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Old 26-05-2018, 12:58 PM
rthorntn (Richard)
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Arrow Solar (Hydrogen Alpha) astronomy tips

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

Last edited by rthorntn; 26-05-2018 at 03:44 PM.
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Old 26-05-2018, 04:17 PM
m11 (Mel)
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Hi Richard,

I am still new to viewing the sun but i find and focis the sun first using the edge of the sun as aguide. The tilt tuned usually has a knob to adjust until.you see detail on the sun.

The temperature of the scope as it warms up may warrant additional adjusting.

Having said.that, the sun is a bit quiet right now.

Hope it helps.
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Old 26-05-2018, 05:08 PM
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Merlin66 (Ken)
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Even with the quiet sun, you should get some worthwhile results with a 60mm Lunt.

It’s a two stage process - get the focus ( start with a 10mm e/p) as close as possible using the tight edge of the solar disk.
Then slowly use the tilt adjuster to bring out the detail. Takes practice.....

Hope this helps.
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Old 26-05-2018, 05:18 PM
m11 (Mel)
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Sun

To Kens point, you should see granulation on the surface. Didnt see any huge flares today though.

Saw two plagues which was cool.
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Old 26-05-2018, 05:32 PM
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OzEclipse (Joe Cali)
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Is it a single Ha or double stack?

Generally speaking, singles show prominences but little surface detail,

Doubles show filaments and other surface detail (and prominences).


Tuning.

As the Sun rotates, one limb is travelling towards Earth, the other away from us. There is a small redshift between the two sides so you need a slightly different tune for each limb. A single stack with its broader bandwidth, can sometimes show proms on both limbs.

A friend has a Lunt 60, I find the pressure tuning a bit finicky compared to my PST.


Check this page
http://halpha.nso.edu/
It publishes latest Ha images. As you can see, there is near to no activity at present. Be patient.


Joe
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Old 26-05-2018, 05:36 PM
rthorntn (Richard)
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Thanks everyone.

Single stack, adding a LS60FHA is out of budget.

Understood 10mm eyepieces.

With 10mm on the LS60 how much of the frame should the sun fill?

Anyone have an eyepiece recommendation?

Anyone gone with binoviewers?

I think I have trouble finding the exit pupil and the proper "eyepoint", getting my head and eyes in the right position. I'm getting older.

Last edited by rthorntn; 26-05-2018 at 05:55 PM.
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Old 26-05-2018, 05:41 PM
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Merlin66 (Ken)
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Joe,
The OP says a tilt tuner....
With the 10mm I’d anticipate the solar disk filling about 70% the FOV. I’m happy with a TV plossl.
Don’t think about bino’s etc until you come to terms with focus and tuning.
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Old 26-05-2018, 06:12 PM
rthorntn (Richard)
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Thanks, I have a Televue 14mm Radian should I use that?
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Old 26-05-2018, 07:22 PM
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Merlin66 (Ken)
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Try it, but probably a 10 or so might be easier.
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Old 27-05-2018, 08:02 AM
Hoges (John)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rthorntn View Post
Hi,



Does it matter if I view indoors through window glass?



Richard
Looking through a window can turn your view to crud pretty quick - depends on the window. Viewing through an open window or door can be even worse - as the inside air mixes with the outside air, it causes some pretty fierce turbulence.
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Old 27-05-2018, 09:50 PM
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Stonius (Markus)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hoges View Post
Looking through a window can turn your view to crud pretty quick - depends on the window. Viewing through an open window or door can be even worse - as the inside air mixes with the outside air, it causes some pretty fierce turbulence.
+1 to this - viewing through a window or from indoors will make anything look terrible!

Best

Markus
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Old 05-06-2018, 09:12 AM
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sil (Steve)
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Have to ask, are you certain you are looking at the sun perfectly? Just I find with various solar tools I've used theres I think a bright reflection in the tube which I mistake for the sun until I wiggle and suddenly the directly viewed disc comes into view making it obvious. Especially when trying a white light filter on a new camera. Just takes a bit of practice to get the true solar disc into shot sometimes for me, bit embarassing. A trick i use is if I can notice a curve in the bright object I'm seeing, it may be out of focus or internal reflection so I try to imagine a straight line perpendicular to the curve and adjust my direction towards the middle. Should hit the sun disc directly pretty quick. If you adjust focus when you see the curve do so and if it shrinks, keep adjusting focus slowly and follow the imaginary perpendicular. Doing this should guide you quickly to the suns disc whether its a focus issue or reflection.

Maybe use a 20 or 24mm eyepiece if you have one to provide a wider view before switching back to 10mm etc. I don't think ANY eyepiece will be too wide to turn the sun into a point, it will always be a disc and very very bright and obvious. It should be fairly big in the eyepiece even still I find it problematic to get in my view at times with some gear. At least you're not outside in the cold night air to fiddle with your gear, solar is the warmer sleep friendly astronomy

First be certain to find the sun correctly and focus the eyepiece so you can get the edge of the solar disc crisply. Then you can adjust the Lunt tuning options available to you, reading the manual will help (not being a smart ass here). Rinse and repeat the steps and note down what to do in a way that makes sense to you, eg draw simple diagram of lunt and label 1 to X the adjustable parts and note what they are for, like 2: adjusts focus for flares, 5: adjusts focus for surface features, 13: NEVER touch, OTA comes apart, etc etc.

For those who don't know, tracking mounts often have the options for sun viewing/tracking but the menu option can be buried for safety since mostly people will have a regular telescope on the mount. You can usually find the instruction for your mount in the manual to allow solar viewing and whether its something you have to re-enable every time.

Screen viewing can be problematic as many screens dont look very bright outdoors in sunlight plus you will either be sitting with the sun on your eyes or on the screen making it more difficult. Its not impossible, just not as quick fix as you might think though.

I have a Coronado and no Lunt experience, but I find using my solarscope the sun still hurts to look at. Everything is just red and swimmy with some features in focus and others just out of focus (depending what I'm looking at) its just somewhat uncomfortable on my eyes. Not sure how others find it. Its not as crisp and comfortable as lunar and planetary viewing. I don't know of any viewing tips to help, eyepatch over one eye maybe? Yargh?
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