The Sun White Light 17 June 2012 (dSLR + Telezoom).

[Rihard]

Hi all,

Finally a gap through the clouds!

Took this picture 10 minutes ago with my Nikon D3100 and a Sigma 70-300mm telezoom lens.

Baader Solar Filter, 300 mm at ISO 100 F/30; Raw edited and converted to JPEG using Adobe Lightroom.

Click to Enlarge:

[Montana]

Fabulous image, especially with just a telephoto lens, well done!!

Alexandra

[TractionMan]

Nice one! Great fun to be able to photograph the sun without the need of (very) expensive gear. I've just started to enjoy this as well.

[Rihard]

Thanks for the comments. My first attempts, few months ago, were made using a cheap welding glass and a bridge camera. Even cheaper! Here is the pic: http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream

Although proper equipment will give a better experience, one doesn't need to spend much money to enjoy our universe and its natural events.

All I need now is a chance to practice with my relatively new Skywatcher 200P.

And, after saving up some cash, I will purchase a Lunt LS35 or a Coronado PST to start some proper solar observing / imaging.

Clear Skies !

[JamieW]

Looks like you've got the Solar bug. Good man!

[Rihard]

Looks like you've got the Solar bug. Good man!

I had a hint of that bug when I was about 9 or 10, when I purchased my newtonian reflector and a mylar solar filter. It was a small fortune back then. I had several observing sessions with that equipement, but after a while the bug went away since it was a pretty quiet period and couldn't see any kind of detail in the sun - not even a small sunspot. Until I did that welding glass experiment and imaged the Sunspot AR 1339 - then I realized that it was actually possible to see some details and whenever I have a chance I grab my DSLR and Telezoom and start shooting our nearest star (I'm unable to quickly grab the 200P and the Eq5 telescope ) And every single time I feel that it's not enough and I could get more....

But one day the H-Alpha telescope will be mine.

By the way, any suggestion about CaK imaging? Is it worth it, what should I buy to start with?

Cheers.

[JamieW]

I would love to do some CaK imaging but the funds won't stretch that far yet. I know that you can get a CaK type PST and Lunt make CaK modules.

Maybe sheri can point you in the right direction.

[Rihard]

I would love to do some CaK imaging but the funds won't stretch that far yet. I know that you can get a CaK type PST and Lunt make CaK modules.

Maybe sheri can point you in the right direction.

That's some lovely collection of different wavelengths

I thought that CaK would be cheaper then H-Alpha - i.e. Baader + some £ 200 eyepiece mounted filter.

I even found an american reseller who sells CaK filters for about $ 35 - unmounted, so they need to be fitted into

a 1.25" filter ring... but still I have no idea of how all this thing works, it should be all much more straightforward and cheaper then H-Alpha anyway : ) hopefully some more experienced people will mentor us on this

[JamieW]

... hopefully some more experienced people will mentor us on this...

I'm sure they will.

[Montana]

Be careful with CaK, yes it is OK to buy the Baader filter or the even cheaper version mentioned to add to a white light set up, however..... the filter width is very broad and the most you will see is a white light image with a hint of faculae around the active region. You will not see the super granulation or the diverse features seen with a good narrowband CaK filter like that from Lunt or the discontinued CaK PST. Like with Hydrogen alpha, good narrowband comes with a price.

Alexandra

[sheri_barri]

The Baader CaK 1.25" is quite good although not quite as tight of passband as the PST CaK. It certainly gives you the CaK activity used with a 'normal' scope so inexpensive and worth it to see if you want to invest more. For example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherikarl/sets/72157630224160418/ The full disk was taken with the PST CaK and the portion of the disk was taken with the Baader CaK 1.25" filter and Baader ND 5.0 filter film on a 110mm refractor.

Hopefully this illustrates a bit about the difference in detail resolution you can get. I've not had a chance to try the Lunt CaK diagonal although the images I've seen on SGL look very good.

Cheers,

Sheri

[Rihard]

Thanks Montana and Sherri for the precious infos about CaK

[Rihard]

I take the chance to make a few other questions.

- Did anyone try the Thousands Oaks solar filters? Is there any appreciable difference between them and the more popular Baader white light filters ?

- Are there available for us common humans other interesting wavelengths / filters to observe / image sun details?

- What is a good EU reseller of CaK and other sun imaging filters and equipment?

Thank you all for your consideration and time

Clear Skies

Riky

[JamieW]

Hi Riky, have you looked at teleskope service in Germany. Lots of solar goodies.