Solar with Nikon D3100 and Fujifilm 10mp Compact

[Aussie Dave]

With more blue sky than cloud and this only being my 2nd attempt at solar, I had a leisurely couple of hours in the backyard mid-afternoon capturing that spot. I'm still not that cluey on how to process solar correctly.

Captured using the Celestron Nexstar 8i and solar white light film filter.

Not the best DSLR for using with a telescope, the Nikon D3100 did ok, prime focus just with the white light film filter, It had some purple fringing and the spot turned out purple too, not sure why, also some cloud rolling through. I think I've over processed the inverted shot.

 

The second run was with an orange filter, 1 polarising filter, A-focal, unbranded 40mm EP and the Fujifilm 10mp compact digital camera.

 

The last run was with a blue filter, 1 polarising filter, A-focal, unbranded 40mm EP and the Fujifilm 10mp compact digital camera. The blue filter seemed to work well on all the blue filtered shots.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Some nice results, especially for afocal. Maybe you should have a go with a green filter (or Solar Continuum).

[xtreemchaos]

nice shots Dave, the last 3 are very good for your 2nd go, i put my camera on 200iso auto WB, exposure 1/4000 and take about 200 frames 35% staxed. if that's any help.thanks charl ps i auto balance my colours in regi befor staxing.

[Aussie Dave]

45 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Some nice results, especially for afocal. Maybe you should have a go with a green filter (or Solar Continuum).

Thanks Michael. I just searched for Solar Continuum and it came up with very narrow bandpass filters for sun spot detail and granulation. This is what I'm trying to pull out of my photos atm. I'm leaning towards a H-alpha filter, they seem to be the go and give good results. Are these 2 filters similar and could I also use the Ha for DSO's as well?

I actually thought about using the green but decided on blue today. Will the green filter be more noticeable in bringing out some more detail than what I've been getting? I have green 56, 58 and 58A. Have a few blue filters too, blue has worked best so far.

 

28 minutes ago, xtreemchaos said:

nice shots Dave, the last 3 are very good for your 2nd go, i put my camera on 200iso auto WB, exposure 1/4000 and take about 200 frames 35% staxed. if that's any help.thanks charl ps i auto balance my colours in regi befor staxing.

Cheers Charl and I could always do with help I tried many ISO and exposure speeds and couldn't get much from my old worn out Nikon. It will soon be thrown in the junk box. I'm on the lookout for a couple of newer camera's and hopefully in a month or 2 I'll be getting some better results to work with.

I wanted to do an avi of the spot again today for stacking (tried on my first attempt too) but I couldn't get any detail, even on the edge of the sun with my webcams, nothing at all on live view. I'm still working on that. It would've brought that spot out nicely, higher magnified image and clearer.

There's always next time.

[laudropb]

Nice set of images.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

H-alpha filters for DSOs have a bandpass of several nanometres, those for solar have bandpasses about 100 times narrower. So, no, the filters for DSOs will not work

[Pete Presland]

Nice capture.

[Davey-T]

Very artistic set of images Dave.

Dave

[paulastro]

Well done for persisting until you achieved some good results Dave.