Sun spots May 25th

[U.K.Cowboy]

After imaging Saturn for the last couple of months I decided to go for something a little brighter and higher in the sky so broke out the skymax 127 and sweated under a towel for an hour or so. These are only my 3rd ever Solar images so I'm not sure whether I've processed them properly and if my attempt at false colour is any good.

QHY5L cam used + Skymax 127 & Diagonal. 1.5x drizzle.

Comments and critique are welcome. Btw is an IR 742 filter of any use on this kind of imaging (white light)?

[EricB]

Hi Stuart,

Having no experience in solar, I can only congratulate you on your imaging effort.

Do you use Baader astro solar film?

My understanding is that a filter such as the Baader Solar Continuum (http://www.myastroshop.com.au/products/details.asp?id=MAS-019R) in addition to the Baader film, would help getting a finer granulation.

Cheers,

Eric

[h0ughy]

nice work but try it at the base resolution as the image is not sharp. there is some interesting detail there. the urge to push the data to a larger scale is very tempting.

[U.K.Cowboy]

Thanks for the filter info Eric. Yes it is the Baader astro solar film I've used.

I've ordered a .5x focal reducer as my attempt at a full mosaic failed miserably. Although the QHY cam has a larger sensor the image scale being 1.5x larger than my DFK means the fov is not a lot better.

Thanks David I shall rein in the image scale as you say bigger is not always better and I may revert to a mono image as I feel that gives better contrast than trying to produce a false colour.

[asimov]

Good to see you branching out & diversifying Stuart. I'd say forget the drizzling until you cop some sweet seeing. For WL imaging with the Baader film, it is mandatory that an IR/UV cut be used with my DMK21/ED80 so I'm assuming you'd need to use one too. I tried it with no filtering of course..

[U.K.Cowboy]

Thanks John. I used the colour cam with IR/UV filter as I was horrified by the amount of dust on my mono sensor which I need to clean as my bulb blower failed to shift it I need to use cleaning fluid i.e lens cleaner?