20 replies to this topic

[gnowellsct]

We had a great daytime star party today dedicated to our sol.  Here I'm just posting notes about the scopes and rigs.  Discussion of the performance more specifically related to these scopes, solar h-alpha, Herschel wedges, etc., will be found in the solar section here: 

 

https://www.cloudyni...-24/?p=13787917

 

Shots were taken by fellow club member Greg W., I didn't have the presence of mind to take my own pics.  

 

Here's the panorama

 

[gnowellsct]

First up is the Lunt 80mm on a Mach 1 mount.  The tripod is ATM.  Note the "spreader" safety string at the bottom.  Simple and to the point.  I have seen this tripod at star parties for at least 20 years.  It is extremely steady.

 

Edited by gnowellsct, 09 November 2024 - 10:24 PM.

[gnowellsct]

Next up is the clunky Baron 105mm f/15.  This scope was made by an ATM in the late 50s.  It shows you all kinds of stuff but it is not to be confused with Unitron.  It was sporting a mylar film white light filter, it did better with a Herschel.  The owner's other scope, which also got used this day but did not make it into a pic, is the Skywatcher 120mm.  Most folks will recognize the Losmandy G11 and tripod with pier extension, but then again, maybe some won't.

 

Greg N

 

[gnowellsct]

This is the Celestron 102mm f/6.5 Skysense scope remounted on an SVbony alt-az.   We also put a Vixen SD81s on this mount to see how that would work.  It had a 1.25" Herschel wedge.  It was difficult to focus in the wind, due to bouncing.  It gets you into the solar game for a very modest price.  I could make out some granulation in the wedge view but it was a struggle due to the scope's movement.  

 

[gnowellsct]

This is a double-mounted scope setup.  The smaller scope is a 92mm f/6.85 CFF, the larger is an AP GT130.  The 130 is equipped with a Daystar Quark combo chromasphere.  The 92mm is wearing a Baader Herschel Wedge.  The tripod is a 10micron Aries tripod which is a real pleasure to use and the most compact tripod I've yet to get into my Accord's trunk.   The mount is a Losmandy G11.  At some point I realized that my Losmandy G11 was going to last till I croak and that I would just have to make do with continuing to use it until that day.  

 

--Greg N

 

[gnowellsct]

Last in our panorama display is the FS128 on a Paramount.  I forget which tripod it's on, but it is an older one from the company.

 

Look carefully and you will observe that there is no power supply.  Pete somehow got it into his head that he would just leave the clutches loose and invite people to look through the shaking quivering eyepiece because he didn't want to pull the his power supply from the car and hook it up.  Fortunately this is a heavily forested area (except for the clearing) so it was not too hard to find a stick to beat Pete with till at last he agreed to put power to the mount and tighten the clutches.  Everything got steady immediately.

 

[gnowellsct]

We had a lot of fun doing this unscheduled daytime star party.  Solar observing in the fall can be pretty nice.  The cold temps are not too cold.  There's only one thing to look at so no hunting around the sky for objects both celebrated and obscure.  If you drop something you can see where it is on the ground.  It's easier to look at the gear people have brought out.  No red lights.  No hassles with car headlights coming and going.  No worries about dark adaptation. If there's a little high altitude clouds, so what.   We were out there for about four hours.  The sun, by the way, is putting on a spectacular show these days.  Sunspots, penumbral structure, plages, filaments, granulation, prominences, the works.   And it's a dynamic view.

 

I'm not sure why, but this was not put together as a refractors-only event.  It just turned out that way.

Edited by gnowellsct, 09 November 2024 - 10:22 PM.

[gnowellsct]

This club fields a pretty decent collection of refractors. But in 22 years I've never seen a TEC on the field, in my club. I did see a TEC another club, but if you had gone to that club looking for a selection of refractors you would have been disappointed as the TEC was pretty much it. This is one of the problems with the advice we give about going to a star party in order to check out the scopes.

Supplies are limited or something like that.

