What to expect imaging with a solar filter?

[rnobleeddy]

Looking for projects for the summer where DSO imaging won't be possible. Plan A is lunar imaging (and many thanks to everyone who helped me on a thread a few weeks ago - I'm set to give it a go tomorrow if the clear skies hold!).

Plan B may be solar imaging but don't want to spend a lot of £ on a dedicated scope. So wondering what I might expect if I try https://www.firstlightoptics.com/solar-filters/astrozap-baader-solar-filter.html with one of my scopes? 

I have available 5", 8" and 10" F/5 Newtonians, a 60mm/360mm APO refractor (~280mm with reducer) and a decent 300mm Canon lens. On the camera front I've got a small colour ZWO planetary/lunary/guide cam and a larger QHY mono CMOS that can do a reasonable FPS with a smaller ROI. The QHY has a filterwheel with LRGB + HOS filters. And  for now, just a 2.25x APO barlow.

Not too knowledgeable on Solar imaging, and most of the advice I've seen covers using pretty expensive bespoke kit - so wondering if anyone more knowledgeable could point me in the direction of what (if anything) might work with the kit I've got? 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by rnobleeddy

[michael8554]

IIRC that filter will allow you to image sunspots.

The "expensive bespoke kit" have a narrow-band Ha filter that reveals lower layers of the sun's atmosphere where the prominences are - those looping features on the edge of the sun's disk.

Michael

[rnobleeddy]

19 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

IIRC that filter will allow you to image sunspots.

The "expensive bespoke kit" have a narrow-band Ha filter that reveals lower layers of the sun's atmosphere where the prominences are - those looping features on the edge of the sun's disk.

Michael

Makes sense - I'd spotted that the Ha scopes have a width of 0.1nm, so I'd guessed that a more standard 7nm Ha filter probably isn't going to do the same work!