Autoguiding on the Sun?

[michaelmorris]

I'm putting together my plans to image the transit of Mercury on 9th May. I'd like to try to put together a time lapse. However, with the whole event lasting over 7 hours, I'm going to have to very regularly check that the Sun is centred in the field of view.

I know that Fire capture software can autoguide on a planet or the Moon or Sun.  Is there a piece of software that can do this with a DSLR?

 

[michael8554]

A lot depends on your FOV, Mercury was tiny and hard to see on my 7th May 2003 full-disc images, but unmistakable on my much smaller FOV webcam images.

If you're lucky there may be a sunspot on the day, but will it move too much in 7 hours?

Will PHD or FireCapture work on a "black" star in a "white" sky?

Michael

[jambouk]

Michael, is it possible to see your full disc 2003 images? I've not even seriously thought how to take inages on the day, i was thinking of full disc with the dslr and short focal length scope, but it sounds like this might not be ideal. I wonder how Mercury would appear if using an Ha filter like a Quark?

james

[michaelmorris]

1 hour ago, jambouk said:

Michael, is it possible to see your full disc 2003 images? I've not even seriously thought how to take inages on the day, i was thinking of full disc with the dslr and short focal length scope, but it sounds like this might not be ideal. I wonder how Mercury would appear if using an Ha filter like a Quark?

james

In 2003 I didn't have a camera!  I did a drawing instead.

[Psychobilly]

I wonder... I'm interested to see what people come up with..  When I was dabbling with planetary I used to autoguide on the planet  through a frac while imaging through the SCT at high(ish) FR's...

I'm having doubts about a full disc timelapse of the whole event myself as well especially if the video is downscaled will there really be much to see.....

I had thought about tweaking the alignment  the night before and hoping...

For the last eclipse I was setup on the tripod in the factory carpark so the alignment wasn't that good and I had to make a few corrections - especially when people insisted on  holding onto the EP in the Solar scope that was mounted side by side with the WL setup...

I am hoping that Mercury will be passing  some features in Ha that I can capture with the LOHA and 618... so was going to leave some extra space on the WL image to allow for the full disc image moving around  s while the EQ'6 is  tracking "mercury"...

Peter...

 

 

 

[jambouk]

Yes i've often throught about guiding on the planet when imaging it, but i now get the PA good enough that it stays on he sensor for hours anyway. 

It's a shame the guiding software wouldn't all you to invert the image and guide on mercury against the backdropof the solar disc, though even so you'd struggle just prior to the transit happening or just as it ended...

james

[jambouk]

These images of the 2003 transit make me think I'd be happy with full disc shots. It'll probably be cloudy anyway:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030527.html

James