66 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE April 2019
ALL PHOTOS BY THE AUTHORDaystar’s Solar Scout 60C
Explore the Sun’s chromosphere with this dedicated
hydrogen-alpha telescope.WHEN DAYSTAR’S 60-MM Solar Scout
arrived for review, it was a cloudless day.
It was also a sunspotless day... not
even a tiny one visible.
For two weeks when I had hoped
to enjoy views of the Sun through this
special hydrogen-alpha (Hα) solar
telescope, there were no sunspots!
According to spaceweather.com,
you’d have to go back to 2009 for a
longer stretch of spotless days. We
are currently in the midst of solar
minimum, the lowest point of activity
in the Sun’s 11-year cycle.
But as users of properly equipped
solar instruments know, a blank Sun
in white light doesn’t mean there
isn’t an exciting view to be had of thechromosphere. This second layer of the
Sun’s atmosphere is normally hidden
from view, with the exception of brief
periods during a total solar eclipse. But
telescopes equipped with a special filter
reveal the chromosphere in the light of
Hα, that tiny slice of the solar spectrum
around 656.3 nanometres.
Until recently, my experience
with observing the Sun through Hα
filters was limited to peering through
eyepieces at amateur gatherings and on
solar eclipse tours. I was awed by those
direct views of intricate detail on the
solar disk and dramatic prominences at
the Sun’s limb. But back home I settled
for white-light views using Mylar-like
filters. That all changed with the arrival
of the Daystar Solar Scout.
This dedicated 60-mm solar scope
is built strictly for observing the Sun
in Hα light. The Solar Scout is also
available in an 80-mm model (SS80)
as well as the less-expensive SS60-ds.
Apart from the SS60-ds, each Solar
Scout is available in two versions. The
chromosphere models (SS60C and
SS80C) incorporate a narrow 0.6- to
0.3-angstrom bandpass that shows
filaments and active regions around
sunspots on the solar disk as well as
prominences along the limb of the Sun.
The prominence versions (SS60P and
SS80P) use a wider 0.8- to 0.6-angstrom
bandpass, which displays prominences
a bit brighter than the chromosphere
model does, though at the expense of
other details across the Sun’s disk. I
tested the SS60C.
The Solar Scout is a nearly complete
observing kit that incorporates a
removable Quark filter — a Fabry-Pérot
etalon Hα filter. The scope comes with
a waterproof, foam-lined hard case,
a solar ‘bullet’ finder, an AC-to-DC
power supply, and a mounting foot
threaded for ¼-20 standard tripods
that also doubles as a short Vixen-style
dovetail plate.60mm Daystar
Solar Scout
US price: $1,295
daystarfilters.comWhat we like
Compact size
Etalon can be used on other
scopesWhat we don’t like
Image-shift when focusing
Band tuning slow to respondW The Daystar 60mm Solar Scout (SS60C) is
a compact solar telescope with an integrated
Fabry-Pérot etalon used to observe the Sun in
hydrogen-alpha light.AS&T TEST REPORT by Johnny Horne