my first shot of the sun...

[AlexN]

Today, the THICK dust cloud that has descended upon Brisbane presented me with a very nice opportunity.. I went outside to have a coffee and a smoke, looked over to the west and saw the sun, its brightness was severely diminished by the dust in the air/atmosphere, and I was able to view it straight on without needing to squint... After looking at it for a moment as it sank into my neighbours banana tree, I thought to myself.. That would make a nice photo... I ran inside, grabbed the D200 and quickly snapped on my 80-400mm lens, zoomed it up to 400mm and took a few snaps.. I was happy looking at them on the cameras LCD, but when I opened them up on the PC and realised I'd also captured 3 sun spots.. Well.. needless to say I was incredibly happy..

Here is the full frame, and a 100% crop of the sun, including 3 sunspots.. :)

Alex.

[Lumen Miner]

Awesome shots!! I was not game to take the camera outside...

I woke up at 7am and the sky was blood red in Sydney..

Very clear shots given the conditions and not using a filter.... I am surprised you didn't capture a prominence... :)

[AlexN]

I initially thought.. mmm Dusty conditions, camera... probably not good.. But as it was my first opportunity to take a photo of the sun, I figured, how can I not do it... The lens had a UV/IR filter on the front, and it got a good wipe down when it came back inside.. I was amazed to see any sort of detail, although when I looked at them on the PC and saw sun spots etc, I was a little disappointed that there were no prominences...

[troypiggo]

Well done - seizing the very rare opportunity. Pretty impressive how you can make out sunspots!

[h0ughy]

i see you have taken a leaf from the RB solar viewing page of astrophotography - well done

[jjjnettie]

Spot on Alex. Well done.

[Dennis]

Nice work Alex, the sunspots have come up really well indeed! The pastel colour and tones also look more pleasing than some of those I have seen using full aperture solar filters!

Cheers

Dennis

[Matt Wastell]

Nice one Alex - I wanted to take a snap this afternoon (the sun looked like a blank moon through the dust) but it set before I could get home!
Thanks for sharing!

[matt]

Nice one, Alex.

There were some pretty amazing sights today in Bris. Our phones at work rang off the hook with people ringing to see if it was from bushfires:rolleyes:

Oh well...

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup: nice shots Alex :)

[daveg]

well done Alex a completely original shot. Agree with Dennis that pastel colour looks excellent. Those dust storms sound like "Outer Limits" stuff, we dont get anything as exciting as that here in Ireland.

Dave Gradwell

[AlexN]

Thanks everyone, I am very pleased with the image.. not only being my first of the sun, but as Dave said, very original..

Im still shocked that I managed such a shot considering... I suppose there is always an up-side to adverse conditions..