Little Taks on the sun

[Stu]

With some rare sunshine at lunchtime, I thought I would pop the FS60Q outside and see if I could get focus with the Baader Coolwedge and Leica Zoom. The answer was JUST! By a mm or even less! Good sharp views, but then I had a little panic and remembered that I had decided not to use the CQ module for solar just in case of any internal heat build up.

I quickly removed the module and tried again, this time there was a fair bit more room to play with, but obviously lower magnification. Out came the AP Barcon element which I screwed onto the 2” barrel of the Leica (it has a T2 thread, as does the AP which is handy). Bingo, back in business with similar power range to before but feeling much safer.

For a 60mm the views were excellent, and it’s such a tiny, take anywhere size scope! ARs were sharp with some detail and ‘macro granulation’ was visible across the surface.

Feeling emboldened, I legged it upstairs for the 76mm objective and screwed that in place, replacing the 60mm and it too came to Focus with no problem. Higher mags and better detail now, really good. Not up there with the FC100DC as expected, but nice nonetheless and a more portable solution.

I couldn’t get the binoviewers to focus, and equally couldn’t get the Leica to focus in the Telementor with the wedge, so some more experimenting needed there.

There is very plenty going on right now. SolarMonitor shows 12924, 925, 926 and 927. There is an unnamed AR between 925 and 927, and another above 927. 924 showed a fair amount of detail, with surrounding faculae and a string of smaller spots arcing across between the two spots.

I took some snaps with my phone camera, and have added some from SM for reference.

[Pete Presland]

Plenty to see on the Sun at the moment, good to see cycle 25 looking very active already.