2005 12 20 First Solar Projection
2005 12 20
Projection
Well I’ve taken the plunge, overcame my fears and with the encouragement of several CN members have done my first projection sketch with the ETX70.
The EP I used was a Kellner 12mm. I had no way of attaching it to the back of the scope, so instead had to use it in the normal EP holder. This made it very awkward for tracing the sunspots on my 3 1/4″ diameter circle that I had drawn on my paper that was attached to a clipboard. I can see that I want to continue using this method, I’ll need to get an adapter for the back of the scope and a bracket to hold the clipboard or something similar steady. Funny how much your arms move when you’re trying to do something delicate.
When I finally got the spots traced, I added a three times Barlow, the white light filter and finished the sketch directly at the EP. The winds were playing havoc with the light tripod and scope, but at moments when the winds would calm, I was able to grab more details around the sunspots.
There was something that I hadn’t expected though. With the ETX, it usually mirrors the view. When I projected the sketch for the first stage, it somehow flipped things around to resemble the view with a PST. So I had to finish the sketch in opposite directions from what I was actually viewing….make sense? Think of a dob..that’s what it was like only instead of pushing a dob in the opposite direction, I had to push the pencil.
The highlight of the Sun today was the pair of sunspots 837. The penumbra looks almost non-existent between the pair, but rather it wraps itself around the outer parts of the larger umbra facing West. The smaller of the pair was slightly fainter and made up of several little dots with a hint of penumbra around them.
835 nearly out-shined 837 and the penumbra was as clear as could be, only flattening out enough to look oblong but still leaving enough to fully encircle the darker umbra. 822 may have had just a hint of penumbra, but it did show signs of faint facula (an perhaps a slight amount near 835).
At least it warmed up from 9F to 12F today…and funny enough, I felt warmer too, being in no major hurry to come back inside. Which Paul would have wished I had done, because I am still home sick and never got out of my PJ’s. Well at least I was wearing a scarf and heavy jacket.
PCW Memorial Observatory - Erika Rix 
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2005 – Start of Solar Obsession « PCW Memorial Observatory – Erika Rix said this on December 8, 2010 at 23:34 |