Another Sunny Day with Ole Sol

Pulled out the new LS50Ha yesterday and had an absolute blast watching and imaging the sun. This has really become a new obsession for the wife and I, especially because it is so easy to set up at a moment's notice. We tried out the Spot Bandit eye shroud and it's a hit with me -- my wife thinks she still needs a shroud over her head. This whole experience so far has convinced us we need to try a binoviewer to see what it will bring to the table, so we ordered an Arcturus set. Jury is still out until we see if it works okay with the LS50.

Here are some pics from yesterday, 2-25-23:

Both of these are pics early in the session and show Newton's rings, but the atmosphere was fairly stable for midday. I just love this little sun scope as the view through the eyepiece is remarkable. The color and detail available to the naked eye is amazing, and it reveals quite a bit of detail from the limb as far as prominences and such. Very happy with viewing. With a 8-24mm zoom it is awesome.

Shooting pics with my humble ASI120mm Mini camera is really fun, even though it is a very cheap camera. The entire disc fits onto the frame and leaves enough space for getting the extraneous objects as well. After putting on the ZWO tilt-adapter and spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to adjust it, I believe I was able to shoot with enough tilt to minimize the rings somewhat. Here is the result:

Obviously I need to work on the adjustment but I am making progress. I do wish there was some kind of instruction sheet included but I am getting by okay.

I would orient the disc to put north at the top and reverse the image, etc., if I knew what I was doing but this dang thing changes so quickly it is difficult to compare it to online pics! I hope this doesn't offend the die-hards, but I'm just here for the fun and smile factor. Working harder on this stuff might interest me after retirement but I'll never be a scientist.

And another thing: I have enjoyed this forum more than usual because people (here in the solar forum) don't tend to be so judgmental about skill levels. There is a real feeling of encouragement and sharing here that is important to those of us who might otherwise be intimidated from posting.

Lunt 50mm Vs 60mm

 As I observed on Sunday, Feb. 12, I thought it would be cool to post pics of the difference that 10mm of aperture makes at this smaller scope size. It is a considerable difference in detail resolution and also image size. Pics below:

LS50Tha

LS60THa

One Good Solar Scope Primes the Pump

 After having viewed our solar system's star through a borrowed solar scope Karren and I decided it was time to take the plunge and get one for ourselves. Enter the Lunt 50mm THa refractor with a Feathertouch focuser. We had a devil of a time figuring out how to get it working the first day, but that was mostly due to our problems getting it aligned and the eyepiece focused into the sweet spot. After about a half hour we figured out our mistakes and had a great time viewing "Old Sol."

Today I popped a camera onto it and shot a couple of pics to see the recent activity. There is a lot going on on our star at the moment! Here is a series of pics that show how well this little scope performs. There are a few "Fresnel" type rings that are artifacts of camera scope misalignment, but I have to obtain a corrective adapter to get rid of them. More money for astro!

This first is a B&W pic that is truly as the camera sees the sun. It is a mono camera. This scope has a shorter focal length so it will show the entire disc in this camera.

Here is the same pic with false color

This is the reversed image in B&W

And the reversed in false color (my favorite)

As you can see there is a lot of detail of the Ha wavelength and it is fun to capture. I have to study and practice in order to get the chromosphere included (prominences and such), but the surface detail is extraordinary. Having a blast with the master blaster (the sun)!