BEFORE I SAY ANYTHING FURTHER I MUST WARN EVERYONE (there will be the regular layperson browsing through this forum) THAT TAKING PICTURES OF THE SUN REQUIRES LOOKING AT THE SUN, AND NEVER EVER LOOK AT THE SUN UNLESS YOU TAKE ALL PRECAUTIONS BY SPEAKING TO SOMEONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO SAFELY DO SO. IF INSTANT BLINDNESS DOES NOT OCCUR, YOU'RE GONNA BOIL YOUR EYE BALL THROUGH THE MAGNIFICATION OF ANY TELESCOPIC DEVICE OR EVEN THROUGH A ZOOM LENS, AND IF NOT, REGULARLY DOING THIS AT LOWER MAGNIFICATION WILL ADD TO THE CUMULATIVE TRAUMA EXPERIENCED BY YOUR EYE AND CAUSE BLINDNESS IN THE LONG TERM.
My mate Sid encourages me to thoroughly enjoy Astronomy with whatever I've got, and I suppose this is the main message of this post. He called me yesterday whilst I worked in the study to say,
you've gotta have a look at the activity on the Sun today, so, dutibound, and obsessively, I looked. He also said the activity on the sun was pretty quiet last week. I took his word for it!, I also thought it was raining much of last week in Sydney.
I have had a rekindling of my interest as an adult in Astronomy thanks to Sid, and the last time I had any interest I was 12 or so with a local supermarket refractor purchase by my parents. I remember shining the sun's spots onto a white surface then.
Years later,, here too is a humble look at our local neighbourhood star with very simple equipment. I would think that technically this sort of picture was able to be taken by just about anyone. Having gone to the relatively minor effort of taking the picture, I appreciate the other solar images I see on this and other forums (SOHO) even more.
Before I took the pictures I got the 6 and 9 year olds to sneak a view and managed to get a low pitched "woooooooow" from them, satisfying my fatherly instincts like a panadol to the headache that fatherhood can be.
- Andrews 20 x 80 binoculars
- Baader film filter constructed with cardboard and Tarzan's grip (this was an afternoon I annoyed the wife as I took over the kitchen table)
- Fuji FinePix AV100 Digital Camera (held free from bino over its eyepiece with steady hands)
- Tripod
- An imminent sunset, about 5 o clockish.
- A what the heck, give it a go attitude, see what happens!
Camera Settings:
- Focal length 6mm
- Aperture F/2.9
- Exposure time 1/125 secs
- ISO - 100
- Exposure Compensation setting -2 steps on camera.
- A dirty glass window pane stood between the binoculars and the sun, which will not be apparent in this picture.
Here, finally, is the shot:
