Sunday morning solar visual and Baader Continuum first light, April 28, 2024

[Bigzmey]

Sunday morning, I did some gardening, had breakfast, and following recently established family tradition set the scopes at the back yard.

This time, instead of using Meade 80ST F5 achro, I have used Celestron Onyx 80ED F6.3 with Meade Herschel wedge for the white light. Also, new to me Baader 10nm continuum filter has arrived, so I have substituted previously used #21 Orange and ND 0.9 filters with the continuum.

Compared to the last week there was drastic improvement in fine details. I am sure both, better 80ED optics and the continuum filter helped to take my white light viewing to the next level. there were many sunspots but the 3654 group stole the show and amount of fine structure was unbelievable. Resolution was way better than in this sun disk picture from the Space Weather, except I saw no granulation. I thought I would be turned off by the green Sun but did not mind it at all. The best view was achieved with Pentax XF 8.5mm (59x).

https://www.spaceweather.com/images2024 ... mi1898.gif

The HA view in Lunt 50mm was as great as always. This time there were much more proms, all around the sun disk. Albeit they were all small. Changing the pressure, I was able to see a few filaments. One large was just below the 3654 group. Pentax XF 8.5mm (41x) has also delivered the best views in Lunt HA. Good that I have a pair of those XFs for binoviewing.

My wife stopped by to enjoy the views with me, and our cat helped me to set and take down the scopes. It was another great solar session.

[StarHugger]

A nice report and setup, the ed scope is looking good on the mount too...

With your wedge & ed scope try zooming out a ways for granulation, with my baader the seeing has to be extremely bad for granulation not to be visible.

With my 70ed at f6 , wedge and a 25mm daystar eyepiece its almost always there.


Best of sessions indeed !

[Bigzmey]

A nice report and setup, the ed scope is looking good on the mount too...

With your wedge & ed scope try zooming out a ways for granulation, with my baader the seeing has to be extremely bad for granulation not to be visible.

With my 70ed at f6 , wedge and a 25mm daystar eyepiece its almost always there.


Best of sessions indeed !

Thanks Aaron! Looking at white light photos I was under impression that one need to go to high power to see white light granulation. I will try going to low power.

[messier 111]

nice setup, always fun to look at the sky with family.
I like your tripod.
how did you find looking at the sun with your continuum filter, I'm talking about the details here and not the green effect.thx .

[Bigzmey]

Thanks Jean-Yves! Even before getting to solar I liked to observe with two scopes. The iOptron serves this purpose nicely, It is also compact and lightweight for it's payload capacity (30lb 1st scope + 10lb 2d).

I need to spend more time with the continuum filter to tell for sure. The first impression is it does help with fine details for visual.

[messier 111]

Thanks Jean-Yves! Even before getting to solar I liked to observe with two scopes. The iOptron serves this purpose nicely, It is also compact and lightweight for it's payload capacity (30lb 1st scope + 10lb 2d).

I need to spend more time with the continuum filter to tell for sure. The first impression is it does help with fine details for visual.

ok thanks, let me know, I was thinking of buying one.
so your result could help me.

[AstroBee]

Nice report and very nice looking lightweight & portable rig you have there.

[Bigzmey]

Thanks Greg!

[Thefatkitty]

Hey Andrey, what a great report! Nice way to spend a Sunday for sure

The Continuum filter really does help. I do a lot of AP for the Sun, but sometimes I just like to "look", and it really does bring out the fine detail in both AP and viewing. I use Baader 5.0 film for that; I can't imagine the views with a wedge but they must be fantastic! With the HA scope in tandem, you've got a nice setup there.

Happy to hear the two people and the cat had a good time; I can relate.

Thanks for the read and all the best,

[Bigzmey]

Thanks Mark! I was not sure if it worth investing into WL setup since I got HA, but I can tell now that with good equipment WL becomes interesting in it's own right.

Now, from what I read Ca (K or H) is strictly imaging thing, is that right?

[Thefatkitty]

Thanks Mark! I was not sure if it worth investing into WL setup since I got HA, but I can tell now that with good equipment WL becomes interesting in it's own right.

Now, from what I read Ca (K or H) is strictly imaging thing, is that right?

You're very welcome As for visual with Ca-K, the Baader filter is really a no-go; this from AgenaAstro:

Please note: The Baader Ca K-Line filter is intended for imaging ONLY. It is not suitable for visual observation since the high UV levels can be an eye safety risk from prolonged observations. The CaK filter must be used in conjunction with a primary solar filter such as a Herschel Wedge Prism, or Baader AstroSolar Film (included). The CaK filter must be placed after the primary filter (i.e. on the eyepiece), and cannot be used alone, or permanent eye and equipment damage will result. Also, due to the eye's low sensitivity and very poor resolving ability at 394nm, solar features in CaK are generally invisible for most observers.

And from Lunt:

While most people can visually see the violet color of the wavelength, many cannot resolve the contrast due to yellowing of the cornea that comes naturally with age. People who have had cataract surgery are often able to see considerable detail. But due to the difficulty many people have seeing this wavelength, the Ca-K line is typically studied via the use of cameras, which are able to provide stunning details.


I personally have never done visual with my setup (the Baader) obviously, but I know it does let a lot of UV in. For fun, I tried my Baader UV/IR cut filter behind my Ca-K one day, and the details literally disappeared!

In my opinion, you're safer and better off with white light and HA unless you want to go down the AP rabbit hole

All the best,

[Bigzmey]

Well, HA is a rabbit hole itself, whether visual or AP.