Eyepiece for Solar Ha

[Rossco72]

Hi all,

I am wondering what eyepieces folks are using or can recommend for Ha solar viewing in a 500mm FL 60mm scope?

Needs to be 1.25" diameter EP's and I have been considering the likes of 7mm Ortho, 5mm Radian, 3.5mm Nagler etc.

Would like the entire disc plus an area for proms in the field of view.

Any thoughts??

Cheers

[Merlin66]

I find the TV 10.5mm plossl to be my favorite...

If you want a whole disk view then something around 15mm.

Plossls work well.

[Rossco72]

Merlin,

Are my sums wrong?

15mm EP in 500mm FL scope = 33x Mag

TfoV = 50/33 for a plossl which is about 1.5 degrees

I was under the impression that the solar disc was nearer 0.5 degrees, have I made a schoolboy error somewhere?

Cheers

[Merlin66]

No mistake...

I need to measure the actual FOV in the PST (400 fl) - I may be thinking about sweet spots....I've been using the 900mm fl modded scope so didn't make a correction! Think I need to see the sun more often.

[Rossco72]

Thats ok, cloudy here as well, just thought maybe i'd dropped a clanger!!

So something in the 5mm or smaller bracket is what we're talking about then?

Cheers

[Merlin66]

Let's assume the 10.5mm is the wide field.

I've never usually gone for anything below a 6mm eyepiece. (I have a 4.8 Nagler which I've tried a couple of times but the seeing didn't allow much improvement)

Hope this helps, a little.

[brianb]

The usual eyepiece in my Solarscope 60 (480mm focal length) is my 12.5mm Baader Genuine Ortho. The 9mm & 18mm BGOs get used sometimes.

Ha scopes are tolerant of eyepieces and don't need wide fields, the reason I prefer the BGOs is that the contrast is higher than most EPs. If you really need long eye relief types, consider Televue Radians.