First Go At The Sun in Ha with the Lunt35

[Purplehayze104]

Hi SGL

after buying a Lunt35 at the IAS in Warwick couple weeks back & been gobsmacked by the views I've had thru it, i finally got round to trying it out for imaging. Decided to use the QH5YL-II Mono camera, as not sure if/how or can attach a DSLR to it (will investigate that). Not really used the camera since i bought it with lack of time to set up with lappy etc then get everything working of an evening so been mainly using the Synscan for tracking. So i stuck the Lunt on my EQ3.25 it was rock steady must of been a first for that mount plugged everything in & went about focusing etc on the lappy best i could. been bit of a learning curve as not really used much of the other capture software out there for imaging planets etc so i stuck with Sharpcap2 as was getting best results on it.

started taking the avi's around 5.30 - 6pm seeing was a bit wobbly on the sun but as was first attempt i dint mind &ended up taking 6 avi's of around 500 frames, couldn't recall settings i used for it.

I run each of the files thru AS2 as was having trouble with Registax as wouldn't process & got errors think be using AS2 more from now on.

after creating the Tiffs i put them into Photoshop & used the Photomerge function which being a newbie to PS i thought was wizardry ended up with a full disk which i was proud of as worked first time.

this image is processed following some great video tutorials on this link http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/p/imaging-tutorials.html only run throu the first of them to see how it went.

starts to look a bit pixelly as you zoom in, maybe due to the camera's sensor being 1.2mp not sure but any tips or hints that mite help improve my images will be greatly appreciated.

well thanks for looking

regards

john

[JB80]

Very promising start for sure. Very good job.

I would imagine the QHY will give you infinitely better results than a dslr, after faffing about with a dslr on the PST I can safely say a ccd is the way to go. Not impossible but the QHY is a very good cam.

[David Smith]

Nice work.

[Luke]

Very nice image indeed, John    How cool is that, from a 35mm scope?

The Sun - not only awesome, but practical too, a nice big bright target 

[Purplehayze104]

thanks for the positive replys everyone

im very impressed with my the lil 35 was sceptical about its abilities for imaging but certainly working well, definately got the solar bug haha defo a big bright target when its out, ive used this lil scope more in the last few weeks than i have with my 150p all year.

[Montana]

This is an extremely good shot, you will see great things with this little Lunt :)

Alexandra

[DrRobin]

Nice one John, actually no, superb.  A great little performer the Lunt 35 and the QHY.  I also notice that there are no Newton Rings, which is just encouraging me to try my ASI120MM (same chip) on my Ha scope.

Robin

[Purplehayze104]

thank you kindly Alexandra & DrRobin

ive heard of these newton rings in a few other threads but have never experienced any to know wot they were like to veiw, but am glad that ive not got them, my lil QHY is certainly earning its worth with the solar imaging only niggle i have for now is the helical focusser as seems a bit to easy to rotate & defocus the cam is there any small mod i can do to tighten things up a bit ?

and by the way i was told to use a barlow with cam but i've not needed it so far

regards

john