Solar star party at West Valley College today

by Rich Neuschaefer

Several of us attended a solar star party at West Valley College for classes of Jr High kids. Their science teacher is in the PAS. Most of the people bringing scopes to the star party were PAS members. Thanks to Isaac Kikawada for organizing this solar party.

The kids were outstanding. The sky was outstanding. The scopes were all working just fine. Two scopes were set up for H-Alpha viewing, the others were using white light filters.

This is the first time I've really used my H-Alpha filter. There was lots of H-Alpha activity today. We even saw some solar flares. Great day.

I got the filter used about 8 months ago. It was too cool outside to work well last Winter. I just tried it yesterday for the first time. I'm using it with my Tak FC-100 f/8. To use it at full aperture you need to use a barlow and telecentric lens (maybe just a Powermate would work) to make the light go in straight enough into the filter. Usually you need an f/30 system to make the H-Alpha perform correctly. People often stop down the aperture of their scope get to f/30.

The smaller Coronado units aren't too expensive, I guess, but the 90mm units are about $5k.

The Day Star T Scanner is certainly less pricy when it comes to 90mm and greater.

Lumicon sells a wider band pass H Alpha filter that does show the prominences. I think they are a little short (or wide) on showing surface detail. But... their filters are, I think, under $1k.