Solar Observing

There are numerous ways to observe the Sun with our telescopes. We have full-aperture solar filters for our 4", 6", and 8" telescopes, available in Cameron's office. In addition, we have a narrow-band (0.5 angstrom) H-alpha telescope go-to telescope stored on the roof. Lastly, we have "sun funnels" for projecting views of the Sun for many people observing at once.

Solar Safety

Obviously, the Sun is dangerous to look at aided or unaided, and in particular any observations of the Sun with a telescope should be done with the utmost care and only with appropriate filters and telescope stops. Failure to do this can result in telescope damage and injury and blindness! Be extremely careful!

Equipment

• Full-aperture solar filters must be placed on the 4", 6", and 8" dobsonian telescopes to make them appropriate for solar observation. Please remove any finder scopes (telrads are OK to remain on) before solar observation. To find the Sun, try to minimize the shadow of the telescope to assure you're pointed at it. Usually the Sun is a big enough target to then scan around while looking through the eyepiece. These filters will reveal sunspots, but are not narrow-band filters so they will not show solar prominences.

• We have a Coronado SolarMax II 60mm Double Stack with 15mm Blocking Filter. This is an extremely nice solar telescope, so it should be treated with the utmost care. It has an H-alpha narrowband filter tuned to 0.5 angstrom bandpass. With appropriate configuration, it is capable of seeing sunspots, prominences, and the orange-peel effect (turbulent convective cells on the solar surface). It works with a Celestron go-to mount, which requires a power source. Assure that you have access to power at your destination, either through a wall outlet, or from an appropriately charged battery (e.g. car battery). There is a portable telescope battery that Gary Ruane (first-floor Cahill Postdoc) has access to and is willing to share. Please contact him in advance of your event to assure it is charged (usually takes 24h in an outlet to fully charge).

• Sun Funnels are simple devices for projecting images of the Sun safely to many viewers simultaneously. We have two available for use. These can be hooked up to any of the dobsonian telescopes, but if you're using anything larger than the 4", assure you have an adequate telescope stop to block most of the light through the telescope. Otherwise, you risk damaging the telescope itself and potentially blinding anyone nearby. Telescope stops can just be made of cardboard and fit over the aperture of the telescope to block all but maybe a 2-3" diameter hole.

Resources

• What does the Sun look like right now?
• What is a Sunspot?
• What is a Solar Prominence?
• Other ways of viewing the Sun

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