Pre-eclipse Sunspots

[orion25]

I'm a little late posting this, but I came across a great test shot of the sun for the eclipse with prominent sunspots. It turned out to be my best shot of the sun so far, and it was taken simply with my Nikon D3200 (1/400, ISO 100) attached to my 127mm Mak-Cass on the day before the 8/21 eclipse:

 

[xtreemchaos]

great shot Reggie, my fav object in the sky. lovely detail. thanks. charl.

[Craney]

Those Sunspots were a blessing on eclipse day, as they were the most reliable means of getting a good focus.

How did you get on with framing the Sun with the Mak ??   My  C90 Mak  (FL=1350mm)  just about squeezed the Sun in, but I opted for a 0.5x reducer so that I could get the corona....  that led to a few interesting reflections....

S.

[orion25]

2 hours ago, xtreemchaos said:

great shot Reggie, my fav object in the sky. lovely detail. thanks. charl.

Thanks, Charl. The sunspots actually helped me focus, lol. I never considered photographing sol before the eclipse. Our star is truly lovely; I'll have to spend more time studying it.

Reggie

[orion25]

2 hours ago, Craney said:

Those Sunspots were a blessing on eclipse day, as they were the most reliable means of getting a good focus.

How did you get on with framing the Sun with the Mak ??   My  C90 Mak  (FL=1350mm)  just about squeezed the Sun in, but I opted for a 0.5x reducer so that I could get the corona....  that led to a few interesting reflections....

S.

Those sunspots did come in handy! I mainly wanted to use the Mak for portability as  I was traveling some 200 miles to totality. I had practiced at home to see how much of the sun would fit using the Mak (fl 1540 - tight!), though I had already planned to use a handheld camera shot with a separate camera to capture the corona. Pure novice here, lol! Here's the result of the Mak with totality followed by the handheld camera shot (with 300mm zoom):

 

[Craney]

Nice combo. You got the proms, I was a bit over exposed on the edges.    Yes, I learned so much of what to do and what not to do in 2 minutes !!!....   

Next time .... I'll nail it. 

 

Sean.

[orion25]

4 hours ago, Craney said:

Nice combo. You got the proms, I was a bit over exposed on the edges.    Yes, I learned so much of what to do and what not to do in 2 minutes !!!....   

Next time .... I'll nail it. 

 

Sean.

You had a whole extra minute, lol! I was in Cherokee, N.C. where totality lasted 1m 24 sec. I was manning a telescope, handheld DSLR and a little camcorder capturing the event in real-time; I felt like I was moving at light speed. Thank goodness I remembered to take off my glasses and look at totality (and look around a bit). It was an experience I'll never forget. Have you posted your images? You can post them here, if you like. I would love to see them.

Reggie

[Craney]

These are some of mine....  with the weird reflections....

 

[orion25]

1 hour ago, Craney said:

These are some of mine....  with the weird reflections....

 

Yeh, I remember these images. That was you? Haha. I didn't realize I had already responded to your post. Very unique!

[Pete Presland]

Very nicely imaged.

[orion25]

2 hours ago, Pete Presland said:

Very nicely imaged.

Thanks, Pete. My very first total solar eclipse! Next time around, I plan on just observing, not so much imaging. I only got a good ten seconds of eye contact with the eclipse during totality. But I'm not complaining! 

[Pete Presland]

I read quite a few people linked their cameras up with "auto capture" software, so they could observe the event more.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice captures!

[orion25]

15 hours ago, Pete Presland said:

I read quite a few people linked their cameras up with "auto capture" software, so they could observe the event more.

Hey, that sounds like a great idea. Thanks for passing that on. There's nothing like just observing a total eclipse

[orion25]

14 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Nice captures!

Thanks, Michael. They look even better than my eclipse shirt, lol!