Rather Shoddy first Solar attempt

[Digz]

Hi Guys,

My first time posting in this specific forum but here goes...

Given the lighter and frequently cloudy nights we have been experiencing I have decided to get some Baader Solar Film and tying my hand at some solar imaging.

I made my filter cell and holder yesterday and today managed to try it out with poor success, but its a start.

I would welcome any help and advice on how to improve escpecially on data capture and processing, I dont have a clue on what I am doing with Registax..........

As an aside it was very windy today which made the data very poor.

This image was taken with my DSLR at prime focus:

Single frame, processed in CS4 to add a bit of colour.

This image is a resultant stack of 200 frames from my Titan process (rather poorly in Registax)

As mentioned above it was windy which made the data poor, but I also think my focus was also out on this, something I need to work on. It was fun, however, watching the live images on my lappy that the Titan was capturing

PS excuse the dust spots, it was a lot worse than this to start with!!!!

[Stargazer Jack]

That is a great first image! You can see the large sunspot going 'off' the sun and also the 3 sunspots. Will try and post mine tomorrow after school

[smerral]

Nice shots Digz - I like your site too. I find that with the Titan, even though it has a fast frame rate mode, one often gets clearer images with the "pre" setting in Artemis capture turned off i.e with a frame rate of something like 2fps, rather than the 15fps setting, which has more noise. The only thing to do is experiment and see which works best.

Focusing is crucial and I must say l find the ED80's crayford focuser a dream to work with. I find with Registax it is better to select a single alignpoint like a sunspot - multipoint alignment doesn't work too well on a relatively featureless surface like the sun. Your Titan image is showingloads of detail though.

[markt]

Good first attempt! The DSLR shot shows very well the faculae around ar11236 and the spot itself at the 12 o'clock position on your image.

I think with the second image the focus isn't quite there, but with a broadband image like this boiling seeing on a hot summers day could well be contributing more to the blurring visible.

[Digz]

Thanks guys. Its been different for me doing this and Ive quite enjoyed it.

@smerral - thanks for the tips. Ill be sure to try that out next time. I must admit I was trying multiple alignment points in registax, but didnt really know what I was doing, time to trawl the internet and read up

@markt - thanks for the encouragement. I must admit, I noticed the faculae, but didnt really know what it was and whether it was down to my processing etc. As for the sunspot, I didnt notice it on the DSLR shot Hopefully next time out the wind wont be so bad and I can nail the focus Hopefully it wont be as darn hot either, lol.