A beginner’s first view of the sun.

[Starslayer]

Despite the forecast being rubbish I had clear skies this morning. I had taken delivery of Celestron Eclipsmart 6” yesterday so out I went for a first go.  It took me while to line up even using my newly fashioned homemade solar finder. Bit chicken and egg that as I could not rely on the finder until I had located with the scope any way. Got there using shadow behind method then aligned the finder temp secured.  Impressed myself from thereon. Great view of the sun with all its spots at 2 o’clock ish.  I even tried to take a snap through the ep with my iphone hand held. The attached image is out of focus and not exactly what I was viewing but hey - it has a certain charm.   I have no AP aspirations. Just as well. 
 

I then swapped out the stock diagonal for the xlt 2” and had a play with different eps including the Baader zoom. Have to say, I resorted back to the stock set up with the 40mm plossal as this gave me the best results.  I was just eager to have a play with different things due to a lack of clear nights.      

Edited May 27, 2021 by Starslayer

[Dark Vader]

It's a start. It does look like your phone camera has auto focused on the edge of the eyepiece instead of what was in it. Was there any room to get the camera closer to the eyepiece?

If that eyepiece has an eye cup, it might help folding it up and resting the phone camera against it, in the absence of a phone mount.

It's a lovely colour though...

Andy 

 

 

[Starslayer]

15 minutes ago, Dark Vader said:

It's a start. It does look like your phone camera has auto focused on the edge of the eyepiece instead of what was in it. Was there any room to get the camera closer to the eyepiece?

If that eyepiece has an eye cup, it might help folding it up and resting the phone camera against it, in the absence of a phone mount.

It's a lovely colour though...

Andy 

 

 

Thanks Andy but honestly, this was done on the spur of the moment mainly as my youngest daughter keeps asking if I have found any little green men yet. ( she is 29! ).   I just got the phone near the eye piece and pressed the button. I hope this is not the start of a journey down another expensive rabbit hole.  I really am not in to photography of any sort.   

Edited May 27, 2021 by Starslayer

[Stu]

Good stuff @Starslayer, the active regions are looking nice today.

I use ProCam 8 on my phone which really helps to fix focus and exposure, example result from today attached so you can see what’s possible from a relatively quick shot.

Enjoy your scope! Solar does open up more observing opportunities, it can often be clear during the day but cloudy at night😬😬

[Dark Vader]

8 minutes ago, Starslayer said:

Thanks Andy but honestly, this was done on the spur of the moment mainly as my youngest daughter keeps asking if I have found any little green men yet. ( she is 29! ).   I just got the phone near the eye piece and pressed the button. I hope this is not the start of a journey down another expensive rabbit hole.  I really am not in to photography of any sort.   

Spur of the moment was my first go on the moon. Seeing was very steady so I gave it a go and if I'm honest I got 1 half decent shot out of 20 or so.

All you'll need for some really decent results is something like this.

https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/celestron-nexyz.html

I'm really just into visual but take the odd few lunar shots. Single shots on automatic with the shutter timer set to avoid any vibration. Not tried Solar yet. I might try some pics of Jupiter and Saturn when they are up at a reasonable time but that's the limit of my AP skills.

[Starslayer]

23 minutes ago, Stu said:

Good stuff @Starslayer, the active regions are looking nice today.

I use ProCam 8 on my phone which really help to fix focus and exposure, example result from today attached so you can see what’s possible from a relatively quick shot.

Enjoy your scope! Solar does open up more observing opportunities, it can often be clear during the day but cloudy at night😬😬

Thanks.  Obviously my view through the ep was clear and the spots obvious. My limited knowledge also indicates that your view was reversed l / r.  😉 Managed to get the wife to have a peek although I am nit sure the view was convincing against the fiscal layout!  😂😂

 

[Starslayer]

2 minutes ago, Dark Vader said:

Spur of the moment was my first go on the moon. Seeing was very steady so I gave it a go and if I'm honest I got 1 half decent shot out of 20 or so.

All you'll need for some really decent results is something like this.

https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/celestron-nexyz.html

I'm really just into visual but take the odd few lunar shots. Single shots on automatic with the shutter timer set to avoid any vibration. Not tried Solar yet. I might try some pics of Jupiter and Saturn when they are up at a reasonable time but that's the limit of my AP skills.

Yes, saw those and that is acceptable and probably likely in time.  I really am not into dangling expensive digital cameras off the back end etc.  Need to make sure that I have sufficient room to mount one of those with the starsense explorer stuff attached as well. 

[Starslayer]

1 hour ago, Starslayer said:

 

Haha. I see now you are also in Surrey so you feel my recent pain.  😀

[Louis D]

Next time, try tapping on the edge of the sun on your phone's screen to get it to focus on the sun rather than on the eyepiece.

