Half a dollop more.

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Thursday: 23F -5C. A hard white frost. I went out to have a look at the sun as it fought through thin cloud. The mounting and telescopes were spotted all over with frost. Worse, the 6" H-alpha scope's objective was completely misted over. I haven't been covering the lenses because of the relatively mild conditions until now. I've left them tracking on the sun to see if the 6" will clear from the sun's warmth.

At 33F inside the dome I can see my breath showing the refocused light cone from the D-ERF about 8" in front of the dewshield.

Yesterday's sunspots are still visible in the 7" with the green, Solar Continuum filter but much changed in position and layout. I'm still waiting for the H-alpha to clear. Eventually I could confirm two small prominences and a pale patch around the re-arranged spot group.

I'm typing this in thin, rubberized, workshop gloves at my computer shelf with the dome now at 35F inside. Plans to move the shelf to the north side of the pier have been shelved. It would be impossible to avoid the blinding sunshine from the slit if I sat there. On the east side [of the pier] the dome places me safely in its shadow until the afternoon. 

I just thought of a plug-in shelf idea using fixed pipes on the shelf fitting into pre-drilled holes in the pier. I'm trying to avoid any kind of stand for the laptop. Because I am almost bound to fall over it even in daylight.

I found an old cake tin in the cupboard which fitted the 6" refractor's dewshield. So hopefully the 6" lens won't be covered in dew next time. I lost an hour and half waiting for it to dry completely. The 7" was protected by the Baader solar foil. Though I have now fitted the saucepan lid which fits its 10" Ø dewshield for better protection.

I think I've finally made a breakthrough on the binoviewer : PST etalon adapter. I had bored out a 2" : 1.25" adapter to 36mm to hold the PST/BF/etalon barrel. With only a single, wimpy, clamping screw the binoviewers sagged.

Telescope-Express lists a series of T2 adapters to provide external eyepiece clamping. These are designed to allow a DSLR to be screwed to any eyepiece in a given range of external sizes. Hopefully this will safely grip the PST barrel and allow me to use a T2 helical focuser to high quality 1.25" compression band eyepiece receptacle. I had bought these items earlier but couldn't use them as intended. The plain, PST, eyepiece socket is inadequate to support a binoviewer. I was having to use the 2" to 36mm adapter as a crude push-pull focuser on the PST barrel!

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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