First Light for White Light

[Roy Challen]

It's been years since I did any white light observing, so I thought I'd rectify that. Got some Baader solar film and fitted it to a spare dewshield for my Skylight, and popped it on my Tak EQ along with the Daystar.

The extra resolution of the Skylight and extra mag from the zoom ep really showed the sunspots well. Faculae also show up really well. My phone also takes better pics than in Ha!

The seeing wasn't good so I'm sure there'll be more to see when the seeing is good.

Both scopes are really complementary to each other. I need to adjust the alignment a little bit, and it would be good to get the eyepieces closer to each other as long as balance can be maintained.

[Nik271]

That's a nice looking combo there! There is a lot going on in WL today, as you said. I was looking for 30-40 mins this morning and in moments of stability could spot lots of details, down to tiny pores among some faculae. I'm using a 127Mak with a binoviewer. I think a binoviewer really helps with the Sun, as it cuts the light by half to each eye and also reduces the floaters.

Edited May 14, 2022 by Nik271

[IB20]

Seeing isn’t great right now and  some wispy cloud about; it’s warming up quickly too and a lot of heat radiating from most surfaces.

Still some lovely views though between 57-81x, faculae popping all over the solar face. AR3011 on the NW limb looks extremely interesting, look forward to its rotation onto the front.

[Paz]

That Skylight scope looks epic! I had a look in Ha for a bit this morning and it was interesting on the surface where 3007/3012 are, plus some broad prominences on the leading limb. I swapped to white light and could tell straight away the seeing was not so good, but I'm relatively new to Ha so I was not so sure about assessing the quality of the seeing until I swapped to white light. No binoviewers for me today, I'm keeping the set up more simple while I get the hang of Ha observing then I'll go back to using them more often again.

[Roy Challen]

Interesting comments about binoviewers. When I had this scope made, I asked Richard Day to shorten it by 50mm to allow a Herschel wedge to focus with all the eyepieces I had at the time. It seems likely that the same would apply for BVs, but what about BVs and a wedge? Anyone have experience of that?

Edited May 14, 2022 by Roy Challen
So that what I wrote makes sense

[Roy Challen]

1 hour ago, Paz said:

That Skylight scope looks epic! I had a look in Ha for a bit this morning and it was interesting on the surface where 3007/3012 are, plus some broad prominences on the leading limb. I swapped to white light and could tell straight away the seeing was not so good, but I'm relatively new to Ha so I was not so sure about assessing the quality of the seeing until I swapped to white light. No binoviewers for me today, I'm keeping the set up more simple while I get the hang of Ha observing then I'll go back to using them more often again.

It is a superb lunar telescope, I use it with a semi apo filter to remove the residual CA. I thought it would make a very good white light scope too, and it is, but I didn't take the filter out. In my image, you can see a bit of CA on the limb. Although a phone snap always exaggerates CA, I wonder if it is now introducing CA to what is effectively monochromatic light?

Edited May 14, 2022 by Roy Challen

[IB20]

3 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

Interesting comments about binoviewers. When I had this scope made, I asked Richard Day to shorten it by 50mm to allow a Herschel wedge to focus without racking all the way out. It seems likely that the same would apply for BVs, but what about BVs and a wedge? Anyone have experience of that?

Have really struggled with a wedge and the Tak 76DCU, the light path is too long. It has worked in my Starbase though, but the high mags with a GPC with 15mm meant the image was very soft. I need to get some 30mms to try.

[Roy Challen]

2 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Have really struggled with a wedge and the Tak 76DCU, the light path is too long. It has worked in my Starbase though, but the high mags with a GPC with 15mm meant the image was very soft. I need to get some 30mms to try.

I recommend the Baader 32mm plossl, it is exceptional in my Daystar, way better than a Vixen 30mm or even a TeleVue 25mm I had before.

[Chaz2b]

This is my latest purchase, ioptron CEM25p, literally collected this morning, now it’s set up with Celestron 80ed Lunt Herschel wedge and Baader continuum filter fitted to a Televue 20mm eyepiece ,….and outstanding views!

chaz

Edited May 14, 2022 by Chaz2b

[Roy Challen]

4 minutes ago, Chaz2b said:

This is my latest purchase, ioptron CEM25p, literally collected this morning, now it’s set up with Celestron 80ed Lunt Herschel wedge and Baader continuum filter fitted to a Televue 20mm eyepiece ,….and outstanding views!

chaz

You can tell it's fresh, still has the cling film on the tripod legs!

[Paz]

55 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

Interesting comments about binoviewers. When I had this scope made, I asked Richard Day to shorten it by 50mm to allow a Herschel wedge to focus with all the eyepieces I had at the time. It seems likely that the same would apply for BVs, but what about BVs and a wedge? Anyone have experience of that?

I use binoviewers and a wedge but I have to use a 2.6x glass path corrector to get focused and so I'm usually using long focal length eyepieces in the binoviewer to keep the magnification down.

This photo is a f6 refractor focusing with 12mm to spare using 20mm SLVs, and this set up allows me to rotate a polarising filter that is between the binoviewer and the wedge independently of the binoviewer and the wedge. It would be possible to shorten the light path quite a bit further if need be but that would entail a less flexible set up and potentially doing without any filters except for the UV/IR and nd3 which I never view without.

[MalcolmM]

@Roy Challen , just seen this post. That is an absolutely gorgeous looking scope!

Malcolm

[Stu]

On 14/05/2022 at 14:42, Roy Challen said:

Although a phone snap always exaggerates CA, I wonder if it is now introducing CA to what is effectively monochromatic light?

I may be misunderstanding what you put there Roy, but the Sun is still a full spectrum source through the Astro solar film, so will show any CA the scope exhibits. Adding a Continuum filter would be well worthwhile to get rid of it and sharpen up the detail a little. It turns the Sun green, but you get used to that pretty quickly.

EDIT Lovely set up by the way!

[Roy Challen]

5 hours ago, Stu said:

I may be misunderstanding what you put there Roy, but the Sun is still a full spectrum source through the Astro solar film, so will show any CA the scope exhibits. Adding a Continuum filter would be well worthwhile to get rid of it and sharpen up the detail a little. It turns the Sun green, but you get used to that pretty quickly.

EDIT Lovely set up by the way!

Yeah, I think I confused myself when I wrote that. White light still contains the full spectrum whether dimmed by solar film or not. And the semi apo filter just removes a part of it.

I used to have a continuum filter, might have to add one to the shopping list.

Edited May 16, 2022 by Roy Challen