Solar

COUNTING SUNSPOTS WITH A $10 OPTICAL TUBE ASSEMBLY

I encourage anyone with a minimum of technical facility to build their own vintage solar telescope, and join with me on the sunspot counting journey. Next to the study of Earth-grazing asteroids, I can think of no more important branch of astronomy. Aside its obvious ties to climate change science, solar astronomy is extremely important to our understanding of, and ability to predict flares and coronal mass ejections, which have the potential to devastate modern society (google "Carrington Event").

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Coronado 10x25 BinoMite Solar Binoculars

I have gotten some use out of them, but I had to get used to some things. They are still available on the used market, but I don't think they are currently

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Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS Camera for Solar Imaging

The DMK 21AU04.AS is a B&W cam from imaging source answering the call for an inexpensive cam that offers good performance for beginning imagers to moderate imagers on a limited budget

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Seymour Solar vs. Baader AstroSolar - Solar Filter Thin-Film Comparison

Believe it or not, there’s a little-known thin film solar filter on the market that is remarkably inexpensive and provides excellent performance

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Solarscope SF70 H-Alpha Filter

For years I've been primarily a deep-sky observer, with a recent interest in at-the-eyepiece sketching.

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Five-Way Shootout of Zoom Eyepieces for Solar Viewing

This is one observer's attempt to look at these eyepieces as objectively as possible and rate them "head to head".  I've got good eyesight and see coma and other optical imperfections quite easily, so I think I gave

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Baader Planetarium AstroSolar Film

In 1981, with a newly purchased full aperture solar filter, I turned my C8 telescope to the Sun for the first time. I was absolutely amazed that one could actually view the fiery surface of our daytime star. I was also amazed at how quickly it changed. It only took a year to add a hydrogen-alpha solar filter to my observing arsenal. I was hooked forever on solar observing.

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Coronado T-Max Tuner 90mm with Tele Vue BinoVue

A small and light 90mm set up: Takahashi Sky 90, TeleVue BinoVue, and Coronado H-Alpha filter on an AZ3 Mount with a counterweight and comfortable slow motion controls. Do not forget the adjustable observing chair and an old fashioned parasol or a beach umbrella!

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Baader Mark-IV Coronagraph

A little about my Solar Observatory. The main instrument is an 6" f/12 Astro- Physics Triplet "Superplanetary" refractor, built with the NASA glass. This superb refractor telescope was given to me as a gift by Joseph. H.C. Liu, a well known Chinese astrophotographer and friend. It is mounted on an equatorial HGM-200 Losmandy with the Gemini system.

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Comparison of DayStar and Coronado H-a Solar Filters with Spectrohelioscopes

Amateur astronomers have shown a growing interest in solar observation ever since Coronado introduced their line of solar H-a filters to compete with the industry stalwart, Daystar, several years ago (other solar H-a filters are made by Hardin Optical and Baader Planetarium). However, amateur solar observers too often neglect another instrument – the spectrohelioscope. Spectrohelioscopes were invented by G.E. Hale in the 1920s and have steadily been improved and made more accessible to amateurs over the years. Fredrick N. Veio’s authoritative book “The Spectrohelioscope” established his reputation at the vanguard of amateur solar astronomy. This book, as well as myriad designs, photos, discussions, articles mentioned below and other information can be found at http://spectrohelioscope.net. I recently asked Fred to compare the performance of a spectrohelioscope to commercially available H-a filters. The remainder of this report presents (with minor edits and additional material on my part) Fred’s observations on the benefits and weaknesses of each type of instrument for solar observation (Chris Westland, 22 May 2004)

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