The Sun

[Darren (Darren Miller)]

Hi all, I purchased an Orion Full Aperture Solar Filter this week and this is my first photo using it. Its a single frame captured with my Long Perng 80mm F/6 Refractor, GSO 2x Barlow Element fitted to the Camera T-Adapter, Canon 1000D DSLR, Remote Shutter Release, GSO Skyview EQ Mount set up as a Heavy Duty AZ Tripod. ISO 200 1/1250 Second Exposure. Processed with Photoshop Elements 8 - Contrast/Brightness, Hue, Saturation, High Pass Filter and Rotated (to match the reference image on NASA's SOHO website).
Regards,
Darren

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Very nice capture!
You've recorded the new sunspot group just coming onto the disk (at around 10 o'clock on the disk)
Well done!

[von Tom (Tom)]

Nicely done Darren. I like the look of that new sunspot group.

[Darren (Darren Miller)]

Thanks guys Just come back in from taking some more photos - I'm Converted! A friend recommended dropping the ISO to 100 and using Mirror Lock-Up. This time I put the scope onto my Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro Mount so I could track the Sun and used the Canon 50D, I also used the Laptop to focus and take the shots - hope to have them processed soon - going to try stacking frames this time (This is all new to me). Going back out to try the webcam as well first. Any advice is greatly appreciated
Regards,
Darren

[sheeny (Al)]

Nice work Darren - good job for a single frame. Looking forward to what you can do with the webcam and stacking.

Al.

[Darren (Darren Miller)]

Best I can do at the moment - both my computers are struggling/crashing with the image processing load of the 15MP images. Stack of 15 frames - via Registax 5.1 - from the Canon 50D ISO 100 1/640 Second Exposures with Mirror Lock-Up, Tracked on Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro Mount, 50D under PC Control for the exposures/shutter firing. Some Wavelet processing to sharpen the details. Still working on the Webcam images