[rthorntn (Richard)]

Hi,

Please be gentle.

I have a Lunt LS60 THa/B1200 (Crayford Focuser, tilt tuner version purchased from Astrobserver99 (Rob) a while ago) and I can centre Sol using the Sol Searcher and can see a fairly featureless orange circle through the eyepiece, with my Vixen NLV 8-24mm it all looks pretty same, at all zoom levels (I also have a number of other eyepieces).

I must be missing something, oh and getting comfortable with the sun breaming down on me is a challenge, I put a hood on to cut out stray light which makes the heat worse.

I thought I would get surface detail and movement. I'm definitely doing something wrong. Getting my eye in the right spot takes practice and still I don't see any real detail.

Googling shows me that it could be a lot of things:

Does it matter if I view indoors through window glass?

Pressure tuning?

Focus issues?

Do I need a different eyepiece?

Pulling the eyepiece out of the socket a bit?

Extension tubes?

Binoviewing?

Double stacking?

Currently I'm thinking that using a mono video camera and just watching on a screen might be the way to go, if so, any suggestions?

I have a Point Grey Blackfly and a Chameleon, can I use one of them, they're:

Mono
CCD (ICX692 & ICX445 respectively)
1/3" sensor format
CS-mounts
Global shutters
0.9 & 1.3 MP respectively
30 & 18 FPS respectively
Ethernet & USB2.0 respectively

SharpCap shows support for Point Grey (now FLIR) Cameras FlyCapture based Cameras.

My budget (if required) to get better results is only $500.

Thanks for looking.

Richard