That all sounds very reasonable. Long refractors are best installed in observatories where they are not so subject to wind shake. I prefer seeing the entire disk of sun, I suspect the magnification at 3400 fl you only see a partial disk, at least comfortably.
An eyepiece to go with it would be nice and I suspect it would also be good eyepiece for star parties. The BOD should decide where the funds come from. Erik Siegfried's getting closer to being able to post directly to UA again
but he's not quite there yet (his computer is in the shop).
So here's another he's asked me to post for him.
patrick
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My suggestion is to custom adapt the ERF only for the Bogdan refractor and to use it exclusively that way. It can be used for outreach and public events. It would also be available to key-holders at SPOC. I was not thinking in terms of this being a loaner item to those of us with long refractors.
There is also a group that comes out to SPOC early enough to benefit from some solar viewing on public nights. Saturday was such an example. I thought I was getting there early with the Sun still up and there were 4 or 5 cars already there.
I agree that the 50mm scope is very good on the Sun and should remain the portable configuration. But the 8 stopped down to 112.5 mm is soooo much better. I recall the 8 being an F16.8. That puts it at about 3414mm FL. The view we had Saturday of the surface and chromosphere was the most encouraging view I have had for a long time. There were also several prominences around, including one very decent complex.
My recommendation is we buy the filter. It probably should come out of the SPOC fund and would be a SPOC decision. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com