Daystar’s Solar Scout 60C

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 the chromosphere. 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