[Neil H]

Hi using a phone with out a mount is so hard so get a phone to eyepiece mount , depending on what phone you have there are loads of apps to control the phone camera , Samsung phones have the voice control so this stops the camera shake as you take the photo other makes may also be able to do this only had samsungs

[Stu]

20 hours ago, Starslayer said:

Haha. I see now you are also in Surrey so you feel my recent pain.  😀

Yes indeed! 😱

[Spile]

Digital is not my usual territory but as I have just finished making a solar hood, I thought I would give it a go with my OnePlus 8 Pro and Celestron phone mount. It is certainly a lot easier to do in daylight! 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Spile

[Starslayer]

So today I am seeing no sun spots at all. Yesterday just a faint spot at around 4 o’clock. Much less than the day before.  Is is the activity at the sun that changes or is it due to our rotation around it giving a different angle?

Edit - go back to scope and a couple have now appeared towards 12o’clock.  Fascinating.

Edited May 30, 2021 by Starslayer

[Starslayer]

Homemade solar finder is working really well though. 😇

Edited May 30, 2021 by Starslayer

[wookie1965]

I got these couple of days back. Through my Tal 100rs lunt herschel wedge 25 and 15mm BST Starguiders with a galaxy S10. 

[Stu]

16 minutes ago, Starslayer said:

So today I am seeing no sun spots at all. Yesterday just a faint spot at around 4 o’clock. Much less than the day before.  Is is the activity at the sun that changes or is it due to our rotation around it giving a different angle?

Edit - go back to scope and a couple have now appeared towards 12o’clock.  Fascinating.

There are actually three ARs visible today. None are that dramatic though.

AR2824 shows as a patch of faculae on the limb. AR2827 is fair easy to see, probably 10 spots, one with a penumbras region around it, and AR2828 was showing as four small spots earlier but last time I looked it was down to two.

I took some fairly poor images of them earlier today, posted here along with a snapshot from SpaceWeatherLive showing the IDs of the ARs.

 

[Louis D]

3 hours ago, Starslayer said:

Is is the activity at the sun that changes or is it due to our rotation around it giving a different angle?

The active regions on the sun do change over the course of days.  When they are visible is also due to the sun's rotation rate of about 25 to 35 days.  It varies by latitude.  Fastest at the equator, slowest at the poles.

[Stu]

3 hours ago, Starslayer said:

Is is the activity at the sun that changes or is it due to our rotation around it giving a different angle?

Spots take about 12.5 days to cross the disk as the rotation period is about 25 days. They do evolve and change fairly frequently. People seem to consider white light features as fairly static, but if you observe through a day you see them change a fair amount. AR 2828 showed as four spots when I first looked at it today, and was only two later on. Larger ARs can show fantastic detail and change so they are well worth observing frequently. Of course, as the sun crosses the skies it also appears to rotate so the spots appear to rotate in their position from morning until night but that is not a true movement.

 

[IB20]

Not great imaging conditions today but grabbed this of AR2827. Occasional dark filaments showed in the umbral region of the larger spot. I assumed solar viewing would be fairly slow paced but sunspots change readily from day to day.

[Starslayer]

So following advice on here and with thanks to a SGL member I have just had my first attempt using the nexyz mount.  Other than the slight focus issue the glare at the top is annoying but hey - first go. Room for improvement. Any ideas on the glare though would be appreciated.  Edit - thought. Any good placing a cloth or similar over the whole assembly once timer set on the phone? 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Starslayer

[Dark Vader]

I've only used mine on the moon so haven't really encountered glare like that. I'm a long way from expert in this.

For what it's worth, here's what I would check:

The eyepiece 'surround', for want of the correct term, seems quite bright.

Could the glare be reflection from the lens coatings at the eyepiece end? How close is your phone camera lens from the eyepiece? 

Can you adjust the Z axis any more to bring the phone lens close to touching the eye cup?

Have you tried using the camera zoom on 2x?

Any or all of these could help cut down any stray light from the camera end, but as I say I'm no expert...

Andy

 

[Starslayer]

I have played around with eyepiece and shroud etc. Also z axis distance. Tried a ‘blanket’ over the assembly but did not do anything.  2x zoom a good call though and I also covered the area around the eyepiece with my hands. Simple thing like that had a benefit. Tiny bit of glare but much improved.  I don’t think moon shots will have this issue somehow. 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Starslayer

[Starslayer]

On 31/05/2021 at 21:45, IB20 said:

Not great imaging conditions today but grabbed this of AR2827. Occasional dark filaments showed in the umbral region of the larger spot. I assumed solar viewing would be fairly slow paced but sunspots change readily from day to day.

Novice question but what filter have you used there please?

[Starslayer]

Ok, I think I am hooked. 😇

 

[Spile]

32 minutes ago, Starslayer said:

 

That would make a brilliant painting that you could probably sell at a top end auction and make enough to buy an observatory. Please remember me when you make your fortune.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I noticed that my quite heavy OnePlus 8Pro tilts when in the Celestron NexYZ mount which could account for glare. I attached a small strip of felcro to the mount as a shim to counter the tilt.

Edited June 8, 2021 by Spile