Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Thanks for all the info chaps👍 I put it on Gumtree and marketplace, priced it to sell at £100, got a lot of interest but most were timewasters. Eventually a guy came up from Birmingham, he tried to haggle me down🙄 I wasn’t having any of it 😂 he paid up in full and took it away 😎 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Davis (fatblokestu) AO - Devon & Somerset Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 On 03/01/2024 at 20:21, Stuart Davis (fatblokestu) AO- Devon & Somerset said: This is my latest Astro madness! It’s a 150mm Hydrogen Alpha solar telescope, which shows, amongst other things, the prominences (flares) which erupt from the limb of the Sun. It has taken me probably 4 years from original idea to gathering all the right bits and then getting someone to build it for me. Solar observing needs to be done right, so it has the necessary energy rejection filters to avoid any fried eyeballs! The scope will need excellent conditions to be at its best, but when that happens it should show amazing close up views. Better when the Sun is higher in the summer. For context, the scope is about 1.5m long…… I’ve had my first few goes with this monster, and even in fairly average conditions it is pretty awesome! This is a crappy iPhone shot through the eyepiece and it shows a huge prominence erupting from the solar surface. These are loops of plasma which arc along magnetic flux lines between sunspots. They can easily be multiple times larger than the earth, five to ten times the diameter, huge structures. The broad dark line across the surface is called a filament; this is basically a prominence but viewed against the hot, bright surface they are cooler, and appear darker. They move at hundreds of thousands of miles an hour, and sometimes you can see them change in real time; this happened to me at the weekend, I watched a prominence arcing over then dropping little plasma bombs back to the surface. Quite amazing to see. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blatman Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 Superb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Davis (fatblokestu) AO - Devon & Somerset Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 If anyone has eclipse glasses, do take a look at the Sun today. There is a huge sunspot which is visible without a scope, just make sure you check them for holes or damage first. Some poor phone images here just to show the size of it, and of a prominence nearby. The spot is about 17 times the size of the Earth. If you are somewhere dark, there is a strong chance of being able to see the Aurora tonight to the North as there have been up to five flares ejected recently and they are heading our way 👍. I think early hours of the morning will be best but will check the alerts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard (OldStager) Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 Great images Stuart, amazing what a phone will do, is that through a separate filter or one built into an app / phone itself. Not really explored the new phone yet, seems the more you tell me the better it gets, lol. Maybe the PC is headed for the scrap pile after all.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Davis (fatblokestu) AO - Devon & Somerset Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 25 minutes ago, Richard (OldStager) said: Great images Stuart, amazing what a phone will do, is that through a separate filter or one built into an app / phone itself. Not really explored the new phone yet, seems the more you tell me the better it gets, lol. Maybe the PC is headed for the scrap pile after all.... These are through dedicated solar telescopes. The ‘red’ image is through one which filters on the Hydrogen Alpha frequency and shows the flares (prominences) off the side of the Sun amongst other things. The white image is through another filtered scope which shows all frequencies and through this you can just see the sunspots. I took the photos by holding the phone up to the scope eyepiece. The phone on its own won’t do this, so please don’t try 😬. Likely the best would be to use some eclipse glasses if you have them. This is my setup today: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard (OldStager) Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 Great setup , love it, I once had something more basic, but the scope got smashed during a house move when a standalone wardrobe fell on it, gah. Never replaced it as I got the Westy and the cash went on that, lol. Do keep posting these , love em. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Barlow - Show and Events Co-ordinator Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 Potential very good aurora northern lights tonight anywhere in uk 👍 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard (OldStager) Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 2 minutes ago, Marcus Barlow - Show and Events Co-ordinator said: Potential very good aurora northern lights tonight anywhere in uk 👍 Yes, even made the news as well. Will try and see if I can see one or two of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Davis (fatblokestu) AO - Devon & Somerset Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 Amazing views of the aurora here. I drove five mins out of town and that made all the difference. Subtle colours visually, much stronger on camera but still amazing to see. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naranja_Al Posted May 11 Share Posted May 11 Wow, that’s amazing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heawooi Posted May 11 Share Posted May 11 We got some great views of the aurora from Warwickshire as well 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard (OldStager) Posted Saturday at 13:22 Share Posted Saturday at 13:22 Great photos folks, I did go out last night but it was rather cloudy here and I didn't see anything like the above, but did note colours appear and disappear, so had it not been for the cloud cover I would have seen this great event. From what I have read so far, this latest one was pretty much UK wide, a relative rare event it seems. Hope it's cloud free the next time this happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blatman Posted Sunday at 08:55 Share Posted Sunday at 08:55 Looks like Planet Earth now has crimson shield technology [/one for the Trekkies...) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard (OldStager) Posted Sunday at 09:29 Share Posted Sunday at 09:29 It's either that or the "Martians" are trying to terraform Earth, rather than the other way around - as proposed by some scientists here. Which to my mind would not work ( for a few reasons). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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