100 Hours of Astronomy is one of the cornerstone projects of the International Year of Astronomy and runs from 2nd-5th April.
http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org/
Details of the various events can be found at the above site, including Around the World in 80 Telescopes, 24 Hour Global Star Party and Sun Day. A little disappointed to find from the site that there is nothing going on that’s very local to me as it seems to me that the 24 Hour Global Star Party was designed to be the biggest of the outreach efforts yet I have seen very little in the general media promoting this event. There are two events reasonably near, at Letchworth and Levington, but on the 100 Hours site the posting does not indicate that anyone outside of the members of the organising group are invited. Still, that’s just my neck of the woods and if anyone has any inkling towards astronomy I would urge them to have a look at the site and see if there is anything in their neighbourhood as I’m sure many of the events will welcome all comers.
I aim to be out as much as possible over the four days and hope to have my solar filter by that time and can attempt take more photos which should look a little more interesting, though having looked into solar photography a little more, it seems it’s not quite as simple as just the solar filter. I saw somewhere that in addition to the Solar Continuum Filter, a UV-IR cut filter was recommended. I think that is towards the bottom of the wish list currently. I When I was looking for the filter I found a different camera mount which I might buy; a Baader Microstage II, which was what I was originally looking for when I got my current mount. The mount operates on a click stop mechanism and can be swung out of the way, without dismounting, for visual aiming. An additional benefit is that it will accommodate my new 2” eyepiece as well as the 1.25” eyepieces. This same outlet also has a cable release for the camera, at £15.99, but I have seen a couple of reviews which claim these devices do not offer a great deal of improvement in stability and are difficult to retain in place around the camera but the only alternative I can see is a new camera with a threaded shutter release and that’s even further down the wish list than the UV-IR Cut filter.
