20120318 Sun

Today the sky is very clear, I would rate the transparency 8/10 which is rare in Hong Kong.  Seeing is rather stable, I would say it's like 6-7/10.

I pulled out m 127mm Maksutov for testing, but to my surprise, the contrast was low.  However, on switching to my Ranger, the contrast is way better, I suspect that the internal reflection between the solar film and the silvery secondary is very serious!  When the sun was sinking in front of a tall building, the complex silhouette confirmed this hypothesis.

First up is a full disc taken with a DIY reducer with my Ranger at prime focus:-

Then, we have a close up taken with my Ranger and a 5x Powermate.

I believe that I shall sell the 127 Maksutov, keep my Ranger as my only telescope.

--

I'm using the solar re-chargeable pack today for imaging.  We have strong sunshine today but then I found the motor controller was complaining about low battery.  The battery was fully charged via USB previously and I found that under sunshine, the output seems to be solely from the solar panels instead of the built-in battery!  Therefore, I must turn the panel upside down in order to make sure that it's using the internal battery instead.

A rather silly design.