Solar filter and first sun shot

[SDM]

As the sun came out and we had a clear sky today (The first in a long time) I thought I'd get around to making a solar filter for my telescope and see what happening at the Sun. Using Baader Planetarium solar film I picked up at the IAS last week and some Blue Peter'esque cutting and gluing, I ended up with a half respectable filter.

It took longer to make than I was expecting so I didn't have much time for observing but I did manage to snag this quick shot. The wind motion on the scope caused a bit of softness but you can clearly see a few Sun spots. It will be interesting to compare when the activity picks up again.

I just took single images using a DSLR for this. Is that the right approach for the Sun? It seems that it has plenty of light so stacking etc. is a bit overkill.

[Steve Ward]

That's a great start . . .

Stacking's the way to go though .

Check out Rogers tutorial here . . . http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/153712-simple-white-light-solar-imaging/

[JamesF]

Yes, do try stacking. You'll find it makes a huge amount of difference when you get a nice clean stack and can do some sharpening.

James

[David Smith]

A great start, well done.

[Ben_Jim]

Nice capture, I’m all set up and ready to go for this, what was your exposure settings for this shot!

Jim

[ilove1995]

That's a great single shot, well done.

[ilove1995]

That's a great single shot, well done.

[Bizibilder]

Well done -that is a really good shot!

[endure]

Can you use the 'little hole' on the cap of a reflector to do solar stuff or do you need to use the full aperture?

[JamesF]

No reason you couldn't use the restricted aperture at all. Several people have posted here that they do just that.

James

[SDM]

Thanks for the advice and link. If it's clear tomorrow I'll try the stacking technique. Restricting the aperture could be a good idea too but my lens cap doesn't have the smaller removable covers so I'll keep on trying with the setup as is.

Jim, the shot was a single RAW exposure at 1/250 sec, ISO 100.

[JamesF]

Assuming that's the 127 Mak I wouldn't restrict the aperture at all. I'd experiment with exposure times a bit though. Using a 127 Mak and 450D I use an exposure time of 1/1000th @ ISO100. The images to appear to be a little dark, but when I process them in PIPP to convert them to TIFF from RAW I also stretch the histogram.

James

[SDM]

That's a good idea too James. A shutter speed that fast will freeze almost anything.