My first sunspot images: regions 2785 and 2786

[Nik271]

This is my first try of solar imaging. I learned that the Sun is becoming more active recently and yesterday (1 December) was sunny for a change. So I decided to give it a go. I have a Skymax 127 and 120mm diameter (white light) solar filter which I bought last year for the transit of Mercury but have not used since.

I took a few single images with Canon 250D and  a video of 4500 frames of which I stacked the best 20% with Autostakkert. Then I sharpened in Registax, basically following my planetary routine. So here  goes the single frame

And stacked region of interest:

I'm quite happy how it turned out, did not expect to see so much detail with a basic filter. I think even the granulation is showing up near the spots.

Now I have another object to photograph in daytime

I have a basic question: if I want to use a H-alpha sun filter do I also need an astromodified camera?

Cheers,

Nikolay

 

[CraigT82]

Very nice images, just getting into solar myself (well, ordered a white light filter anyway!)

As I understand it, the Ha wavelength of 656.3nm would ordinarily be mostly rejected by a standard daytime camera's IR filter, so an astromodded one would be much more suitable.

Edited December 2, 2020 by CraigT82

[Nik271]

4 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

Very nice images, just getting into solar myself (well, ordered a white light filter anyway!)

As I understand it, the Ha wavelength of 656.3nm would ordinarily be mostly rejected by a standard daytime camera's IR filter, so an astromodded one would be much more suitable.

 

I was afraid so. Oh well, perhaps I should just invest in a dedicated mono camera for astrophotography. 

[Davey-T]

10 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

As I understand it, the Ha wavelength of 656.3nm would ordinarily be mostly rejected by a standard daytime camera's IR filter, so an astromodded one would be much more suitable.

To capture solar Ha needs a dedicated solar filter which costs a lot of money, white light images with DSLR capture a different layer of the solar surface, however white light images produce excellent pictures of sun spots.

Dave

Edited December 2, 2020 by Davey-T

[CraigT82]

Yes unfortunately there is no cheap way to see the chromosphere features... proms, filaments, spicules etc. due to the extreme narrowness of the Ha passband required (tenths of a nanometre) in order to keep out the severe brightness of the underlying photosphere. Plenty to see in white light though! 

[Luke]

Congrats on your first solar images! That's some really impressive close up detail, great start!

Could be a good time to get more into solar early in the new solar cycle, with hopefully years of fantastic spots to come.

I've seen some nice DSLR shots of solar h-alpha, but most folks do go the mono camera route. On the plus, a really good camera for solar is a lot cheaper arguably than the equivalent really good deep sky camera! And it may work well for lunar too and maybe planets as well.

[Stu]

Wonderful image Nikolay. The stacking makes a huge difference doesn’t it? Excellent detail!

[Nik271]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

Wonderful image Nikolay. The stacking makes a huge difference doesn’t it? Excellent detail!

Indeed! I couldn't spot this detail visually. I've read about the granulation of the photosphere but it's still amazing how it shows up after processing.

To me the level of difference seems similar to the detail visible in DSO imaging vs visual observation.

I'm comforted from what Luke said above that a solar camera should be cheaper than a deep sky camera, after all there are more photons coming from our local star

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

Indeed! I couldn't spot this detail visually. I've read about the granulation of the photosphere but it's still amazing how it shows up after processing.

To me the level of difference seems similar to the detail visible in DSO imaging vs visual observation.

I'm comforted from what Luke said above that a solar camera should be cheaper than a deep sky camera, after all there are more photons coming from our local star

That sort of detail is definitely possible visually under excellent conditions at high power, that’s one of the reasons I love White Light observing!

[Nik271]

14 hours ago, Stu said:

That sort of detail is definitely possible visually under excellent conditions at high power, that’s one of the reasons I love White Light observing!

That's good to know! I will try with high power next time. (Considering the weather it may be some time)