Another Morning of Observing the Sun
I've been waiting for the past week for another good day to observe the sun so I could try my hand at solar astrophotography yet again. This morning was finally a good morning to set up my telescope on the deck so I started moving gear to the deck early this morning.
While waiting for two new solar filters to arrive and for the weather to be more suitable for astronomy, I've been doing a lot of research about our sun. I actually learned quite bit... some of it even a bit frightening... but I'll save that info for another blog entry which will be written solely for that particular topic.
Last week, when I tried my initial attempt at solar astrophotography, I was left feeling a bit disappointed and later found that adding two additional filters to my telescope would allow me to capture more detail. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting on one of these filters to arrive but I did have one of the filters to use this morning. So, if I could see just a little bit more detail while using only one of these filters, then that is a step in the right direction.
My morning started out being a bit frustrating. It took about an hour to get everything set up which was about 45 minutes longer than I had hoped. I couldn't find some of my camera gear... then I found that I had some dead batteries (watch-type batteries which nobody ever has on hand when needed)... and then I had to figure out another option related to the dead batteries. When I finally got all set up on the deck, some clouds had moved in and covered the sun. I wasn't too pleased at this point. Fortunately, the clouds passed rather quickly.
My Continuum filter arrived the other day but I'm still waiting on my UV-IR Cut Filter. This morning, after I got everything set up, I quickly found that this Continuum filter turns everything a bright lime green rather than white. It was interesting looking at a lime green sun!
Even though I'm still missing one filter and I know I should not expect miracles, I was still a little bit let down in the first couple of hours of observing because I wasn't seeing much of a difference compared to my session last week. Then, as the sun rose higher in the sky so I wasn't trying to peer through the atmosphere on an angle, I was able to see slightly more detail. Better yet, my camera also picked up a little bit of extra detail so that is good news. In this next shot, you can actually see a little bit of a sunspot forming at about the five o'clock position...
When I changed up the false color, I found the detail was even more noticeable...
Another change up of the false color... and that sunspot is still visible...
Rumor has it that, on good atmospheric days, I'll be able to see quite a bit more detail when using both filters... the Baader Continuum and the Baader UV-IR Cut filter. Considering I'm still using my usual nighttime telescope, these results are pretty impressive.
So, it turned out to be a productive morning of solar astronomy and astrophotography.
While waiting for two new solar filters to arrive and for the weather to be more suitable for astronomy, I've been doing a lot of research about our sun. I actually learned quite bit... some of it even a bit frightening... but I'll save that info for another blog entry which will be written solely for that particular topic.
My morning started out being a bit frustrating. It took about an hour to get everything set up which was about 45 minutes longer than I had hoped. I couldn't find some of my camera gear... then I found that I had some dead batteries (watch-type batteries which nobody ever has on hand when needed)... and then I had to figure out another option related to the dead batteries. When I finally got all set up on the deck, some clouds had moved in and covered the sun. I wasn't too pleased at this point. Fortunately, the clouds passed rather quickly.
My Continuum filter arrived the other day but I'm still waiting on my UV-IR Cut Filter. This morning, after I got everything set up, I quickly found that this Continuum filter turns everything a bright lime green rather than white. It was interesting looking at a lime green sun!
 |
| The sun as it appears through my telescope and a Baader Continuum Filter. |
Even though I'm still missing one filter and I know I should not expect miracles, I was still a little bit let down in the first couple of hours of observing because I wasn't seeing much of a difference compared to my session last week. Then, as the sun rose higher in the sky so I wasn't trying to peer through the atmosphere on an angle, I was able to see slightly more detail. Better yet, my camera also picked up a little bit of extra detail so that is good news. In this next shot, you can actually see a little bit of a sunspot forming at about the five o'clock position...
 |
| I changed the color and contrast to more "normal" colors and some sunspot detail is visible at the bottom. |
When I changed up the false color, I found the detail was even more noticeable...
Another change up of the false color... and that sunspot is still visible...
Rumor has it that, on good atmospheric days, I'll be able to see quite a bit more detail when using both filters... the Baader Continuum and the Baader UV-IR Cut filter. Considering I'm still using my usual nighttime telescope, these results are pretty impressive.
So, it turned out to be a productive morning of solar astronomy and astrophotography.
Comments
Post a Comment