[Barrykgerdes]

Hi
There have been some interesting comments on solar imaging with a PST but how many have actually tried it.

I have a PST and they are great as an entry telescope for solar viewing and with a suitable eyepiece much can be seen.

However imaging is a different problem. The first thing needed is to mount the PST on a stable platform that can track the sun. The sun moves accross the sky at its solar rate not sidereal so your tracking rate needs to be set to this. As exposures are going to be short the movement during exposure won't be noticed and guiding not necessary but for multiple exposures and mosaics you will need to keep the sun in the picture.

The next problem is the camera to be used. I tried my basic set up with an LPI. Why because it was available. The big problem now was the laptop that I was using. Have you ever tried to use a laptop in bright sunlight while you try to manually focus and frame. Even with a shielded enclosure it was still near impossilble to do this accurately.

Have you ever tried to do a two star alignment or a polar alignment on a mount during daylight. My mount does not track the sun (autostar controlled), it won't even let you look at the sun so I needed to write a little program to make it track the sun. This needed a second computer. My polar alignment was only within about two degrees.

By the time I had got a prominence tuned and in focus I managed about three frames before the clouds rolled in. I haven't tried again since

When I get another chance to do some imaging I will need to have solved all the above problems. (and get the PST back from my grandson who does not want to part with it).

Barry