David Smith

Awesome, thanks for sharing. Cloudy here!

Clear skies from the start today so had a decent session. Lots of activity to work with but some dodgy seeing too. First up, some Ca-K. Tricky with the seeing so these were the best of what I got. I took a 6 pane FD with the Evostar and a single pane with the Bresser. I've got some close-ups to process and will post them later. White light full disk via the Bresser and close ups using the Evostar AR12827 AR12829 AR12828 And a couple of shots with the Quark, Evostar and 2x barlow

Nice. Clear skies forecast for tomorrow, fingers crossed for that and some decent seeing!

Clear sky from the start today which meant I could image early. Seeing was up and down but could have been worse. Lots of images! Start off with the Ca-K. Some nice activity and some faint proms. Start off with the full disk The some close ups with the 2x barlow. Forgot to rotate the AR for correct orientation White light full disk. The only way I can get these at the minute is to switch to the Bresser AR102xs. Trying to get a one-scope-does-it-all (without spending the earth) is the holy grail of upgrade paths for me. The close ups taken with the Evostar and 2x barlow Then the H Alpha with the Evostar and Quark combo. Still finding my way with the Quark and spent a lot of time just tweaking the tuning and seeing the effect. Think I found a new favourite setting but maybe I will change my mind next time out!

First sniff of a clear sky on a non-work day for a looonnng time! Thought I best get some practice in and try and shake off the rust before June 10th. Woke to clouds this morning but skies cleared around midday. Seeing was hit and miss, mostly miss but I managed a few shots. Ca-K Full Disk, 6 pane mosaic. Variable seeing shows itself here with one pane in particular being softer than the others. WL AR @2000mm FL H Alpha with the Quark @2000mm FL

Great Start. Welcome to the world of Ca-K!

Great first attempt. How many panes? I always find it really tough getting consistent illumination in H Alpha mosaics, Ca-K is much easier!

Saturday morning, sun is out, Raben shows spots - great lets go get some solar imaging in Get out, get set up, Quark warming. it's a bit windy Don't worry, it'll be fine Quick white light view through the eyepiece - looks good, even the seeing looks decent Grab laptop, plug in camera - nothing Restart laptop to get the camera to connect. Ok, good to go Clouds Skies clear again, great lets go Phone rings, daughter needs help with her broadband 20 minutes later, skies still clear lets go Meanwhile laptop battery has failed and the laptop switched off 10 minutes setting up power to the laptop outdoors Great, lets go Lines up for first images, seeing has gone off badly Waits patiently to see if seeing will improve Shoots 6 pane pano in Ca-K, ready to plug in the Quark for some H Alpha Mount refuses to slew in Dec, spends half an hour fixing the mount issue CLOUDS! Not the best of mornings but still came out with this.

Wasn't bad in Ca-K either Seems there was quite a bit of activity that day.

Spent many years studying spots via solar projection before full aperture filters became a thing / affordable.

Having used an 1100D to image the Sun, focusing is very tricky. The most reliable method I found was to connect the DSLR to my laptop so I could focus using the live image on the laptop screen. If there was a decent sized spot / group (spots that are visible at the moment are relatively tiny compared to the size of the disk as John mentioned above) then I was able to use live view on the LCD. John mentions an ND filter as the image you posted is possibly a bit over-exposed, so get the exposure right down, my raw files looked very, very dark straight off-camera. You don't mention exposure time but it was rare for me to use anything slower than 1/2000 second with my 120mm frac.

They look a little out of focus. What camera did you use?

Great start with the new kit Steve.

Nicely done. Good prom capture

Nicely done 👏

The Sun made a brief appearance today but the seeing was horrible, so don't look too close! Managed just a couple of images before clouds came back and forced an early conclusion to the session. White light full disk with the Bresser White light close up with the Skywatcher And AR12806 in H Alpha using the Skywatcher / Quark combo I did shoot some Ca-K but the results were not pretty Maybe next time

Good result. Seeing was horrible here today, looks like it was better down your way.

Great result. All cloud here yesterday.

Great shot John

Nicely done. Back at work today so no imaging for me.

Great shots, love the Ca-K disk.

Nicely done Dave, takes a couple of sessions to get back on track after the winter break.

First session of the year as the Sun is out of reach from early November to end of January. Add in a busy work schedule, DIY projects and other interests and all of a sudden its March! First session after Winter is always a bit of an adventure, mount has been sat unused for 3 months+ and I've apparently forgotten everything I ever knew about solar imaging (didn't amount to a lot to start with). The mount needed a good clean up and the declination axis attending to as it was very stiff and had developed a heap of backlash. Still managed to cobble together a few images below, far from my finest works but a good start. Feels good to be solar imaging again Ca-K full disk mosaic shot in 6 panes and stitched in Autostitch. I'll go back to partial inverted disks with proms when I get my head around how I used to do it For now I've done a separate prom shot. White light image of the out-going AR12804, same scope but using the Lacerta wedge, Solar Continuum and UV/IR cut filters and ES 2x barlow. Finally H alpha, same scope again with the combo Quark and ES 2x barlow. A little bit of newton rings showing on the screen whilst shooting so I used flats for the processing of both images. Apologies, orientations are probably all over the place but the brain cells need a little shake-down time!

They look pretty good to me.