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Hi from sunny (usually) Forres

billinforres

By billinforres
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billinforres

billinforres

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Hi there,

Just joined this forum.

Retired physics teacher, been into astronomy for 14 years.

I have an 8" Dob, ETX90 which I use for white light solar viewing, permanently mounted ETX125 which I try to use for lunar imaging but rarely have the energy and a PST which is far and away my most used telescope.

Member of Highlands Astronomical Society and honorary life member of Moray's Astronomy Club, Sigma.

I've done fairly regular talks to both these clubs and to various science festivals in the north of Scotland, off to do a stint in Orkney again in September.

Had great fun helping out with the Dark Sky Scotland project over the last few years.

Looking forward to being part of SGL,

Bill

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billinforres

billinforres

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Hi Phil,

A PST is a Coronado Personal Solar Telescope.

It allows you to see the Sun's chromosphere, the hydrogen clouds above the Sun's photosphere. It does this by allowing the light from just one line in Hydrogen's spectrum to pass through so you can see magnetic activity which affects the clouds of hydrogen gas as well as clouds which show up as dark filaments against the Sun's disk and bright prominences which project beyond the Sun's limb.

Very handy if you are into astronomy but don't like the cold and are scared of the dark!!

Bill

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billinforres

billinforres

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Hi KS414,

The PST is a dedicated hydrogen alpha telescope.

H-alpha filters can be used for imaging but they have a much larger bandwidth and are NOT suitable for viewing the Sun.

H-alpha telescopes use a much more sophisticated system using blocking filters and an etalon which uses wave interference to reject all light except for a very narrow region around the alpha line in the visible spectrum of hydrogen.

Try Googeling "Coronado PST" to see the scope.

The PST is the cheapest way into h-alpha viewing of the Sun. Coronado make a few more very expensive scopes but the flavour of the month is h-alpha scopes made by Lunt.

Bill

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ks414

ks414

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Thanks Bill. Sounds like a good piece of kit. I am visiting near Forres for a couple of weeks in July and was hoping to have a pair of binoculars to take with me by then. Is there much in the way of light pollution in that area?

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billinforres

billinforres

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Hi ks414,

There is very little light pollution up here, you just need to go a couple of miles away from the towns and the skies are really dark although the distilleries tend to be surrounded by sodium lights.

You won't see much in July as we don't get truly dark skies until the third week in August. Noctilucent clouds are a distinct possibil;ity though.

Bill

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