Let's catch up. Christmas, Remembering a Friend, and The Sun.

For the astronomy classes at GTCC, home of the Cline Observatory I volunteer for, students must fill out an observing report. But not everyone can do night time observing, so we provide solar observing opportunities several times a semester. We use two telescopes typically, an old Meade 8" SCT (it's gotta be 25 years old or so) with a sub-aperture solar filter for white light viewing, and a Coronado PST for hydrogen-alpha viewing.

We learned to use the H-alpha telescopes in advance of the 2017 August 21st Great American Solar Eclipse, and brought two with us on our expedition to Newberry, South Carolina. I helped set up one for the National Weather Service who sent an expedition as well to re-enact the 1901 historic NWS expedition to Newberry, and the other was set up for public viewing at the library along with a few other solar telescopes. Maybe one day I'll do a full writeup on the eclipse expedition.

We also used the Coronado PSTs during the November 2019 Mercury Transit, along with a few white light scopes.

Suffice to say, I'm quite familiar and fond of the Coronado PST. But I never expected I'd have one of my own. Around October I had the opportunity. One of the founding hosts of the Cline Observatory and a friend of mine, Dennis Hands, passed away on New Year's 2020 suddenly. Months later, his widow wanted to get rid of a Coronado PST, and my former professor asked if I wanted it. I couldn't afford it, unfortunately, but it was too important an offer to pass up.

Dennis Hands was a wonderful person. Enthusiastic, full of boundless energy towards astronomy outreach, and very kind to me when I needed help after an injury. We'd worked together at the observatory on a few occasions, talked at meetings, and I wish I could have known him better. He was a remarkable man.

At his memorial, it became clearer to me just what was lost. I was struggling to figure out what my purpose in life was, and the notion that I was put here to be a science communicator for astronomy outreach was bubbling around in my head. Learning of Dennis' sidewalk astronomy ventures made me realize that couldn't be lost. All he did for astronomy outreach couldn't be lost. We would have to pick up the slack and let Dennis' memory live on.

I started doing outreach with my Bushnell Voyager the next week, where that telescope got its nickname "Bong Scope." I had big plans. I guess everyone did back before March 2020.

My mom saved the day and my big Christmas present, though not a surprise, was arranged. On Christmas Day all wrapped together, I had a new backpack, photo tripod, 25mm Synta Plossl eyepiece, and a Coronado H-alpha Personal Solar Telescope.

This is a Coronado P.S.T., a solar telescope which is worth a lot for just what it can show: the very unique phenomena visible in the Sun's chromosphere. But it's also more than that. It is very sentimentally valuable to me, as an artifact of the remarkable person that was Dennis Hands. Mark my words, I will find ways to use this for outreach.

Coronado P.S.T. with a 6mm Goldline eyepiece.

 (Sidenote: Meade sells CEMAX eyepieces intended to be used with the P.S.T. However, these are just regular GSO Plossls with slightly different coatings which might imperceptibly improve contrast. The only other difference is the gold casings, to match the gold on Coronado telescopes. But if you want something to match the P.S.T., don't waste money on CEMAX plossls! Just get Goldlines! They look excellent and work fine!)

But there's a pandemic raging on, so it will have to wait. I have been recording sketches of the Sun, and they've been so well received that some people seem to think they're photos. In fact they are sketches of black and white media on toned gray sketch paper, colorized in paint.net. I have taken a break from sketching over the past few days simply due to being sick, unfortunately. (Not covid.) And of course, I can only observe when it's clear.

My mom also bought me the book Observing the Sun: A Pocket Field Guide by Jamey L. Jenkins, which has really come in handy for learning more about the specifics of sun observing and various solar features.

The first few pictures were black on white, but I quickly realized the problem--no way to represent plages as distinct from filaments.

28 December 2020

2020 December 29

2020 December 30

2020-January-06

2021 January 09

2021 January 10

I've been sick the past few days so I haven't had a chance to look at the Sun, and it had been kinda boring lately anyway. But on the 19th I took a peek for a minute or two with the PST and a 15mm Goldline. there were a real nice set of filaments and plages surrounding a new pair of sunspots, and I wish I had had the fortitude to stay out there and sketch them.

That's the thing about the Sun. If I miss the Moon on a given night, that's ok, the Moon in that phase will be back in a month. But the Sun is so dynamic that I will never again see exactly the same thing. It makes keeping logs and records all the more important, so it's a shame I haven't been able to this week.

The Sun has proven incredibly rewarding of thorough observations, of the kind that I really never have had the chance to do with the Cline Observatory's P.S.T.s. We always use a 25mm Plossl, which is actually a bit underpowered. However, early results in trying to get people to see the darn thing through the eyepiece leads me to believe that the oversized exit pupil and long eye relief of the 25mm Plossl makes it much easier for untrained eyes to find the image, so in that light I can kind of understand the decision. I prefer to observe with the 15mm Goldline, 10mm Plossl, or 6mm Goldline, depending upon conditions and whether I want to go to the trouble of daytime dark adaptation (the 6mm view is awfully dim). For quick peeks, the 25mm Plossl suffices--at least.

I hope to have more sun observing logs to report. I'd also like to get a white light filter for my 6" Dobsonian--graduate from the relatively poor projection images I get from my 70mm Meade toy refractor.