A worm of sunspots - Dec 22, 2013

[Luke]

It was a bit windy, and I forgot to shoot in 16-bit, some of my shots had some telegraph pole wires in them, and I missed an airplane transit. I thought I had just hit record in time to catch the plane, but my grin and feeling pleased with myself turned to a frown when I saw the frame counter was still at zero and I'd missed the record button!...   But very happy to catch some vitamin D today! I was expecting it to be too windy / too cloudy before the big day

Just caught the white light visually as well before an ominous-looking cloud swooped in to try and soak the gear   I stacked about 400 frames out of 1700.

EDIT: whoops, only 1,000 years out with the date

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22/12/2013
Onyx ED80 / Grasshopper 3 (ICX687) / Lunt 1.25 inch Herschel Wedge / Solar Continuum / UV/IR block

[Bizibilder]

Nice capture - especially the white light.

PS Date fixed!

[Steve Ward]

Nicely done sir ...  ... the 'breeze' was a real pain today , good to see you stuck to it though .... 

[DrRobin]

Nice shot Luke, some great detail there.

I set up my smuggled ST80, wedge and DMK41 in my hand luggage on the plane, but by the time I set it up today the sun had got too far round. Hopefully tomorrow depending on the weather and Mrs DrRobin's mood.

Robin

[David Smith]

Nice work Luke.

[Montana]

It is a nice worm! weird!!

Super crispies

Alexandra

[Luke]

Thanks all

Thank you Roger for correcting the date

Dr Robin, look forward to your holiday snaps if all goes well. I am glad I am not the only smuggler on here, although I was in double trouble with my missus for promising I wouldn't take the webcam. I'm not sure I actually said the word "promise", though I must admit Sarah has a terrific memory.   

[Montana]

I'm surprised she wouldn't want to smuggle the webcam as well

Alexandra

[Luke]

I think Sarah wanted to get out and about on holiday and we were on holiday with her parents. Fortunately, her Dad is a night owl, so the early bird got the worm

[DrRobin]

Sunny from our balcony this morning over breakfast so I had a go. I had forgotten how much hard work a fixed tripod is, focus, get set up, sun drifts to far, so move the tripod by hand, refocus as I knocked it, oh and then cloud, start all over again. I can get about 800 frames max without touching the tripod but getting everything set right isn't easy.

Robin

[Luke]

You have to move the entire tripod? That sounds like an art! But if it works...

I use a mini giro on a Manfrotto tripod as my grab and go, which needs careful balancing, but the giro head does move the scope pretty smoothly.

It's lovely how imaging the Sun is possible without lugging a HEQ5 around and taking 4 hours of exposures