My first attempt at solar imaging

[Tardysweep]

Purchased a Thousand Oaks 14.25" glass solar filter about a week ago and finally had a day off to test it out. This is my first attempt at solar imaging. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Equipment:

Zhumell Z12 12" dob

Thousand Oaks 14.25" glass solar filter

Canon REBEL XSi 40D.

[Luke]

Fine first effort, much better than my first go, and lovely colours

Is it a single shot or a stack of multiple shots?

[Tardysweep]

This is a single image.

[Montana]

A fabulous first go I would definitely take a few hundred images in a an avi and then pass it through Autostakkert 2 and maybe stack the best 5-10% of images.

Alexandra

[Luke]

Tardysweep, I noticed after asking how many shots that you used a dob. I guess it's a manual dob like my similar 10 inch GSO. Is it possible to take multiple shots as a movie to stack?

I think Steve sometimes stacks just a few images, so if you are able to get a few together, it might help. Stacking is I think the single biggest improvement if you are able to take multiple images.

But if it's not possible, it's not possible... In that case, I would say try taking a lot of shots, maybe 50 or 60, if you haven't tried that already, and pick the sharpest one. It's amazing how much the quality of the view can shift.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice first image. Apart from stacking, focus is the main difficulty in imaging. The focus in your image seems ever so slightly off. After quite a few more images, I still struggle with focus on occasion.

[Bizibilder]

An excellent first attempt.  If you take lots of single frames (Just move the scope so they are in the fov. You can use PIPP (freeware) to crop and centre them and then stack them in Registax 5).  There is a tutorial here:  http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/153712-simple-white-light-solar-imaging/  That goes through a simple method.

[DrRobin]

Nice first image. Definitely try more images and stack. The focus looks slight off, it's not easy to get right, it's just practise and stacking and sharpening can help. Roger's tutorial will help, as will the other excellent guides on here.

Robin

[ArmyAirForce]

I posted this in another thread recently. It may help with sorting the focus.

I use a Nikon D50, so no live view. For DSLR focus, I look through the view finder and watch the edge of the disc. I find where it looks sharp, then back off until it starts to blur. Note the position of the focus wheel, then turn the other way back through focus until it blurs the other way, and note position of focus wheel. I then turn it to the half way point between the two positions.

[Tardysweep]

Thanks everyone for all the tips. My dob is not controlled and my camera does not have the video feature. Are there any eyepiece cameras you can recommend to use with a laptop for taking video? You are right about the focus when imaging the sun, it is much easier with the moon.