FRANKY DUBOIS ' SUN PAGE
Observatory and instrumentation
Personal info
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My name is Franky
Dubois, I live in Langemark, this is a small
village in West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. I am dedicated
to astronomy for almost 51 years now. I had several instruments in this 51
years of observing, first of all a 60 mm F/15 refractor, with this instrument
I saw for the first time the surface of the sun. After this I used a 20 cm (
8 inch ) F/6 Newton. Due to my interest of solar observations, I bought a 102
mm F/15 refractor, with this instrument I made more than 3000 solar
observations and many beautifull photographs of the
photosphere of the sun. In 1996 I build a complete new observatory and bought
a new instrument especially made for solar observations and photography. With
this instrument I hope to make a lot of usefull
observations.. |
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First
Instrumentation 1973- 1981
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Observatory 1981- 1996
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Observatory
1996- till now
The observatory is a small
building of about 5.4 X 3.2 meters and is divided in three places. The
greatest room has a doom of 3 meters on top, it contains the 125 mm refractor.
The dome is made of iron and aluminium and rides
easily on five wheels on a concrete base. The slit is about 0.8 meters wide
and can be opened in two parts. The second room has a roll-off roof The third
small room can be used as a computerroom. |
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Instrumentation
1996-2016
The main instrument in the observatory
was a 125 mm (4.9 inch) F/20 refractor with a focus of 2500 mm. The lens was
a Fraunhofer type. The telescope was provided with
a 2 inch Herschell optical wedge, used as well for
direct observing as for photography. About 95% of the incoming light and heat
is reflected outside the prismhouse, the remaining
5% is reduced by using a set of neutral density filters. The prominence telescope was a 75
mm refractor with a focal length of 1000 mm. The telescope was provided with
a 10 Angstom Ha passband
filter. |
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Instrumentation
2016-till now
Current instrumentation for solar
observing. Skywatcher 150mm F8 refractor and Herschel wedge for white light observations. |
