First light & first image - Sun, 22/05/2012

[UK_Steve]

Today is a day of firsts!

The Celestron 6SE my fiance bought for me as a surprise pre-wedding gift got its first light today.

I bought a sheet of Baader solar-film from First Light Optics, and built my first full aperture solar filter. I got a T2 mount for my Pentax K100D and finally had a use for the T2-1.25" adaptor I got when subscribing to "The Sky At Night".

I've never tried anything other than terrestrial photography before, but I figured "in for a penny, in for a pound" and after looking at the Sun for about twenty minutes and muttering "wow", "chuffin' mick" and other such epithets I decided to have a go with the camera.

It's not as easy as it looks, is it? My admiration for the quality of modern amateur-astronomer imaging has increased a heck of a lot this morning!

I took about 5 frames, this one being (I thought) the best. I recoloured it to match the perceptions of the people I know. I need to figure out how to focus more accurately, but as a first ever astro-image I'm quite chuffed!

(Click on image for full-size version (3.3MB))

Steve.

[Momentous]

Looks great to me, well done!

[Naemeth]

Wow, nice image of the Sun!

[Bizibilder]

Good for a first - well done!!

[pritc]

Steve,Nice first attempt

Wayne

[UK_Steve]

Having looked more closely at my attempt, and then at some of the other excellent images fro today, I think I've figured out some of what I've done wrong.

I have the spots (duh!), but looking more closely I have _some_ of the colour shading that show in the other images. If I'm not mistaken, I think my picture is over-exposed, losing contrast. I think next time I'll take a larger number of dimmer images, and try the stacking hoo-haa magic.

Steve.