What gear is needed?

[great_bear]

This is going to sound like a dumb question - but I know nothing about solar observing, so be gentle!

What kind of gear do you need to see the sun like a billowing fireball. Do you need really expensive stuff? - or is it impossible to see such things? - is time-lapse photography needed or something?

i.e. are swirling flames just the stuff of science-fiction movies or can you actually see it?

At Star Parties all I've ever seen is a red circle. I could just be looking at an ortho eyepiece with some red paper over the field-stop for all I know

[george7378]

I've never seen H-Alpha, but I don't think you can see immediate changes in the form of jets of flame and swirling bubbles - remember - even the tiny granules, which are the smallest features our amateur scopes can really see, are around 1000KM across, so changes take a matter of minutes at the least. With white light, you can see the subtle granulation and the smaller details of the sunspots/faculae and you can observe them change throughout the day. However, you'd need a H-Alpha filter to see the features (prominences and filaments) which make the Sun look most fireball-ish.

[brianb]

However, you'd need a H-Alpha filter to see the features (prominences and filaments) which make the Sun look most fireball-ish.

Yes ... and solar Ha filters are not cheap ...

You don't see prominences moving by direct observation, though with the faster ones you can tell there has been a change over 3 or 4 minutes. Bright flares - when you can see them - develop over a period of minutes rather than seconds. The Sun is a big object, it takes light about 5 seconds to cover the distance equal to its diameter ...

[great_bear]

So - with an HA filter, does it look like a freeze-frame of a billowing fireball then?

[Merlin66]

Yes!

As Brian mentioned, the movement of some of the prominences is obvious over a few minutes!!

[John]

As brian also mentioned the filters are not cheap - hundreds of pounds rather than tens of pounds.

I had a look through a couple of PST's (Personal Solar Telescopes) at the SGL Star Party recently and the views were quite fascinating - the basic PST costs around £450 I think but I can see how you could quickly get "solar aperture fever" !.

[great_bear]

Ah, OK.

As I suspected, it sounds like worthwhile Solar Observing can quickly become a money-pit...

[John]

Ah, OK.

As I suspected, it sounds like worthwhile Solar Observing can quickly become a money-pit...

White light solar observing is not expensive and quite fun - until comparatively recently that was all us amateurs had available of course

[great_bear]

If not the billowing fireball, what do you get to see with white-light observing?

[Merlin66]

You'll see the surface features: sunspots, faculae and surface granulations.

As the solar cycle continues there will be more and more larger sunspot groups visible.

Ken

[george7378]

White light gives far better views of the sunspots because you look at the photosphere (where they lie) rather than the H-alpha chromosphere (above the sunspots) where they look very different. So, white light lets you look at the part of the Sun we actually see with our eyes (don't look just with just your eyes, obviously!), but H-alpha lets you see what we don't normally get to look at, as the dim chromosphere is dominated by the photosphere. You can see a lot of detail with white light though - I am seeing a lot more than I expected, so in no way is it worse than H-alpha. Also, if you buy an expensive H-alpha filter, that is likely to be a one-off purchase, so solar observing is not really a money pit - just expensive to start (with H-alpha anyway).

[brianb]

Also, if you buy an expensive H-alpha filter, that is likely to be a one-off purchase

Not sure about that. Have gone through a PST to a Solarscope 60 & now have a Solarscope SF-100 on order ... solar observers are as prone to aperture fever as any other types

[Astro_Baby]

I had a look through a monster sol;ar scope at SSP last year (about 100-110mm Vixen to best of my recall) with some super duper solar filters on and some whacky electrically controlled filter on the back end. The views were pretty spectacular and I resolved to get myself something similar - well at least until I found out the cost of this stuff - The back end filter wa about £5k eeeek

Decided to stick to night time observing cos its cheaper

I could definitely see the allure of solar though after looking through that bit of kit. The sun did in fact look like a huge fireball operating in slow motion and it was awesome to realise that some of those teeny-tiny filaments of flame are in fact bigger than the whole planet Earth.

[PeterW]

Solar aperture fever is usually cleared up with a quick wallet check... there are only a few price points, with BIG gaps!!! A webcam in a PST should be able to put together some nice timelapse. I watched a big prominence fly off into space over 30mins or so. Changes will not be as obvious in whitelight. Having solar observing is a good addition, you actully look forward to the summer and the moon does not cause the trouble if once did.... but you still hate clouds!!

You don't need large scopes as the sun is bright and as the air is more turbulent in the daytime the extra aperture does not help the resolution... unless you have very steady air around you.

Cheers

PEterW

[george7378]

I haven't yet felt any impacts of the cost of solar observing - I just bought two sheets of solar film and designed a card holder to fit on the scope - that's all you need to see the Sun in fine detail.

[GuillermoBarrancos]

Not sure about that. Have gone through a PST to a Solarscope 60 & now have a Solarscope SF-100 on order ... solar observers are as prone to aperture fever as any other types

Yes, but going from lets say 6" to 8" scope for night time isn't such a heavy assault on your wallet, as going from a PST to a Solarscope 60. Yet alone even a SF-100.

Of all the stuff I have been looking over the past months. H-Alpha etalons/BF's are sertainly one of the most expensive accessory equipment you can buy.

Unless we start talking about "big" sensor CCD astrophotography and big apperture Astrograph telescopes. Then you end up in the second mortgage category as well.