I think they just call it 'research grade' because it's one of their biggest scopes

University of Hawaii use one on the top of the mountain, but not sure exactly what for.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/5988 ... -opinions/

Lovely images Nigella! despite the clear skies earlier I had to go into work and wasn't able capitalise.

Thanks guys for all your input, I probably should explain more where i'm going with this. This is the CaK nerd in me coming out. I have unfortunately fickle seeing where I live and so over the last solar cycle rapidly learned that shorter wavelengths are more susceptible to poor seeing (1.6x compare...

There's life in it yet!

These are really impressive Stu! I think my favourite is the SS Ha FD, really nice! You sure you're still wanting to sell this? Seeing that disk has my wallet twitching...

They're amazing Alfred, especially so given that cloud cover.

I'm curious Alfred, you're observing from your usual spot in the 'round garden' - what surrounds the buildings?

Hi Simon, Whether the Quark gives a result as good as a dedicated solar scope really does depend on the Quark lottery, get a good one then yes, but, there are plenty that are not, as you know! Can you get Simon @ WS to send you a replacement to see how you get on with it? Post yours back and let him...

All quiet!

Thanks for the report James, nice to see the picture of the scopes.

Thanks guys! You make a very valid point JAPP, it was a maul just to get the 127/1200 on my 6' high pier yesterday. The bigger the fracs get, the heavier they are and then the bigger (more expensive) the mounts need to be. 1200mm fl is about as big as they go,much above this and is observatory class...

Thanks everyone for your kind words. Snow pretty much all day here, i'm hoping I get to work at home tomorrow as sun is forecast all day...

Hi Folks,

Help me out here. I'm trying to find readily available, affordable, long focal length refractors. Most stop at 1200mm focal length.

There are big APMs and TECs etc out there but they fail in the affordable section.

Mark

These look great Brian! You got a good set in. -13c is cold - love it when we get conditions like that when we're in Iceland. Snow here for most of the day, sun forecast tomorrow - rapidly trying to organise a work at home day

Came out well Dave!

Tee hee hee! You know me well Stu

Saturday dawned clear and white over (again) with a covering of snow so I went out and setup awaiting the sun to come out from behind the trees, as I was doing this the temperature was rising quickly and it sounded like it was raining as the melting snow dripped from the rooftops and trees. Next thi...

Great shot Eric! Love the halo with the scopes!

Nice set of images Nigella!

There 'might' be the smallest of pair of pores visible...

That's really nice set of images Eric!

Yes Mark the latest SDO image doesn't show the darkened area that I had previously believed to have seen, so perhaps it was a dying ember... Who knows though, AR2799 appeared from a small AR... Sometimes you get regions of plage like this but they don't have the field strength (~1500gauss) to form ...

Looks good Stu, I was out earlier too. Its nice to be able to image in between the snow

Thanks James. Got some sun today too - mainly at the beginning and end of the day, but I got to do some visual and image which is nice. The activity that has just come round in the north remains spot free. I think the region that appeared yesterday has quietened back too sightly.

That;s a lovely sketch Marios and nice to see the setup too. Looks nice and warm there, the dog seems to be enjoying it!

Spotless!