First attempt at solar imaging and a few questions...

[matt_man21]

Hello All,

In a unusual reversal of my circadian rhythm I've been finding myself awake during the day and doing "normal" things like working, I found myself thinking about the sun and feeling eager to see what it had to offer, So £20, Baader solar film and quick trip to the stationary store later, I now have a safe solar filter. First look through a 26mm eyepiece on my F5 4 inch refractor absolutely took my breath away, it was like the first time i ever saw jupiter through the thompson refractor at herstmonceux ... (I actually got emotional... Silly i know) There's so many interesting active regions on the sun that have been hidden from me until now, i took a good 30 mins of looking round the solar disk looking at the sunspots, their penumbra and the speckled brightening around them...

I decided to go for broke, dig out the QHY5 with a green filter to hopefully boost the contrast a little and took a quick 60 second video. i selected the best 60 frames of 250 (seeing is a lot worse during the day!!!)

First thing i noticed was the solar granulation followed by the beautiful sunspots on the east and western limbs... I was wondering if the striations in the solar granulation were due to my scope or features in the suns atmosphere?

Matt

[matt_man21]

On second thought it's likely just a fault on my part... seeing as some of the other images i've taken and Stacked VERY poorly (as im excited) haven't shown this artifact. It's seriously exciting!!!!

Testing out a barlow

A better processed disk

Interestingly with a blue filter to try and improve contrast a little the images look a little like Calcium K I know it's just whitelight... (apologies for the poor stacking Polar alignment is difficult when you can't see polaris!!!!)

[DrRobin]

Hi Matt,

All very good. The granulation looks fine to me.

I find it is best to let the sun drift a little in the frame, it averages out the pixels and reduces noise in the final picture, so polar alignment, or any kind of alignment is not that important.

Robin

[allcart]

Well firstly Matt, lets start off with the bad points;

Right thats enough of the bad points; Now the good points;

I can't find any bad points.

Lovely set of images Matt. Keep it up.

I was defeated by cloud again today, so its nice to see AR11726 before it dissapears.

[Montana]

WOW!!!! these are crazily beautiful images for a first try, a big well done!!

However, I prefer the first full disc, much more natural looking, the second is a tad over the top with the wavelets. You can tell this as you are getting some bad ringing effects, first around the disc (white ring) as you should have a dark limb (called limb darkening) and white halos round the sunspots themselves. I'm guessing this is over excitement, we all suffer this when we view the Sun and it never goes away

The close up of AR11726 is spot on, beautifully done and shows all the lovely white faculae surrounding this active region.

Congratulations! you are now officially addicted

Alexandra

[sologuitarist61]

Well done Matt, they are seriously good images!

[JamesF]

Agreed. Excellent images for a first attempt. Keep it up

James

[Merlin66]

Excellent first time results!

Well done.

Onwards and Upwards.

[markt]

Good first shots! I agree with Alexandra, first full disk is much nicer, the second is definitely overcooked with the wavelets, back right off with them. Welcome to the light side!

[Bizibilder]

Those are really good - the first full disc especially so.

[Steve Ward]

Great first go , welcome to the sunny side . . .

[anthony]

Nice job! I'd be pleased as punch