Trying out my Coronado

[Kimboman]

Hi I had my first real attempt at observing the Sun with my recently acquired Coranado PST

I have to admit there is a learning curve with this scope

I found the best eyepiece that showed me the best detail was a  10mm Kellner and I was convinced that I saw at least 3 flares along with a definite 3 sunspots.

As with all observing the more you look the more you see and I look forward to many sessions.

[Peter Drew]

Exciting times, and as you say, a definite learning curve.  Don't be frightened from playing with the tuning ring, a small adjustment can make a significant difference.  Have fun/Sun.      🙂

[Elp]

Congrats, it's a great little scope.

First I turn the tuning ring until I can see prominences most clearly as they show and fade quite easily against the black background sky. Then I turn the pentaprism knob at the back and bottom of the scope until its most sharp, doing this will make surface detail appear most sharp (and your proms too). Then maybe a slight adjustment of the tuning ring again.

Then sit at the eyepiece unbroken for at least a minute without any stray light hitting your eyeball (this is very important). Your brain will start to resolve what it's seeing by this concentration and you will see surface detail, dark streaks etc start to appear (if they're there at the time). These streaks I find the most difficult to see, if you keep breaking your view from the eyepiece they won't appear.

As Peter said, if you're struggling to see anything and have turned the tuning ring to both extremities and also the pentaprism knob, try adjusting the etalon tuning ring by sliding off the knurled rubber bit to see the adjustment screw, take it out, turn the etalon until your details are most sharp (it's usually only one or two more holes along) and put the screw back in. My scope seemed to be tuned when it was turned all the way to the left but I didn't see much surface detail. I did the adjustment so I could tune it beyond this point, now I can see surface detail. How it was set before wasn't enough.

The best eyepiece I've used with the PST is a WO 9mm swan, the Celestron 12mm Xcel LX second.

[Kimboman]

Thanks this is great advice,my PST came with the Astro engineering shield which is really good and I also have a cover silver on one side and black on the other .

 

[LDW1]

On 12/11/2022 at 11:20, Kimboman said:

Hi I had my first real attempt at observing the Sun with my recently acquired Coranado PST

I have to admit there is a learning curve with this scope

I found the best eyepiece that showed me the best detail was a  10mm Kellner and I was convinced that I saw at least 3 flares along with a definite 3 sunspots.

As with all observing the more you look the more you see and I look forward to many sessions.

I used my Svbony 10-30mm zoom in mine 75% of the time and the views were great, now it is in my Lunt solar refractor. For the price try one incl. nite viewing.  PS: I use it in my WL scopes as well, a great all round performer for that kind of work as you don't need / care about widefield viewsing with the sun.

[Kimboman]

Cheers for that I do own the same eyepiece and if the Sun does decide to appear I will try it out