Active Solar Regions ar756 and ar757

[iceman]

Hi guys.

Been too tired to stay out late or get up early for planetary in the last few days, so yesterday morning I decided to get some solar shots in before I headed out for Mothers Day shopping :D

Using my (homemade (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/?solarfilter)) white light solar filter, the view through the eyepiece was fantastic.. ar756 is HUGE! Seeing was only "ok" as the sun was still reasonably low at 8:30am.

I took some afocal shots with the digicam, but for some reason they turned out blurry, focus was off for some reason - the eyepiece view was focused. unfortunately I didn't find out they weren't focused until this morning :(

Luckily I also took some ToUcam shots. While planetary imaging with a Dob is frustrating and difficult, solar imaging with a dob is even more so. Of course I can't use the finder to line up the sun like I do with a planet, to allow it to drift through the FOV.. and when the sunspots are hidden away in the middle of the disc, it's very hard finding it on the chip in the first place, and the readjusting alignment so that it drifts through to take as many frames as possible.. very frustrating.
At newt prime focus it wasn't too bad, but with the barlow in it was almost impossible, I only got one workable avi and the sunspot region is so big, I only got 30 frames to work with before it drifted out of the FOV.

Anyway enough blah here are the results:

Details:
- 10" dob with ToUcam
- ~30-80 frames stacked & wavelets processed in registax
- Unsharp mask and levels adjusted in photoshop


ar756

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/images/images/sun/20050501-ar756.jpg


ar757

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/images/images/sun/20050501-ar757.jpg


ar756 and ar757

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/images/images/sun/20050501-ar756ar757.jpg


ar756 with 2x barlow (2500mm FL)

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/images/images/sun/20050501-ar756-big.jpg

Comments welcome.

[rumples riot]

Nice spots Mike, I think they are pretty good given the circumstances. Looks like they have been taken on a tracking scope. Keep up the good work.

[atalas]

Dido Mike!nice work alright .

Louie:)

[videoguy]

Nice work Mike. Yeah I had a squiz at it for the first time the other day..it's certainly a big bugger!

[Dennis]

Hi

Managed to grab 756 too, with my Vixen 102mm f9 refractor, Meade LPI and a Televue x5 Powermate. A single exposure of 1/1000 sec using Baader 3.8 astrophotography Solar Film Filter that is for photo use only - WARNING, NOT FOR VISUAL USE.

Brisbane, 29 April 2005, 10:10am.

Cheers

Dennis

PS - I'm new to the Group so hopefully, if the file uploaded successfully, it is less than 60K.

[Astroman]

Hi Dennis Welcome....

Ice and Dennis,

Amazing detail in those spots. Almost looks like something out of a medical journal.

Interesting to see the changes that occured between the time Mike's and Dennis' images were taken.

Well done guys.

[h0ughy]

top shots that , put mine to shame!

[h0ughy]

please doen't compare too much to mike's but taken this morning.

[toetoe]

Good pics all round to me. Sorry Mike but i think Dennis takes the detail plus shot of 756.

[tornado33]

Nice pics folks

[tornado33]

Hi again.
I saw that my telescope mount thats permanently set up is in the sun now that its clear of the house, so I set up the 10 inch scope and took these
http://www.users.on.net/~josiah/sun/full%20sun3may05.jpg
stack of 3 images prime focus
http://www.users.on.net/~josiah/sun/CRW_0124.jpg
one image with 2x converter, a bit of unsharp masking applied to both.

[h0ughy]

Tornado33

you just cant help yourself can you, great clear photos you took with that cheap brazillian camera of yours! Notice the new possible sunspot on the edge of the eastern limb. bit of activity there. I just can't beleive how you can get great focus like that from plastic lenses:P

[tornado33]

:)
This focusser guider makes focussing much easier too :)
http://www.users.on.net/~josiah/focuser/IMG_9933.jpg

[iceman]

Nice!

You bringing your scope on Saturday Scott?

[tornado33]

Sadly my 10 inch isnt portable, Im coming down with George, who will no doubt have a scope of his own. My equatorial mount is polar aligned and left more or less permenently set up in my back yard, covered against the weather.

[iceman]

George isn't bringing his 32" glass contraption is he? :D

[h0ughy]

its not a contraption it is state of the ART. that is lots of heART gone into making that. Methinks george has a lot of work to go on that one, but when he finishes it and has the mirrors aluminised, the ladder will be the next project:whistle:

[h0ughy]

I took this one when I was on holiday with the family in Shoal Bay. It was at sunset.

[h0ughy]

first there was this

[h0ughy]

then came this shot, after I took the sunspots. you can see the cloud about 1.5 sub diameters above the top of the sun in this position.

[h0ughy]

then to really make it special I got this one

[h0ughy]

then as i was packing up the colours changed again and got this one. Then it rained overnight and all of today. Thats when I came home around midday with the family. It is a pity about tonights Star party. Any detains for the impromptu one next week? Oh a BTW, Newcastle Astronomical SOciety is having Rev. Bob Evans on Tuesday night in Lecture theatre G1.1. from a promo email:

Dear NAS members

Ghul Hussain has just spoken to Robert Evans who will be speaking at the extra meeting on 10 May 7.30pm at the usual venue GP1.1. He will be delivering a colour slide show and requires a 35mm slide projector for the evening.

I hope to see all members, guests, and other interested people at the meeting. It should be a talk not to miss. Please let everyone know that they will be most welcome to attend.

Thanks in anticipation and regards

David Roberts

[toetoe]

Love the pics Houghy, fantastic shot of the sun and then you top it off with those sunset shots. 10/10 from me. :)

[h0ughy]

thanks Toetoe!