solar viewing.

[ving]

my thousand islands... NO! ,NO!, oaks polymer solar film arrived today! I held it up and looked at the sun.... beautiful orange image! :D
very pleased!

no some questions for all you solar viewing vets:
what does one look for?
what tips do you have in general?
is seeing a factor in viewing?
is there a "best time" for viewing?
what sort of exposure time and iso is recomended for pics?



fangs peeps!
:poke:

[h0ughy]

1. the sun
2 never directly look at the sun
3 cloudy days are a bugger!!
4 while the sun is up
5 depends on camera any where from 180 to 90 shutter speed, 125 is usually preetty good.


:doh: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[[1ponders]]

:lol:

[h0ughy]

Sorry Ving but you deserved that! When Paul recovers he may actually comment?

[[1ponders]]

Not me Dave. The only time I've looked at the sun was at the Astrofest and when I'm flat on my back at the beach.

[ving]

WahAHAQHAHAHAHA!!!

your a funny bugger! :P
thanks for the tips but you didnt tell me how to actually find the sun:P

[[1ponders]]

ving if you can't find the sun in the middle of the day, then I think you're in the wrong hobby :rofl:

Hint: use the shadow of your dob. When the shadow of the tube is at its smallest and roundest you should be pretty close. REMEMBER: Leave your finderscope lense cover on. Hate to see you get scorch marks on your lawn.

[atalas]

Yep no doubt about It ! where in good hands here .


Louie :P

[ving]

its great been surrounded by so many comedians... i mean professional expert types :P

oh and plans for a cell to mount it in... a few different types'd be good.

[[1ponders]]

Oh and cleaning your primary or secondary won't remove those black spots. :thumbsup:

You're welcome :D

[[1ponders]]

Sorry David. No more spamming from me. :) (karma :lol: ) While I'm not a vet, I did get to look through jjjnetties and xrekcor film at Astrofest. You will enjoy it. You wont see as many different features as through h0ughy's PST but its still impressive. Yes seeing is definately a factor. I felt that looking throught the PST first thing in the morning was a more stable view than looking through the Baader later in the day. But I felt that transparency wasn't as big an issue. Within reason :) JMHO from a couple of viewing sessions.

[atalas]

Well Paul I beg to differ ! I have found that If I leave my optics dirty I see more spots ! Dave I hope your taking notes here !

Louie :lol:

[[1ponders]]

:rofl:

[iceman]

Use the plans on my solar filter (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/?solarfilter) page, what other "types" do you need? You just want something that fits snuggly on the end of your scope and won't fall off or blow off in the wind.

And as Paul said, leave your finderscope caps on. And use the shadow of your dob to find it in the eyepiece. Start with your longest FL eyepieces and once the shadow is small start scanning around :) That's how I do it :)


1. Sunspots, that's all you can see with white light filters. Use the little sun image in the left bar to see when there's sunspots on the face. They can change hourly or daily though, so there's always something to look at. But we are in a solar minimum so sometimes there'll be weeks without a blemish.

2. Some people use a shade cloth of some sort over their head to block out stray sunlight. It does help, but can get hot under there. Just like lunar viewing, push up the magnification to zoom in on the spots and see more detail.

3. Most definitely, it's no different than viewing the planets or moon. You'll notice the same "swimming" and boiling effect which will reduce the quality and details that you're able to see.

4. Not really, same as lunar/planetary. Low on the horizon, more atmosphere to look through. So generally, the higher the sun the better.

5. Experiment is the best thing, but you won't need a high ISO, 100 will probably be fine, and you might need anything from 1/100 to 1/1000 of a sec exposure. Afocal is just the same as for the moon. Getting focus right is the key, and the hardest part. Especially with webcamming.

HTH

[ving]

thanks paul, you would thing the seeing would be better during the middle of the day when the atmospheric temperature is probably most stable?! hmm...
:)

[h0ughy]

Also you might want to note that to find the sun it could be a good idea to keep your eyepiece out and move the scope until you see a big orange light, then insert the eyepiece and focus. :) following on of course from Master Ponders teachings of the ancient art of SunDung, the art of observing spots on the wall of the sun :P

[[1ponders]]

It may well be Dave, but it was still around 0 degrees when I saw it, so the air would may still have been pretty stable. Plus I was looking through h0ughy's PST in the morning. I don't know how much the seeing effects that. I do know that when I looked through jjjnettie's in the afternoon there was noticable shimmer and swimming. More so in the 4.5" reflector than in binoculars. If you've got enough film left over consider doing a set of covers for your binoculars. It worked fantastically on jjjnetties little 7/10?x50s

[atalas]

David H, I found that using the shadow that your scope casts is the easiest way to line up the sun .

Louie :)

[h0ughy]

quite true :thumbsup: and I use my method after I get close

[ving]

:thumbsup:
thanks louie and houghy (we need a dewey (oh hang on, thats me (librarian))).
I tries some projection in my olde 60mm using that method to line up. it worked but i ended up melting my ep!!!

[RB]

I'll be a dewey:poke:

You could always put a sundial on the scope and turn it into a quazzie GOTO :rofl:

(Don't forget to allow for daylight saving):thumbsup:

[iceman]

sifn't thank me Ving! I wrote the longest! :poke: :D

[ving]

I actually didnt read yours mike... sorry :ashamed:

thankyou for your most valuable input :)
so higher in the sky is better huh. I thought that logially it would be. I have seen you design for the cell and it looks good. I am thinking that i may make use of some 2mm mdf sheets that i have sitting around tho... we'll see i guess. i hope to get started on the weekend but we are pretty busy on saturday and may have visitors on sunday.

[RAJAH235]

David, if I may suggest an extra safety factor. Use some masking tape or similar to hold the mask onto the tube. Better safe than sorry..... :D L.

[seeker372011]

Here's a way to make a solar finder that I posted some time ago:

quote:

None of the dimensions are critical.

Take an 8 - 12 inch piece of flat steel or aluminum which is nice and stiff, mine is an inch wide. at each end, bend a piece of the metal about 1 inch long up at a right angle.

Into one of the bent up pieces drill a hole about 1/16th to 1/8th dia. centered in the bent up area. That's it !!!

Now, mount this thing on your tube with the hole facing towards the sky end of your telescope and align it with the scope's axis just like you would a finder scope.

I use the piggy back screws on my scope rings.

In use, move the scope until the light beam coming through the hole is centered on the other bent up portion of the device. I got fancy and painted a little Bulls eye on it. You aim this thing by watching the side with the Bulls eye on it. As you get reasonably close, the shadow of the opposite end starts covering the bulls eye and this is followed shortly by the light beam, when it's centered, the sun is in your field of view.



By the way, Coronado sells a nice, fancy version of this for about $ 90.- I believe, for their Solar scopes.


unquote

[ving]

hi folks, been out solar observing and it is good :)
I'll post a pic of my full aperture cell in the next coupla days. the views, for the uninitiated are the same as the pic to the left of the forum cept I get more detail. click on the sun pic then on the3 small orange sun pic to get the big sun pic... thats what I get :)

I swear you can just about see the spots and such change while you watch! :D