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Monday 13th 10:00 45/41F. Clear blue skies, bright sunshine and decidedly chilly. A cold and noisy wind from the NW is thankfully, behind the dome. Though it is still making it draughty. I'd better fetch my down jacket!
AWR woke up with all settings looking correct. C-Du-C/Skychart then refused to accept - or E for my observatory site! I have re-entered the eastern coordinates several times in Setup. Then as soon as I open Connect Telescope it has gone positive [West] again! WHY?!!?
The first Goto slew to the sun missed by miles. So I used the telescope's shadow on the observatory wall to center it. Then had to manually restart tracking on the IH2 paddle. Despite the voice having already told me that tracking was on and Solar and East were clearly showing on the IH2 screen.
Not much to see except a few smudges near the eastern limb on Gong2 website. A few light splodges and a hint of a dark smear. The proms look insignificant again. The live image on the SharpCap screen was not convincing that there was anything really there to capture. I fiddled with the open etalon but could not persuade the unseen detail to emerge.
The first Goto slew to the sun missed by miles. So I used the telescope's shadow on the observatory wall to center it. Then had to manually restart tracking on the IH2 paddle. Despite the voice having already told me that tracking was on and Solar and East were clearly showing on the IH2 screen. Not much to see except a few smudges near the eastern limb on Gong2 website. A few light splodges and a hint of a dark smear. The proms look insignificant again. The live image on the SharpCap screen was not convincing that there was anything really there to capture. I fiddled with the open etalon but could not persuade the unseen detail to emerge.
10:17 First capture. I can't get SharpCap to send captures to "E:\SharpCap captures." [my external T5 SSD.] Eventually it worked but with only E:\. without any filename. I am getting 400MB/s to the T5 during captures according to SharpCap. Though it confuses by ignoring the chosen frame size. The resulting still image doesn't show anything interesting either.
13.00 Stopped for lunch after starting to refit the 7" f/12 refractor beside the 6" f/10 H-alpha. I want more aperture and focal length for white light and lunar imaging.
After lunch I was able to fit the two OTAs and balance them with 4x 5kg weights. I fitted the TS binoviewer to the 7" with a Green Baader Continuum filter. This provided a full disk with a comfortable margin of clear sky around it. This using Meade 32mm 4000s for 68x. An easily, large enough disk to have seen any activity.The picture shows how poorly my TZ7 camera copes with extremes of brightness. It all looked black to my eyes. The dome's inside covering is black, weed suppression cloth. The sunlit and unlit panels beyond the telescope look completely different.
Despite the pleasures of binoviewing I could see only brief hints of surface detail. Though it was very subtle. No need for a GPC or Barlow to reach inward focus with a 40mm long x 2" extension. Though it was very close. The 3.5" FT focuser was within only 4-5mm of being fully retracted. The NE wall of the octagonal observatory was close behind my head but still allowed me to reach the eyepieces comfortably. Note the odd viewing [Brewster] angle of the Lacerta. The sun's limb was razor sharp and the binoviewer provided very relaxed and comfortable viewing. Had there been anything interesting to see. Other than a uniformly green disk.
A visual view of the sun in H-a and 75x in the 6" made a change from using the camera. A 20mm eyepiece provided a full disk with a margin. Though I needed the 2x WO Barlow fitted to the nose of a 1.25" TS diagonal to only just reach focus. Viewing was then more comfortable than straining my neck but not half as much fun. Fine surface structure was visible but nothing stood out.I was using a black t-shirt as a shade cloth but prefer the stiff, black, sponge, sun shields when I can find them again. I had cut circles out of the rectangular foam shields which gripped the 2" extensions nicely. Allowing them to be rotated around the optical axis as desired. An equatorial mount rotates the telescopes over time. The t-shirt was rather warm and draped itself all too readily around my face. Frequently blocking the view through the eyepieces. A stiffer material is recommended. The old t-shirt was provided to make polishing rags and the first thing to hand.
15.15 Cloud has became a nuisance. With the heavy Lacerta 2" Herschel prism and the binoviewers fitted the telescopes were tail heavy. I must re-fix a sliding weight rail to adjust for large variations of balance point.
I also need to align the two instrument's optical axes. There is far too much difference between them. I don't need to use one telescope to guide the other but seeing the same bit of sun in both would be an improvement. Not aided by the relatively high magnifications involved. The image orientation was different in each as well. Making the use of the paddle to center the sun slightly confusing. As I peered through both instruments in turn. A nice sunspot would be a bonus right now. The present, solar minimum is beginning to drag on.
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