Solar scope with control (for eclipse images go to the bottom of this page)
 

Our plan was to go to the island of Antigua in the Caribbean to view the solar eclipse in February of 1998. My telescope is a 10" F/6 that stands about 5 feet tall.  To take my telescope would require rebuilding it as a truss tube or spending a lot of extra money on oversized baggage charges. 

Once the eclipse was total everyone in our group would want to look.  Since totality was a little over 2 minutes and we had 30 folks in our group, everyone would get about 4 seconds, not counting the time to reaim the scope after people bumped it.  I was not going to give up the eyepiece for anyone and would forever be known as the grinch that would not share. 
 

I needed a solution so I could share the images but not give up the eyepiece.  To this end, I built this scope. It uses a 500 mm. catadioptric type telephoto lens.The lens is fitted with a 90 degree adapter which holds a 40 mm. telescope eyepiece.  My Sony Hi-8 handicam is fixed over and aligned with the eyepiece. All of this is fitted to the typical dobsonian mount.

The azimuth and altitude of the scope are controlled by separate stepper motors and a remote box.  The box encloses circuit boards to control the motors.  Each board has 4 LEDs that flash as the motor turns.  During the eclipse the circuit board over heated and were toasted.  I than went to hand guiding.     The stepper motors and the integrated circuit control kits come from the H&R company.  Worm gears to step down the speed of the motors were also purchased from H&R.   This assembly will allow me to track the sun as the eclipse progresses.  The motors should make the assembly much easier to aim and be far steadier than aiming by hand particularly when at the high power telephoto setting.   At the high magnification the area shown will be about 1/8th of a degree.  

There is a home made mylar solar filter that fits over the telephoto lens to protect the optics and the video camera from the intense image of sun as the eclipse progresses.  The filter if of two layers of optical mylar from Roger Tuthill.  The shiny surfaces face each other and two plastic rings hold the mylar in place and on the cameras.  These two fit together much like embroidery hoops.  Once the eclipse it total, the filter will be removed for the period of totality.

The image from the video camera is recorded on tape and down loaded to a TV so everyone can see. Preliminary images show the moon.  I used the mode as the exposure is about the same as totality and is the same size. The image from the video camera is recorded on tape and down loaded to a TV so everyone can see. Preliminary images show the moon.  I used the mode as the exposure is about the same as totality and is the same size.  These images were done with a 32 mm lens.
   

The 40 mm lens will allow the full moon/sun image with a little more space.  The wide angle setting on the handicam shows the whole moon.  The telephoto view is about 1/16 of the moon and hopefully will show prominences if any exist.  

ECLIPSE 98
The following are preliminary images of the eclipse taken from Surley Heights on the Southern shore of Antegua.  They were take with two video cameras, one using the device described above.  I will add more as I have time.
 
 
  The time is Pacific Standad Time the second are 11 seconds slow.  These would be 1:48:52 PM  and 2:26:30 PM Antigua time (17:48:42  and 18:28:30 UT).


This shows Jupiter below and Mercury up and to the left.


 
The corona shows the correct time is 2:33:46 PM local time.
 
  
The correct time is 10:31:33 PM local time.