Greg N

Edited by gnowellsct, 10 November 2024 - 01:56 PM.

[Scott99]

I'm not sure why, but this was not put together as a refractors-only event.  It just turned out that way.

Thanks for posting Greg, looks like fun.  It's always worth looking at the sun, I did my second session since the eclipse a few weeks ago and the sun was full of interesting details in a 4" refractor w/ Lunt wedge.

 

The Aries tripod looks awesome, I'd love to get a 10Micron tripod, but they're both over my current weight limit    The Centaurus one is a monster.  I've decided I don't like the Avalon T-pods.  That tripod under the Paramount looks like one of the ones Rob Miller designed for them.

Edited by Scott99, 10 November 2024 - 11:18 AM.

[gnowellsct]

The Aries tripod looks awesome, I'd love to get a 10Micron tripod, but they're both over my current weight limit The Centaurus one is a monster. I've decided I don't like the Avalon T-pods. That tripod under the Paramount looks like one of the ones Rob Miller designed for them.

I just looked up the Centaurus and it looks like 46 lb. That's pretty high. If I drove a van I might spring for it.

Trying to figure out if the Aries can carry an AP 900 with 54 lb of counterweights c14 and a small refractor.

The 10 micron company is of no use when it comes to selling adapters that might convince people to try their tripods.

Greg N

[ABQJeff]

I'm not sure why, but this was not put together as a refractors-only event. It just turned out that way.[/quote]

Especially since white light solar observing was in the mix. I do white light with my CATs and Solar H-a with my Fracs.

[Scott99]

I just looked up the Centaurus and it looks like 46 lb. That's pretty high. If I drove a van I might spring for it.

Trying to figure out if the Aries can carry an AP 900 with 54 lb of counterweights c14 and a small refractor.

The 10 micron company is of no use when it comes to selling adapters that might convince people to try their tripods.

Greg N
 

So that means you can't screw the 900 adapter ring into it?  That's too bad.  I guess they compete w/ AP mounts are aren't interested in helping out.  A local machine shop could probably drill some holes for the AP mounting plate though, I had my Berlebach UNI drilled & tapped for the AP adapter.

 

So the Aries weighs 28 pounds, it doesn't look that big but I guess it's thick-gauge aluminum. 

Edited by Scott99, 11 November 2024 - 12:15 AM.

[gnowellsct]

So that means you can't screw the 900 adapter ring into it? That's too bad. I guess they compete w/ AP mounts are aren't interested in helping out. A local machine shop could probably drill some holes for the AP mounting plate though, I had my Berlebach UNI drilled & tapped for the AP adapter.

So the Aries weighs 28 pounds, it doesn't look that big but I guess it's thick-gauge aluminum.

That's what I did I got the Losmandy MA adapter and had it drilled out so as to be attached to an adapter plate on the Aries tripod. It's all very solid and it worked and they only charged me 150 bucks which is nothing for a custom job at a machine shop.

I can put the astrophysics mount on it now because there exists an adapter plate that allows you to put Astro - physics mounts on Losmandy tripods and adapters. I already have a couple of these adapters in the house. So it's just a question of overcoming my laziness and seeing how it all works.

Anyhow for most people I think the first step is to customize an adapter plate for a Losmandy head and from there you can take advantage of the more common adapters that other OEMs have provided for Losmandy.

I think it's a mistake on 10 microns part. They are selling mounts that cost $15,000 and are selling 3 to $5,000 tripods that go with it. If they want to convince people to pay attention to the brand it would be smart on their part to get the tripods out there and build some name recognition.

Greg N

[Ionthesky]

Sorry I forgot to bring the Tee mount, Greg...next solar party I'll probably bring the AZMP.  Then we can mount an achro and an apo side by side for a good comparison with the wedge.  (I know the apo will win, but it would be good to see just how much better it is, apples to apples.)

Edited by Ionthesky, 12 November 2024 - 02:15 AM.

