...

Being a short focal length at approx f:3 (150mm/including solar wedge or star diagonal and 50mm aperture) it can be a    to focus. 
The OTA does not have a focuser... it is simply slide in/out and tighten thumbscrew.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Philip R

[AdeKing]

My longest and shortest focal length scopes in action today.

Pressure tuned Lunt LS60 with 50mm DS on a Solarquest mount for H-alpha and the Altar Starwave Classic 102 f/11 with Baader Cool Ceramic wedge on my Vixen GPD2 for White Light.

We had beautifully clear skies giving really good views earlier but it had completely clouded out by the time I took this photo.

Edited April 15, 2021 by AdeKing

[Nigella Bryant]

2 minutes ago, AdeKing said:

My longest and shortest focal length scopes in action today.

Pressure tuned Lunt LS60 with 50mm DS on a Solarquest mount for H-alpha and the Altar Starwave 102 f/11 with Baader Cool Ceramic wedge for White Light.

We had beautifully clear skies giving really good views earlier but it had completely clouded out by the time I took this photo.

Lovely dayscopes.

[AdeKing]

1 hour ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Lovely dayscopes.

Thanks @Nigella Bryant now I have a padded bag for the f/11 rather than the hugely cumbersome heavy aluminium and plywood flight case I can see me using it much more.

The white light views I had through the f/11 this morning were some of the best views I've had, even though the active region presented as a scattering of black pepper so to speak.

[garryblueboy]

Sadly not with me anymore 

[Highburymark]

2 hours ago, garryblueboy said:

Sadly not with me anymore 

Interesting to see your old set up Garry. A unique combination of great scope and rare DS filter. How did you find the Solarquest mount handled the LS80 with 75mm external filter? I’m interested because I reckon yours was about the same weight as my TV85 SF70DS, (except mine is more front heavy), and I’m hoping the Solarquest will support my scope sufficiently for Ha imaging.

So far in tests my Solarquest has coped well with the 5.3kg load, but I’m going to be very careful as it’s over the stated payload, and impossible to balance perfectly with two front filters. I’ve been eyeing up the amazing Rainbow RST-135 mount on FLO’s website, which would be perfect (small/3.3kg, alt az and eq, able to carry 14kg without counterweights!), but it’s very pricey. 

[garryblueboy]

5 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Interesting to see your old set up Garry. A unique combination of great scope and rare DS filter. How did you find the Solarquest mount handled the LS80 with 75mm external filter? I’m interested because I reckon yours was about the same weight as my TV85 SF70DS, (except mine is more front heavy), and I’m hoping the Solarquest will support my scope sufficiently for Ha imaging.

So far in tests my Solarquest has coped well with the 5.3kg load, but I’m going to be very careful as it’s over the stated payload, and impossible to balance perfectly with two front filters. I’ve been eyeing up the amazing Rainbow RST-135 mount on FLO’s website, which would be perfect (small/3.3kg, alt az and eq, able to carry 14kg without counterweights!), but it’s very pricey. 

It was just on the limits mark but it worked really well I much preferred it to the normal GTI mount it tracked for several hours with out much adjustments 

[markse68]

First time i’ve seen sunspots- 3 of them in a group with swirly bits around them! It wasn’t intentional but the seller gave me a filter when i picked up the Tal so now i have a reason to set up a scope on sunny days- which is nice  

Mark

[Nigella Bryant]

36 minutes ago, markse68 said:

First time i’ve seen sunspots- 3 of them in a group with swirly bits around them! It wasn’t intentional but the seller gave me a filter when i picked up the Tal so now i have a reason to set up a scope on sunny days- which is nice  

Mark

Welcome to the bright side. 

[Sunshine]

51 minutes ago, markse68 said:

First time i’ve seen sunspots- 3 of them in a group with swirly bits around them! It wasn’t intentional but the seller gave me a filter when i picked up the Tal so now i have a reason to set up a scope on sunny days- which is nice  

Mark

This is an interesting tripod you have, I have never encountered one.

[markse68]

1 hour ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Welcome to the bright side. 

Thanks Nigella  trouble is now I want to see more...

1 hour ago, Sunshine said:

This is an interesting tripod you have, I have never encountered one.

Hi Sunshine, it's an old military one from a rangefinder or something I think- I modified it to fit the Tal mount

Mark

[Nigella Bryant]

23 minutes ago, markse68 said:

Thanks Nigella  trouble is now I want to see more...

That's the trouble, it's an expensive slippery slope into hydrogen alpha and Calcium K-line. However, all my equipment is second hand apart from the Lunt CaK module and a recent 100mm achromatic for CaK. 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

On 13/04/2021 at 15:44, Nigella Bryant said:

Show's everyone once bitten by the solar bug that's it, lol. Watch the bank account dwindle, lol. 

Why did nobody give me that advice when I started , too late now 🙂 

Steve

[JeremyS]

On 13/04/2021 at 15:44, Nigella Bryant said:

Show's everyone once bitten by the solar bug that's it, lol. Watch the bank account dwindle, lol.  Mine has evolved too, lol. From little beginnings to full blown, Hydrogen Alpha, CaK and White light. Next is to triple mount them all, lol. 

That’s a terrific solar set up Nigella. You really do seem to be specialising in multi wavelength solar and are achieving great results 👍🏻
So has your solar kit completely taken over the dome? What about your solar RoR? And what about nighttime observing.