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Solar imaging help


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Hi all!

its a beautiful clear day and as i havent been out with the scope since April! im going to nip out and do some solar work.

the problem is i struggle to track the sun for a good amount of time so i can get a large number of frames to stack, am i right in thinking the only way to track it is to put my mount on solar tracking?. also is there a average number of frames to get and stack?, i use my ED80 and my ZWO ASI120MC camera for imaging and i use sharpcap software aswell

any tips and tricks would be lovely!

thanks

chris 

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Solar rate would be better, although I am not sure there is a great difference between solar and sidereal.

I would have thought that the main problem was getting the scope aligned so that it trackes correctly.

On a Meade you can simply set the mount and scope as level as possible then using correct time and location and do what amounts to a dummy alignment, may be an option on them for start from level and North. The key is the level and North initial setting. I am not sure that this, or an equivalent, is available to a Synscan.

As to frames it seems typical to get 300-500 good ones, meaning 1000-2000 frames total from an avi file/movie. Presumption being you select something like the best 30% of the frames.

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thanks

when ive been out in the past i have leveled my mount pointed it north, set location and time and just skipped the rest, i will have to be very lucky if my tracking lasts for 1000-2000 frames but i will give it ago  

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Which mount are you using?

The HEQ5 will be the better option.

I would start by taking 1 or 2 thousand frames to stack but only using the best 15-20% of them, let registax or autostakkert decide on the best 20% to use.

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Any tracking mount will keep the Sun in view for a long time. There is no need to get fancy with the alignment, I just use a compass to align the mount roughly North during the daytime. I generally find the Sun stays in view for upwards of half an hour at a time.

Only provided you have pretty decent Polar-Alignment , whether achieved by design or luck , if the alignment is off by far then no mount will track for long ...  :rolleyes:

For full disc viewing a rough alignment will be OK but for close-up captures you need to be more precise else you will just get frustrated very quickly .

Setting the HEQ5 to Solar rate is a must and then setting the slewing rate to '0' will allow you to make minute adjustments as you capture , set the Reticule in SharpCap on a small prominent sunspot and then adjust as required ...  :smiley:

Happy hunting ...  :laugh:

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As luck would have it, our patio tiles are almost bang on 45 degrees off east to west, so if I line up two of the tripod legs with the edge of the tiles, the mount is nearly pointing north. When setting up for polar alignment at night, I drew some pencil marks on the patio where the legs were placed, so now I have a feel for how slightly crooked the mount needs to be against the line of tiles wherever I want to set up on the patio or on the decking (also lined up the same way). I don't level the mount, though it wouldn't be crazily off as our patio is reasonably level. I can get about three minutes or so at 4m focal length.

I tend to capture about one minute's worth of frames, whatever that works out as, as I think I read somewhere that some of the cell structures last about a minute or so, but it would be interesting to hear how long other folks image for.

Most of all, have fun!! :laugh:  I had a solar imaging frenzy today, quite tired out. I don't think I'll bother getting a CaK setup as well! :shocked:

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I'm pretty rough with mine and it works a treat. I know roughly where North is so I just plonk the mount down with a guess and rarely never in the same spot it was the day before and it's generally fine for full disc and close up shots.

I don't have a solar rate on the EQ3 motors so I just leave it normally and it is more than enough for an imaging session.

I think the trick is to set it up once at night and make sure it's right, the latitude setting is important here. Once that is set to your lat and you know the direction to point then it's fine.

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