11.2.19 Solar

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Monday: 39F, clear sky, NW wind. I'm still waiting for my Herschel prism tracking number 5 days after confirmation of order 6.2.19. No track and trace number for £16 postage? Who are they kidding? Registered on their website but still no sign of my order on their website order history. No response to entering the order number. No response to my emails requesting a tracking number.

Still waiting to hear about my TS binoviewer misalignment. First reported on 15.1.19. Confirmed they received the binoviewer back for examination on 29.1.19.

Opened up at 09.30 CET: Sun still only +14° altitude with thermal boiling on the limb. Blank disk in white light SC green filter. 32mm for 68x in 180/12.

Two untidy proms at 2.00 and 5.00 on the limb in H-a.  Confirmed with GONG H-a. Promising amount of surface detail with 20mm for 60x in 150/8 [120/10 equivalent with PST mods]

10.30: 40F. Sun has reached 17°. Noisy in the dome due to the NW wind. A bit breezy at times but I am well sheltered thanks to the wind direction being opposite to the slit. Surface detail and sharpness of proms slowly improving.

 11.00: Barely a hint of thermal effects now. Tried higher powers with mixed results. 15mm okay for 80x in H-a but loses the sharpness of the 20mm.

11.30: Sun at 19°. Tried 15mm and 12.5mm but still too soft.

12.00: Sun has reached 20° altitude. Changed from the Baader 45°elbow to a TS 90° star diagonal. Sudden improvement in image quality. Able to define the prom at 5.00 now into a complex form of floating and attached clouds.The shorter glass path of the diagonal requires the etalon adapters be adjusted to bring the EPs to focus. Tried varying etalon distance from focus but has no observable effect apart from shifting the focus. 5.00 prom seems to be changing rapidly but is too poorly defined at higher powers to be sure. NSO is showing the best prom image at 2.00 but not nearly as clearly as I am seeing.

Sun reaches max of 20° altitude at 12.22pm CET according to Stellarium.

Captured stills and videos in white light and H-a.

13.22: fine prom at 12.00 had all but disappeared earlier. The PST etalon "sweet spot" misbehaving?

13.30: Going in for lunch.

15.10: Sun below 12° and clarity is gone. Tried a flipand it tried to go via 

For those interested: There is a rusty Fullerscopes MkII mounting on eBay[UK] No slow motions, drives, telescope nor accessories but has an original pier with cast feet.

The IO film on Netflix is filmed largely inside a French Observatory. The female 'star' actually points the 77cm /30" refractor at Jupiter and gets a nice [Jupiter orbiting satellite] view of IO with an orbiting colony visible! The telescope was once the largest, longest and highest refractor in the world. The film is glacially slow and has a weak ending but is worth scanning through for the intermittent views of the huge telescope. There are images of the telescope on Pinterest if you can cope with the total anarchy of their website.

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