First attempt at solar imaging

[mattifor]

This is my First attempt at solar imaging using a Canon 400D

not sure what I ought to have had it's settings to.

coments are welcome

Using double stack Lunt 60t/50f

[zenofrag]

Hello,

Is your Canon 400D an astro modded one ?

I am using a modded Canon 400D for taking pictures of the sun in HA with a solar spectrum 0.3 ang filter, and also a cromixsun operating at 0.7 ang.

I often use 200 ASA and an exposure time of 1/250 or 1/350 second.

What settings did you use ?

It would be interesting to compare notes on this one.

Patrick

[mattifor]

Hello,

Is your Canon 400D an astro modded one ?

I am using a modded Canon 400D for taking pictures of the sun in HA with a solar spectrum 0.3 ang filter, and also a cromixsun operating at 0.7 ang.

I often use 200 ASA and an exposure time of 1/250 or 1/350 second.

What settings did you use ?

It would be interesting to compare notes on this one.

Patrick

Hi Patrick

Thanks for you reply

Yes purchased from Linton already modified

I had camera set to ISO 200

whith the mode dial set to A-dep

I have not tried changing exposure time as yet.

What do you set the mode dial to please?

As I said I am quite new to imaging.

Ivor

[zenofrag]

Hi Ivor,

I set the dial on my 400D to M for manual.

Patrick

[mattifor]

Thanks Patrick

If and when the snow stops and skies clear I will give that a try.

best regards

Ivor

[solarboy]

nice pic'y for a first go

[solarboy]

have you a photo of how you attached the camera i would like to have go myself i have a coronado 60mm with a bf15 blocking filter and 40D canon but not sure of the fittings

[mattifor]

have you a photo of how you attached the camera i would like to have go myself i have a coronado 60mm with a bf15 blocking filter and 40D canon but not sure of the fittings

I will see if I can do a photo tomorrow.

The Lunt 60 has bf1200 diaganal which has a T thread, I simply put my Canon EOS adaptor onto the T thread then put the EOS 400D body onto the T adaptor.

My problem at present is achieving correct focus, looking through the eyepiece it appears in focus but as you can see not focused well enough.

I also have the remote shutter trigger attached to the camera body so I donot disturb the telescope

[jgs001]

A good first go. I'm sure the 40d has live view. Activate it, zoom in 10x and use that to focus.

[mattifor]

A good first go. I'm sure the 40d has live view. Activate it, zoom in 10x and use that to focus.

I am afraid mine is a 400D this doesnot support live view.

Unless you know how to I have searched the manual but it is not there.

[jgs001]

I'm sorry, I was sure it read 40d, my eyes are getting worse. The 400d doesn't have liveview.

[Technobill]

It will be interesting to see how things develop for you. I have only tried using a colour cam a few times for the sun. A 40D and a Qhy8. While I think they create a beautiful 'heat' look to the processed image, I find they were always a bit too soft for me. I ended up opting for the mono vid, which I think gives sharper results due to the faster exposure and no pixel interpolation.

It will be nice to see how you go.

[mattifor]

Hi Solarboy

hope these help, If you need any more let me know

[ollypenrice]

I hadn't spotted the T thread on the 1200 diagonal... Thanks for that!

Could you work through a PC to get a much bigger image on which to check focus?

Your result is great for a non fast frame rate camera. In a similar vein I did try one of our mono CCDs but it saturated and bloomed even at 1/1000 sec. What I could do though is try it with a Powermate to slow the system down. I just don't have one, which is a setback...

Olly

[mattifor]

Thanks Olly.

I found the second T mount thread by accident when I could not get focus at all, I was unscrewing the T mount from the thread on the lenstube when the lens tube came loos from the B1200 I saw that the exposed thread looked like T thread.

Iattached the T mount to this thread, re attached the camera, adjusted the focuser best I could with the eyepiece and saw that it came close to focus.

Excuse my ignorance What is a Powermate and would it help me improve my images?

[Merlin66]

TeleVue Powermates

These powermates allow you increase the focal length and hence the plate scale of your images.

I use the x2.5 and x4 powermates regularly

[mattifor]

Thanks Ken

I think I wil lhave to wait untill Christmass spending has finished before I dare to buy anything else.

regards

Ivor