PST sunspot this lunchtime

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Quick stack of 120 frames before the clouds came back.

PST, SC3 + Barlow lens

Colour added in Photoshop

Captain Chaos

[Andrew*]

Fantastic! :sunny:

Exposure and focus spot on, I see!

Is it easy to get into solar?

Is all you need a solar filter, or what?

Andrew

[geppetto]

Wowsers! that looks good CC 8)

Nice to see the spot when it's near the limb, makes

for a good composition

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Is it easy to get into solar?

Is all you need a solar filter, or what?

Andrew

BE VERY CAREFUL WITH SOLAR OBSERVING AS YOU CAN GO BLIND IF YOU DO IT WRONG!!!!!!

Quite easy, all you need is a filter as you say, but that's half the story. To view or image prominences (or elephants) you need to get a narrow band 'scope setup. The entry level one is the Coronado PST which does images like this one. This is a hydrogen alpha band image though there are also calcium K band versions of the PST.

The filter only approach is what's known as white light images as there is no band pass filtering. There are many white light solar images in here. The filter is usually stuff called Baader film which comes in A4 sheets for around 20 quid, then you make a Blue Peter type way of attaching it so that it can't get blown off. You also have to check for holes in the filter before every use as the filter stuff can get damaged or scratched. You just hold it tup to the sun and look for light coming through it. Don't even think about using anything else and if you have a solar filter which scres onto the end of the eyepiece throw it away immediately and never speak to whoever gave it to you again.

Captain Chaos

[daz]

CC is your PST modified for imaging?

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

No Daz. Mine's a newer one which is more involved to modifiy so I haven't done anything with it.

Captain Chaos

[lunator]

CC

Excellent pic.

glad you got a chance to see the Sun between the clouds.

Cheers

Ian

[daz]

Ah yes of course, they moved the 'gubbins' didn't they?

(Excuse the technical terminology )