Weekly Solar Report for December 11-16

[Cschur]

HI all,

Just finished this report from last weeks very interesting solar activity. This photo pictorial will take you through white, CaK, and Halpha images of the week highlights. Thanks for looking! Enjoy our wonderous Sun!

Schurs Astrophotography

Chris

[smerral]

Magnificent shots as usual Chris! I'm impressed with the2.5x powermate - I've just acquired one myself and can't wait to try it out. Are the white light shots done with solar film or a wedge? They are impressive.

[Montana]

Thanks for review Chris

Alexandra

[Cschur]

Im using the astro solar film, with a filter I got from OPT called "Astrozap" which comes in a gorgeous metal housing. I have a baader wedge on order, and that seems to be taking forever to arrive from germany! Lately, I have been testing white light filters for solar imaging, and found that the Baader continuum filter is a terrible filter for solar. Even a cheap green filter out does it. Why? were taking measurements right now with a spectrograph, and have found out so far that this filter has a huge red and IR leak, flooding the image with out of focus IR light. More on THAT later...

[smerral]

I have always had my doubts about the continuum filter, which is why I bought a green one. Looks like I made the right decision. I have considered a baader wedge but I'm not sure whether the increase in image quality will justify the price. It would be nice to see a comparison, everything else being equal. Certainly your shots with the solar film are impressive..

[Montana]

Chris, on the Baader site they show the spectral curve for this filter and it is very tight between 520-560nm. If yours is that badly defective you should return it to Baader immediately.

I have tried all sorts of coloured filters and the continuum filter wins hands down above all the rest, beautiful contrast, clarity and resolution. It sounds like you have a problem.

Alexandra

[Cschur]

Alexandra, I was able to complete a spectrographic scan of baaders ND filters, and found that they do not block IR at all. Just attenuate it by the filter factor. I suspect somewhere in your system there is an IR blocking element! Maybe your DMK camera has one over the chip? Anyway - My Baader wedge is arriving today (yay!) and will come with another continuum filter. I hope to get tests on this new one as well, But I think there is a UV/IR blocking filter in my future from baader!

[Montana]

Hi Chris,

I am waiting for a reply from Luca as he has nearly the same system as me, it's a very interesting question, I'll let you know of any answer.

Alexandra