First solar shots!

[iceman]

Well I had my first light with my new solar filter yesterday morning.. funny that, sun shines during the day, but without fail the clouds will roll in after lunch.

I took some afocal digital camera shots (handheld), they turned out not too bad, will try again with the ToUcam next week. Pity there's not much activity on the sun atm.

I could only see one small sunspot yesterday, sunspot region 708. So I took some quick pics of it.

Anyway my question is, what post-processing do you do to white-light solar shots? These images were 1/200s exposures, focus @ infinity.

http://www.iceinspace.com/images/images/sun/20041208-sun1.jpg

http://www.iceinspace.com/images/images/sun/20041208-sun2.jpg

No processing done yet, apart from resize.

Also what are the ideal ToUcam settings for webcam images of the white-light sun?

For post-processing, is there a way to give it a yellow/orange colour, or are they best kept as white?

Thanks

[seeker372011]

Hey Ice:

I think the only way to get any colour in a white light solar image of this type is through false colour ...personally I prefer grey scale but colour- properly applied -can make a sun spot or group appear very dramatic.

I would be interested in recommended Toucam settings as well.

When I last tied to image the sun through a Coronado H alpha filter using my Atik 1 c I got some very peculiar blue (!) colouration.. I asked at the Atik yahoo group but no one could provide an explanation for this weird effect. I finally put it down to my having somehow got the settings in K3CCD all wrong.

[beren]

Cool stuff Ice :thumbsup:

[Saturn%5]

Hey Mike not too bad at all:cool:

[rumples riot]

You could manipulate the colour in Photoshop, and do some contrast adjustment too. Looks like you have some detail there on the larger imager.

Great shots, want to get into this myself, but with a Corando scope and a Ha filter. Can't afford that yet unless I sell my Unit. LOL.

Anyway good to see Solar stuff happening now, at least some day shots are coming in. I think your focus could also use a tweek. Other than that, these are fine shots.

Paul

[rumples riot]

Did a little processing on the top close up shot, hope you don't mind.

[gbeal]

Hi Ice,
for ages I used the Leica in afocal mode, never the TouCam.
I always had shots like yours, then tried a few different things.
I turned them to grayscale, and in the Brightness/Contrast setting upped (to about 40 - 60 from memory) the contrast, and then tweaked the brightness to look about right.
Upping the contrast has the effect of seemingly bringing out the solar granulation, and it wa s fine line between overdoing it.
Try it anyway, can't hurt.
Seeing around the middle of the day always seems to be rough, so again it is a tradeoff between elevation of the sun, and seeing, can't win.
Keep at it, and while the sun is quiet, perfect the technique, so when those big suckers appear you will be aready.
Gary

[iceman]

Thanks Paul and Gary, it is a good time to try that sort of stuff I guess, while the nights are cloudy and the sun is bare.

Also wouldn't mind trying a mosaic of the sun with the toucam, practise for when I try and do a mosaic of the moon :P

I've got the laptop this week, so sorry guys, it's gonna be cloudy and raining on the central coast all week.

Thanks for reprocessing it Paul, it looks better, though on this small LCD laptop screen it's hard to see too much.. I'm on a Peoplesoft course this week, so i'm sitting in the corner on the laptop waiting for something interesting to happen :)

[ving]

thats sol?
doesnt look bright enough :p

well done.

[mch62]

Great shots Ice , did you use an off aperature mask on your Dob for them with filter?
Have you played around with the white balance on your camera

Mark

[iceman]

Nah they were the full aperture being used, i'll try with the toucam this week with any luck.

[Mick]

Good start Ice, Now you just need some more sunspot activity. I think we are heading into Sol min, maybe that's why the weather is changing back, it's been a long 7 years with no real wet season up here. :confuse3: :confused:

[mch62]

Ice have you thought about trying an aperture mask in the scope, it has a lot of merits on brighter objects , especially the sun.
You don't need all that aperture for the sun . An 80 or 90mm mask on your 10" is all you need.
It has the advantage of effectively removing the effects of the secondary from the scope there by increasing contrast.
You all so wind up with significantly less comatic aberration (coma) and would be working at around f12-15.(depends on the mask size) It like having a high quality refractor.
It also cuts down on contrast robbing atmospheric turbulence of using the full 10".
And if the edge of your mirror is of unknown quality, you remove it from the equation as well . So you are using the best part of your mirror.
You can even uses 3 or 4 masks on the scope, combined adds up to more aperture for planetary use.
For the Sun or moon 1 is all that is needed.
Mark

[iceman]

I was going to make my solar filter off-axis, about 4" in size, but a guy on the CN forum reckoned that the effect was minimal and it was better to use the full aperture to get more detail.

All the reasons you stated are the reasons I was going to make mine off-axis, but in the end I ordered a 30x30 sheet and made it the full aperture.

I guess I'll see how it goes with the toucam later this week and if I notice too much turbulance i'll try masking off half of it.

Thanks mark.