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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Some Pretty good Solar pics on a Good Friday

29 March 2013

On this bright and sunny Good Friday day, I set-up the 102mm Celestron Refractor/Baader Solar Filter on the CG-5 mount - using the Canon Powershot S3 with the Maxview 2" Adapter eyepiece and 2x Barlow for this session...

I had always felt that the wrinkles in the much touted Baader solar filters would degrade the image, but no. The loose look of the foil-like filter imparts no distortion.

Normally, I would wait till about 10:00 am to start a session, as the Solar disk is high enough to peek past obstructions and the air less turbulent. But, as the Sun makes it way back up north, I'm getting new sight angles earlier. So this session starts out at about 8:00 am.

Let's see what we got...

Oh cool...the solar face has sprouted new Sunspot groupings since yesterday's imaging session...

Seeing conditions are a lot better this day and some decent imaging of solar activities are being pried out this session. But Sunspot grouping #1704 is loving having his pic taken...

Displaying excellent magnetic field lines, (with this limited aperture), I wonder how tight I can get...

Wow....almost Amoeba-like I must say!

Some graphical play...

#1704 is certainly very photogenic...

So ends another Chicago Astronomer Solar Session.

[Paulie pchris00]

Amoeba-like.

I think I'll go have a look now.

[Paulie pchris00]

I also observed the Sun and tried documenting it Friday. At the moment, my Sun funnel is disassembled for maintenance, making it very difficult for me to document any solar activity.





Using the masked down solar filter for my 4.5" Newtonian, I tried imaging with a 20mm eyepiece, a #12 yellow filter, and my cell phone camera. During lunar observations, I've noticed there is a sweet spot to getting images with my phone when using either my 20 or 25 mm EPs. I need to find the sweet spot, then back the camera away from the eyepiece, making it very hard to get a steady shot.






Looking for the imaging sweet spot with a 20mm EP. Although this eyepiece shows the entire solar disk visually, I could not seem to find a spot that would capture the full disk photographically.




Switching to a 25mm EP, I can now get the full solar disk, but it is overexposed.






Adjusting the camera settings brings down the overexposure, but it is so hard to keep the shot steady. Specks of dirt from mirrors and lens are much more visible than any sunspot.


Visually observing, I was able to see most of what Joe observed above, the only difference being that I didn't push magnification. I also tried getting a shot using the old fashioned projection method.




The white light projection method is great for visual observation, but not well suited for photographic documentation.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Paulie,

You'll find what the Smartphone likes in time.

Holding it steady with hands is a lesson in frustration. I'm not kidding - use duct tape. Soften the grip by patting down clothing and use a single strip to "grab' onto the phone. This is what I do with the Samsung pocket camera for my solar pics...and they come out well.

Also,

I don't know what kind of Smartphone you have, but manipulating the camera settings will do you good. If you use the duct tape technique, then you can apply the self-timer option. Then all you have to do is track and shoot.

And....

" my Sun funnel is disassembled for maintenance"

I understand about filling empty gin bottles....