The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

[allcart]

Well the good news is, that despite 2 hours of frustration trying to actually get the sun in the FOV and align the findr, my Talonado 100rs works lovely as a stage 1 mod. The views are wonderful with only a hint of sweetspotting. I can see crisp detail on the surface and lovely proms on the limbs. I only used a basic 25mm EP but the views were very much ok. Unfortinately I could not get either of my cams to focus so I decided to go straight to stage 2.

The Bad news is that I forgot that the Lunt 1200 blocking filter from the LS60T is a 2" job and the Borg helical focuser and other parts I bought come down to 1.25mm, so I could not attach the blocking filter to the focuser. I need to get some new bits to sort this out.

I then decided to put away the Talonado and get out the Lunt LS60T. Coupled with my Baader zoom EP, the views again were awesome. I love this EP. Being able to zoom in without changing Ep's and refocusing is brill. I need to put the barlow on it tomorrow and see what its capable of. I had a good look at a few features on the sun and then thought I would try my first image with the DMK41.

Trying to focus a CCD in the scope in bright sunshine on a laptop is a PITA. I had to sit with the laptop in a box with a towel over my head just to see the screen. I did finally find some sort of focus and took a short AVI for stacking.

Now for the UGLY.

My first ha prom image. It seems even CCD's have a learning curve as well, and something else I need to master. I would appreciate any tips on settings.

Here is my first image. Its out of focus and grossly overexposed, so I blacked out the disc.

[sologuitarist61]

Great proms

[JamesF]

I think that's not at all bad. I don't think the conversion to JPEG has done you any favours, mind.

I agree that cameras have learning curves. Different models do seem to respond differently and learning how to handle them is part of the imaging process. The unfortunate thing is that recently in the UK we've had so little opportunity for practice.

James

[Montana]

I think that's a great start, the disc always usually gets over exposed in some manner, so not to worry. It takes lots of practice and messing about with settings to get it how you want it.

Alexandra

[allcart]

Thanks guys and gals, your all being too kind.

I would usually have dumped an image like that, but if I don't show it, I can't expect folks to know how to help.

@ James,...what did you mean about the conversion to Jpeg not helping?

[JamesF]

what did you mean about the conversion to Jpeg not helping?

Converting to JPEG can massively reduce the dynamic range and introduce compression artefacts. I'd stick with PNG.

James

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very good first image I would say. The towel over the head has a true Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy feel to it

[allcart]

Yes but I look like a right idiot sitting in the garden with a towel over my head and staring into a box. I'm sure it raised a few questions about my sanity with the nieghbours.

In the process of making a light box now. Or should I say....a dark box.