[gnowellsct]

Sorry I forgot to bring the Tee mount, Greg...next solar party I'll probably bring the AZMP. Then we can mount an achro and an apo side by side for a good comparison with the wedge. (I know the apo will win, but it would be good to see just how much better it is, apples to apples.)

The inexpensive achromat will bring in 90% of what's there. Most of this game is how much do observers prefer performance at the margin.

There are cumulative impacts. If a user sacrifices at the margin on the optics, and sacrifices at the margin on the focuser, and sacrifices at the margin on the mount, and sacrifices at the margin on the tripod, The viewing experience can become much less than marginally unrewarding.

Greg N

[Spectrum222]

Great share, Greg!

 

That looked like a fun time out there!

 

I think that the mix of equipment made things really fun for all of you. Refractors are so fun on the sun! I think the benefit for your group is to be able to use EITHER full aperture film filters as well as wedges, where available. Makes it educational and interesting to compare things. 

 

Just a curiosity, but on the shorter achromats, was anyone using any CA filtering in the chain? I guess most of the achromats were long enough not to really need this, being f/15 and the like, exc. for the f/6.5 scope. Just wondering. 

 

I found your comment re: daytime a bit interesting, too, Greg! As a daylight astronomy enthusiast, I love to remind people about daytime planets (when visible) and also some bright stars that are in the range of most of your group's scopes!

 

But the sun is just way too fun! I recall several years back doing a solar gathering with our RASC Winnipeg group early summer, and we also did lunar, and a couple of daylight-capable planets, like Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter which were visible at the time, esp. later in the day after we'd had our fill (is that even possible?! lol) of solar views... 

 

Was a fun time too we did not have to deal with the wind like your gang did though...

 

Cheers,

 

Darren

[gnowellsct]

Alan corrects me on the lunt rig. The mount is an AP400 QMD not a Mach 1. He owns a mach one however.

[gnowellsct]

Regarding Darren's comment we did look at the moon towards the end of the day as it came up at 1:30 and had reached a reasonable altitude a couple of hours later. I have in past years left a DSC computer running all night and enjoyed a few daytime star views. I don't think I've ever spent that much time on planets.

Greg N

[gnowellsct]

We had only the Celestron achromat to represent more recent vintage fast achromats. I was not aware of any fancy filters on it. If its owner sees the question maybe he'll answer himself.


Greg N

[Ionthesky]

Regarding the f/6.5 achromat, the optical train (after the objective) consisted solely of the Sky Rover 1¼" wedge with the included polarizer, and a Baader 7.5nm solar continuum filter in place of the UV/IR cut filter.  Based on posts I read from knowledgeable solar observers, the Baader SC filter's passband obviates the need for the UV/IR cut filter.  This appears to be supported by Baader's published filter specs.

 

I'd also read that, since the SC filter passes such a narrow range of wavelengths, the CA becomes negligible, as the wavelengths that the achromat allows to not be coincident at the focal plane are so greatly attenuated.

 

I have no doubt that a good apo of the same aperture and focal ratio will still produce a crisper image than the lowly achromat.  The question we were (I was) interested in was just how much better was the apo?  I'm certainly not as expert or discerning an observer as most of the others, but the view in the Vixen apo was very similar to that of the Celestron achromat to my eye (using the same magnification).  

 

Regardless of the results, the outing was a lot of fun, and I'm hoping that the peak of this solar cycle is a broad one, offering many more opportunities for some exciting white light observations.

Edited by Ionthesky, 15 November 2024 - 09:56 PM.

[Ionthesky]

Now that Avik is back, Greg, I'm going to see if we can do an "apples to apples" side by side comparison of his AT102 ED scope and my 102 achromat with the Sky Rover wedge.  This time, I'll bring either the Sky Tee or the AZMP for a truly side-by-side showdown.  Both of those mounts are pretty stable, but (of course) the AZMP tracks.  If we go to the club site, I'll post it and maybe we can get a group out there again!