Observing Report from 5/13/01 Set up in my driveway 10:30 a.m. Equipment: C-8 orange tube on Losmandy GM-8, TV diagonal, Celestron 25mm eyepiece, full aperture solar filter (80X) C80HD refractor on CG-5 mount, standard issue diagonal, Celestron 12 mm eyepiece, full aperture solar filter (75X) The objective of the day was to compare the view of the sun through the 8" SCT to the 3" refractor. My hypothesis was the 8" would win hands down. The first view was through the C80. At this power (75X) and using the 12mm eyepiece, the full disk of the sun would not fit in the fov. There is a slight purple halo around the sun, but it isn't too distracting. The frustrating part of using this scope was the short eye relief of the e.p. and the wind moving the scope on the cheap mount. But, when the wind died down, the view was great. Four sunspot families (just using my loose definitions) were visible. I will say they had very interesting shapes today. Through the refractor I was able to count in each family moving from right to left as I look at the sun, 5, 12, 4, and 13 sunspots. They each were clearly defined, and both umbra and penumbra were distinct. In three of the families, the larger spots were obviously mergers of smaller spots. I tried to identify them as distinct if possible. The view through the 8" was much more pleasant. But, at 80x, I counted three less total sunspots. Two of them were smaller ones which I have not verified on any web sites yet. (Just haven't checked.) The eye relief on the 25 mm ep was much more comfortable, and the Losmandy mount just laughed at the slight wind. Also helping here was the autofocuser on the 8". It really does make a world of difference. With the 9mm Nagler in the refractor, the entire solar disk was visible, but difficult to focus. The shaking kept me on my toes. But on those moments of clear viewing, I was impressed with the C80. It is not in the class with Jeff's TV-85, but it is a nice scope at a much more reasonable price. Just for fun I would like to compare it to Dave's TV 101. My eyepieces limited me to magnification this morning, but I don't think the C80 would really do much good at much higher magnifications. It would be fun to put it on the Losmandy mount to see the difference that would make. So, final thoughts.... The C80 is a nice scope. It certainly sways me to a belief in refractors over the SCT's (and probably any type of reflector). I would rather do a comparison on some bright objects, the moon, and some dim fuzzies before I really reach a conclusion. Now if I could only find the time. Larry