Solar white light: 23-01-2020

[John]

Took advantage of a nice sunny morning to get the Herschel Wedge on the Tak FC100-DL and to have a look at the Sun.

There are 3 active regions currently on the disk as shown in the Solar Monitor white light image below. Although the sunspots associated with these are small they have some nice details when observed at higher magnifications. I found 125x worked quite well under todays conditions. I'm not a frequent observer of our nearest star but it's nice to be able to take a safe peek now and then and the solar activity does seem to be increasing again

My rather basic mobile phone snap shows the refractor + diagonal view so E & W reversed compared with the Solar Monitor view.

 

 

Edited January 23, 2021 by John

[Stu]

Very nice John. If the skies stay clear I may do the same before the sun gets too low. Seems like ages since I’ve observed either night or day!

[RobertI]

Thanks for sharing John, good to know there’s something worth seeing. I have been thinking about some white light solar with my ED102R and you’ve encouraged me to give it a go. I was a bit concerned about pointing my lovely new scope at the sun, but I don't think I should worrying about that. 👍

[niallk]

Lovely setup!  Was just looking in Ha and lovely detail on view - hadn't been out for a while, so good for the soul to grab a few mins!!

[John]

25 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Thanks for sharing John, good to know there’s something worth seeing. I have been thinking about some white light solar with my ED102R and you’ve encouraged me to give it a go. I was a bit concerned about pointing my lovely new scope at the sun, but I don't think I should worrying about that. 👍

I used to worry a bit but I figure that these instruments are made to be used so the Tak gets lots of use. It's probably my most used refractor. It's not an ornament

 

[Neil H]

Was a good day I looked with my bresser 127  and Lacerta wedge 

[Paz]

2 hours ago, RobertI said:

Thanks for sharing John, good to know there’s something worth seeing. I have been thinking about some white light solar with my ED102R and you’ve encouraged me to give it a go. I was a bit concerned about pointing my lovely new scope at the sun, but I don't think I should worrying about that. 👍

Here's my ed102r doing one of many solar outings, it has survived so far!

 

[RobertI]

2 hours ago, Paz said:

Here's my ed102r doing one of many solar outings, it has survived so far!

 

Reassuring to hear, thanks! 🙂 Never even considered binoviewing the sun, will give it a go. 👍

[Stu]

53 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Reassuring to hear, thanks! 🙂 Never even considered binoviewing the sun, will give it a go. 👍

Well worth it Robert, makes a big difference. A pic from summer last year.

[John]

8 minutes ago, Stu said:

Well worth it Robert, makes a big difference. A pic from summer last year.

If Zaphod Beeblebrox has a solar setup, that would be it !

[reezeh]

On 23/01/2021 at 19:40, John said:

If Zaphod Beeblebrox has a solar setup, that would be it !

He might need to stretch his necks a bit too far! 😊

[reezeh]

On 23/01/2021 at 19:28, Stu said:

Well worth it Robert, makes a big difference. A pic from summer last year.

Is this why your avatar has four eyes Stu?

[reezeh]

This makes me want to get out with my herschel wedge but the cold weather and low sun over rooftops and resultant bad seeing will probably kill it for me.

Plus work  (yep, still forced to go to work) getting in the way and my morning head and ritual  (don't ask about that one! ). But I still get quite a bit of time off - I've got a post planned about that 😉

Got the wedge for when solar activity picks up. Hoping maybe in a few years I can get a H-alpha setup based around my bresser 152L. Figuring that as bandwidths are so narrow; who needs apo?