Long awaited (but brief) first light just took place.
I used my William Optics ZS66 with Pentax XL 21mm, polariser and a very old Celestron no. 56 (light green) filter. If I'd been sitting on a chair I'd have fallen off it! A lot more detail than I expected. Just beautiful.
Changed the eyepiece to an Explore Scientific 82D 14mm and the view was even better.
A few minor ergonomic 'issues' that I found with my setup.
- The XL 21mm has a rotating eyeguard that is very loose, so trying to rotate the whole eyepiece to adjust the polarisation was tricky.
- You need to unscrew the filters and re-attach each time you change eyepiece.
These issues will be fixed by the inexpensive 1.25" extension tube I've already ordered from MyAstroShop. I will attach the filters to the extension tube so this will effectively become part of the wedge. Then swapping eyepieces is simple, and the extension tube itself can be rotated to change the polarisation level.
I noticed that Bintel and MAS both sell 1.25" extension tubes. The Bintel one is 35mm in length while the MAS one is 26mm. According to the scale on my scope's focuser, the focus point was around 28mm, so a 35mm extension would be too long.
Since the ZS66 sits happily on a camera tripod, I now have a lightweight and extremely portable solar setup. Very happy!
