The AM Forum

Received a new solar filter for my telescope and tried it out this afternoon.  Sad to say I did not see any sunspots.  Might explain why propagation has been bad. It seems nothing has changed from the official report a few weeks back. The filter worked pretty good though!  Didn't suffer any blindness.

Probably not the venue here, but I see a lot of H alpha solar scopes and filters going for about 1/2 price now, even brand new ones.
Do you suppose Coronado knows something we dont?  ;D

Pretty hard to see prominances, etc. when there h'ain't any.

I've used a Thousand Oaks glass filter on my 94mm, f/7 for years; last real good use was the transit of Venus.

"Bring back,
   Bring back,
Oh bring back my baby (spots)
to me, to me..."

We really need a musical note emoticon.  Have to go dig some up.

Hi Rick,
We're in the QSO section so I don't think it will be a problem.

I'm not sure what the deal is on equipment being 1/2 price unless it is like everything else where consumers are just holding back because of tight finances.  But yes, there are some good deals out there. 

I picked up an Orion glass filter for my C8. Although it gave a good color to the sun, I'm not so sure I like using it.  This was the first time I put a solar filter on the C8.  Being outside in the bright sun made the OTA get warm rather quickly even with the front of the scope aimed at the sun to reduce profile. 

I was never a big solar observer but I couldn't resist getting the filter for the scope. It was something I wanted for a while, just because.  I've looked through some of those Coronado solar setups at astronomy-festers.  They're pretty good but out of my finance league.  Maybe someday.