My first Magazine Sky & Telescope - 03.2019 | Page 62

S&T Test Report
the tuning knob position
band is less straightfor-
requires a few minutes of
ward. Details are often
waiting for results, which
subtle and less defi ned
were sometimes very
compared to white-light
subtle, if noticeable at all.
views. The image at the
One feature of the
eyepiece needs more sus-
Solar Scout I questioned is
tained scrutiny, requiring
its permanently extended
roughly a minute or so
“dew shield” in front of
for your eye to adjust to
the objective lens. (Why
the contrast differences
p The exit aperture of the
Quark
fi
lter
is
large
enough
would a telescope used to
across the monochromatic
to display the entire solar
look exclusively at the Sun
red solar disk, similar to
disk using a 40-mm Tele
be concerned with dew?)
viewing, say, festoons in
Vue Plössl.
A call to Daystar clari-
Jupiter’s cloudtops. The
fied that this extension
manual recommends a
is no dew shield, but is actually meant
40-mm Tele Vue Plössl eyepiece for a
to both protect the front element from
full-disk view, and that eyepiece did
dust and act as an additional baffle in
indeed excel when I took a first look
the optical train, helping to increase
at the entire solar disk. Shorter-focal-
contrast. While it is black, it doesn’t
length eyepieces and a 2× Barlow
radiate enough heat during use to
allowed me to zoom in on fine details.
noticeably degrade the view.
Contrast was best on days with clear,
Focusing the SS60C is performed by
deep-blue skies, since even slight haze
twisting the large, red anodized collar
or high cirrus clouds tended to rob the
around the middle of the telescope tube.
view of detail-defining contrast.
This rotates the entire front portion of
When observing with the Solar
the carbon-fiber tube and objective but
Scout, it’s best to assume a comfort-
does not rotate the eyepiece holder. The
able position so that your eye becomes
length of the tube remains constant
adjusted to the deep-red view. I set up
for the full focusing travel. There is
a chair, and a makeshift cardboard
considerable image movement when
shade around the scope provided me
focusing, which was inconsequential
with additional comfort on many 90°+
summer days here in North Carolina. A
black cloth draped over my head at the
eyepiece helped too, though I don’t rec-
ommend it on scorching hot days. The
“bullet” finder mounted on the right
side of the tube is helpful for aiming the
scope at the Sun, though its pinhole-
projected image of the Sun is fuzzy on
the finder’s rear crosshair screen.
The more time you spend observing
with the scope, carefully scrutinizing
prominence activity at the limb and
churning activity on the solar disk,
the more detail you’ll see. Adjusting
u Prominences were easy to see and record
through the SS60C with the author’s Celestron
Skyris 236M monochrome video camera,
though focusing the instrument with a camera
attached is diffi cult using the large, red anod-
ized helical focuser.
uu Filaments, sunspots, and active regions
containing plages and fi eld transition arches
are easily visible through the SS60C.
60
M A RCH 2 019 • SK Y & TELESCOPE
p The mounting shoe on the SS60C is
threaded to attach to most photo tripods, and
its base is formatted to fi t in any Vixen-style
dovetail saddles. Users need to supply their
own star diagonal and eyepieces.
when observing visually at low powers.
But this movement of the image, com-
bined with having to essentially grab
the entire scope to focus, was an annoy-
ing problem at high powers. It was