Hi,
I have an 8" Celestron SCT and I just bought a Celestron Astro Solar Filter. I was pretty disappointed the first time I used it because I wasn't able to see any detail in the Sun at all. I could only see the Sun as a white circle. I used different eyepieces to vary the magnification from 50x-300x and still no definition at all. No swirling, no lines, no spots. Nothing. Just a white circle.
Is there a better filter that I could get that would show more definition?
2007-11-10 05:49:32 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The Sun is in the low-activity portion of its 11-year cycle right now, so there are many days when there are no sunspots to see. It will get more interesting in coming years. With careful focusing you should be able to see granulation, especially towards the edges.
To see more, you need a hydrogen-alpha or other narrow-band filter. I don't think any of those are available for SCTs - all the ones I know of are made for refractors. Or you can get a Coronado PST telescope for $600 - actually less than the cost of a filter.
2007-11-10 06:12:02 · answer #1 · answered by injanier 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You may be able to see some slight surface "texture", but that filter is really for sunspots. Sunspots should start increasing in number over the next few years.
Hydrogen-alpha scopes give great views of flares, swirls, etc., but are expensive .. I have a Coronado PST. Check with a local astronomy club - someone there probably has an H-alpha scope that you can look through.
2007-11-10 06:41:59 · answer #2 · answered by halac 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The sun *is* blank in white light at the moment.
Wait until we start to get some sunspots again, or get a hydrogen alpha filter. I second the suggestion for a Coronado PST - those things are neat!
Due diligence time: all the "swirling lines" pictures are taken in hydrogen alpha, not white light. If that's what you want to see, that's what kind of filter you should buy.
2007-11-10 06:36:59 · answer #3 · answered by laurahal42 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
the 1st image voltaic clear out I had became a tumbler one from Thousand o.ok. which became ok, yet each and all the filters i've got offered on the grounds that have used Baader AstroSolar movie, that's superb. that's optically extra advantageous to glass filters, easy-weight, ordinary to swap if broken, and grants an extremely marvelous for sure colored image. With a Baader clear out, the solar seems in its authentic shade: white. i exploit the filters made by utilising Jim Kendrick, that are ok made in powder-lined aluminum and fasten very securely to the telescope with nylon thumbscrews. a thoroughly diverse form of clear out is the hydrogen alpha filters made by utilising Coronado and Lunt, and usually bought as area of a small committed refractor. I rather have a Coronado PST and locate it supplies me super perspectives of image voltaic flares and prominences.
2016-10-02 01:10:33 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