White Light Solar - Herschel Wedge: Fired up the QHY 462c camera on an Astro-Tech 65 EDQ scope with an Herschel Wedge White Light solar filter, mounted on an iOptron CEM26 EQ mount.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Fired up the QHY 462c camera on an Astro-Tech 65 EDQ scope with an Herschel Wedge White Light solar filter, mounted on an iOptron CEM26 EQ mount.

Shot a few thousand video frames of ol' Sol without a PowerMate and a few thousand frames of the main active area (AR's 3301, 02 & 05) with a 2.5x PowerMate. Processed the video in Autostakkert to get the best 5 out of 2000 frames then moved over to Lightroom to complete the processing.

Enjoy!

bwa

Full Solar Disk - Mosaic of two images (full size w/o PowerMate)

(Download)

Active Areas 3301, 3302 & 3305 (cropped w/ 2.5x PowerMate)

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

bwana wrote:

Fired up the QHY 462c camera on an Astro-Tech 65 EDQ scope with an Herschel Wedge White Light solar filter, mounted on an iOptron CEM26 EQ mount.

Shot a few thousand video frames of ol' Sol without a PowerMate and a few thousand frames of the main active area (AR's 3301, 02 & 05) with a 2.5x PowerMate. Processed the video in Autostakkert to get the best 5 out of 2000 frames then moved over to Lightroom to complete the processing.

Enjoy!

bwa

Excellent photos. Congrats~

I still have work to do to get mmy camera to work on the Sun. --Richard

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

profbowman wrote:

Excellent photos. Congrats~

I still have work to do to get mmy camera to work on the Sun. --Richard

What camera, lens/scope and solar filter are you using?

bwa

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

bwana wrote:

What camera, lens/scope and solar filter are you using?

bwa

When I taught physics and astronomy in four-year undergraduate colleges, we had a Meade 100-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, and at the college I taught at several decades before that, we had an 8-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. I do not have anything even that complex.

My attempted set-up is a Sony A6000 with a manual focus Vivitar 500 mm f/8.0 lens. I have a sheet of solar filter Mylar plastic to use to reduce the Sun's brightness.

With my bad eyesight, I have not been able yet to get the camera on a telescope aimed at the Sun and the lens focused using the peaking functions.

So, far I always have something to keep me busy in retirement. --Richard

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

profbowman wrote:

When I taught physics and astronomy in four-year u... (show quote)

An external monitor really helps with focusing; much larger image to work with and you can plug one into the A6000's HDMI port. Setting the mode to B&W also helps with focusing for solar imaging.

You could also add a 2x teleconverter (a Kenko 2x works with almost any lens) to the 500mm lens to get a bit closer to ol' Sol.

Keep trying...

bwa

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

bwana wrote:

An external monitor really helps with focusing; much larger image to work with and you can plug one into the A6000's HDMI port. Setting the mode to B&W also helps with focusing for solar imaging.

You could also add a 2x teleconverter (a Kenko 2x works with almost any lens) to the 500mm lens to get a bit closer to ol' Sol.

Keep trying...

bwa

Thanks for the hints. Now I just must decide how much time and effort I have to put into this project. I have some book authoring projects and some stock photography and illustration artwork started, too. --Richard

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

bwana wrote:

Fired up the QHY 462c camera on an Astro-Tech 65 EDQ scope with an Herschel Wedge White Light solar filter, mounted on an iOptron CEM26 EQ mount.

Shot a few thousand video frames of ol' Sol without a PowerMate and a few thousand frames of the main active area (AR's 3301, 02 & 05) with a 2.5x PowerMate. Processed the video in Autostakkert to get the best 5 out of 2000 frames then moved over to Lightroom to complete the processing.

Enjoy!

bwa

Excellent solar images. You really brought out the granularity in the sun's photosphere

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Ballard wrote:

Excellent solar images. You really brought out the granularity in the sun's photosphere

Thanks for looking.

With all the forest fire smoke in the air today I can do white light solar without a filter

bwa