"NAKED EYE" SUNSPOT(S)

Started by Thomas Dey, 09/18/2015 04:58PM
Posted 09/18/2015 04:58PM Opening Post
Well, it's not exactly "After Dark" but is current observational astronomy going on NOW!: I have gotten back into casual solar and gauge whether I MUST haul out the scopes just by looking at the sun thru a welder's glass or solar filter. If I can see any spot(s) essentially unaided like this – then I MUST drag out the scopes. And for this cycle, (now in decline) there are quite often such nice big spots! Attached image is from late yesterday afternoon EDT 9/17/2015. That nice round spot is about 0.4 arc-min across the umbra and about a full arc-min including the penumbra. An arc-min is the place-holder photopic resolution of the 20/20 healthy human eye. My vision is 20/13 so this spot is pretty easy. Anyway, I just looked now (1pm on the 18th) and it is even easier than yesterday! So I gota go haul out the scopes. Image from yesterday attached. Tom Dey

Attached Image:

Thomas Dey's attachment for post 59726

29-inch Dob in a dome
36-inch upgrade soon
LUNT 80/80 solar scope
FLI 6803 cam
APM 100mm APO Binos
JMI RB-16 Night Vision Binos
Zeiss 20x60 IS binos
Posted 09/18/2015 05:03PM #1
here's an image taken with a 1.8x barlow Tom

Attached Image:

Thomas Dey's attachment for post 150023

29-inch Dob in a dome
36-inch upgrade soon
LUNT 80/80 solar scope
FLI 6803 cam
APM 100mm APO Binos
JMI RB-16 Night Vision Binos
Zeiss 20x60 IS binos
Posted 09/18/2015 07:05PM #2
Yeah, I have a piece of welder's glass that I was given in Africa in 2001 to look at the eclipse. Never thought to use that to preview before dragging out the whole scope and white light filter. Hoping to be able to afford an Ha scope someday. I guess one could also look at space weather or one of those NASA sun video feeds.

~ Charlie Stevenson

8" f/5.7 String Telescope - 1st Scope Build; 2nd Place Stellafane 2016 Optical Award for Newtonians 12.5" and Smaller
10" f/4.5 Newtonian (June 2015) mirror refigured by Optic Wave Labs P-V WaveFront 1/14.24, Strehl Ratio 0.993 (Aug '15)
Criterion RV-6 seems to be circa 1973 (June 2015) [For Sale]
Celestron C8-A XLT (January 2015) [For Sale]
Celestron PowerSeeker 70AZ (Christmas 2014)
Aldrich Astronomical Society member since 2015
http://astro.charleskelleystevenson.com/
Posted 11/11/2015 08:22AM #3
Thanks Tom for posting. I always appreciate your optical experience shared here in the forums. I recently picked up a Personal Solar Telescope (PST) used here on ASTROMART. My IOPTRON MiniTower can hold an 8 inch Meade SCT on one side and the PST on the other side, so I can switch back and forth between "White Light" and H-alpha under the same viewing conditions which is very satisfying to me and my family who aren't astronomy "nuts" like me.

But as a part of my setup, I always verify my SCT's full aperature solar filter by interposing it between my eye and the sun and moving it around looking for pinholes that may have developed since last use. Now that you shared that (in theory) I should be able to see sunspots, I will take some more time and look for them as part of my verification process.

Thanks for the tip !!!