Sun in Whitelight 4th September 2016 08:00 BST.

[Steve Ward]

A slightly better session today , small window of opportunity as I forgot to set an alarm but better seeing ... 

And in answer to a few queries yesterday here are some subs  from today showing the range of quality I usually encounter when assessing a set , 15 frames from a set of 100 shot today , those on the left are the type I'll usually stack ( these are by no means as good as I capture some days) , those in the middle column are the sort that usually get put in the bin ( these were the kind I had to use yesterday ) and the right hand set are the kind that get slung out as completely unusable on even the worst days ... no point in doing anything with these , I'll either reshoot if the opportunity is there or I'll just put the day down as a 'bad'un' and sulk.  Not often that I get no frames to use luckily so Sulky Steve doesn't come out too often these days ... 

Click on the thumbnail below to see the full size version.

 

1000D + Tal 100RS + 1.4x Barlow + ND3.8 + OIII.

1/200s @ ISO 100 , 43/300 , PIPP , AS!2 , Reg 5.1 , Gimp 2.8.

[laudropb]

Very nice set Steve and thanks for the comparison of the subs. Very useful for those of us just starting out.

[Steve Ward]

5 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Very nice set Steve and thanks for the comparison of the subs. Very useful for those of us just starting out.

Here's a full size version to better see the difference , the pic I posted previously doesn't really show it being so small ... 

[Mark at Beaufort]

Steve thanks for the white light images - hopefully I will be able to view the Sun later - if it comes out!!

The collection of your subs is very interesting especially as I normally just take one with my DSLR. It shows I should take a lot more and merge the best in Photoshop CS5.

[Steve Ward]

Hi Mark , 

Better to shoot loads and cherry-pick the good'uns out to stack.

I generally shoot two or three sets of 100 frames on a 'decent' day , 400+ on a bad'un.

Better to use AuotoStakkert2 (AS!2) to combine the frames rather than PS , (or Registax if you want to faff around and get disheartened real quick)  it'll do a much better job.

[DrRobin]

Nice shot of the big sunspot group Steve.  

I am just waiting for a gap in the constant cloud to have a go.

Robin

[paulastro]

Nice images Steve.  Interesting the see the different subs and see which ones you use.  Mind you, as someone living in the dark ages and using single frames from an ordinary camera it's not something I have to be worried about

[Steve Ward]

I only stack single frames from an ordinary camera ... a Canon 1000D is all I use , not a fast framerate planetary camera , my framerate around 0.5 fps ... 

[Pete Presland]

Excellent capture.  Hopefully the good weather will coincide with the large A/R in the centre of the disc.

[johnfosteruk]

Great set Steve and a really interesting insight into your process. Thank you. 

[michael8554]

Hi Steve, nice images.

I'm a newcomer to white light dslr imaging, so I was intrigued by your exposures:

1/200th @ ISO 100

I had assumed that to beat seeing, exposure should be max ISO, fastest shutter - noise not being a factor with such an bright source ?

Michael

[Steve Ward]

I have an OIII filter in the mix for increased contrast and detail  , this along with my various customised camera settings means a slower shutter speed is employed.

( It does much the same as a Baader Continuum but was already in the arsenal so saved me another £100 , a UHC does work quite well too by the way , both set around the green part of the spectrum)

I use the ND3.8 Imaging film which allows me to keep the shutter speed in the 'sensible' range . (ND5.0 precludes the use of the OIII with decent shutter speed)

That said I have shot down as low as 1/8s through clouds before now and still caught good detail , so the 1/1000s and higher 'rule' is complete bunkum ....

ISO needs to be as low as possible I find , I sometimes go up to ISO 200 when increasing the Barlow from 1.4x to 2.6x for closer views , again to keep the shutter speed up there. Using ISO 1600 would fill the image with noise and kill any detail captured , certainly in my set-up at least.

I have tried without the OIII and using higher shutter speeds but there are two major drawbacks , firstly at very high shutter speeds a gradient appears on the 1000D due to the way the shutter operates , (more noticeable on mine because I Barlow the disc to nearly fill the sensor) and secondly without the OIII or similar in the mix the very fine detail is just not there to be captured ( the tiniest of pores , penumbral structure etc just disappears ) no matter what custom settings are tweaked .

The last reason is why I still use the 1000D and nothing 'newer' , I 'upgraded' to an 1100D but Canon have messed with something either chip-wise or processor-wise and after a fortnight of extensive and very frustrating test shooting I could not get anywhere close to capturing the details that the 1000D did , I returned it to the supplier and actually tested another body in their carpark just to make sure it wasn't a rogue body , it wasn't it's an inherent thing ... , I came away with a couple of extra s/h 1000D's instead ... 

[michael8554]

Thanks Steve

Very interesting information, particularly the shutter gradient at high speed.

Michael

[cshahar]

Really great results Steve! Your FDs are impressive.

-Charles