Observing the Sun
 |
| Observing on our deck. |
The past few days have been sunny so I've spent these past few days observing our Sun.
Observing our Sun through a telescope is something I never thought much about doing but various conditions at night have temporarily moved me away from nighttime viewing and toward viewing the sky during the day.
My images of the Sun that I have been observing have been sharp and crisp but I've been a bit perplexed about why I'm not seeing any sort of detail. I'm just seeing a bright sphere in the sky with no detail whatsoever. The edges of the sphere are crisp but I'm seeing no detail on the surface of the disk no matter which way I attempt to turn the focus knobs.
 |
| Our Sun on July 20th, 2018. |
One caveat to the black and white info... when I add filters to bring out more detail, this will turn white to other colors. In my case, I'm actually viewing in black and green because I am using a Solar Continuum filter which turns everything that was white to a lime green. For my final images, I then process my RAW image data in other colors... false colors. False color is used to add more easily seen contrast in many cases but it can also be used to change color back to the way our eyes and brain perceive the object in our little spectrum of light wavelengths.
I typically like to solve my own problems on my own but, yesterday, I resorted to asking some experienced solar astronomers about my concerns. I had some concerns that maybe I was doing something wrong or that I still needed some equipment that I do not have at the moment. My concerns, however, were for nothing. It turns out that our Sun, at this moment in time, is in an exceptionally quiet and boring cycle with almost nothing to see in white light! Apparently, I'm not doing anything wrong and I am not missing anything. Mildly hazy atmospheric conditions with high heat are not helping any. Some astronomers have actually told me that they have not seen anything interesting in solar astronomy since the Solar Eclipse last August!
That being said, when I stack multiple images of the sun (I've shot many this week), then I can bring out some detail and, currently, there is faculae in one small area of the sun. Oh, that brings up another problem I am having... when I view my images, I can't tell which way is supposed to be up. I don't know if I am viewing right-side up images... upside-down images... backwards images... I have no idea what my optics train is doing to the light coming through my telescope. I'm thinking that if I have the camera oriented level at the end of my telescope, then the images need to be rotated 180 degrees... but I'm not sure.
Another thing that you need to see detail on the surface of the sun is exceptionally clear, crisp skies. Unfortunately, we have not had clear, crisp skies here in my neck of the woods lately and I have absolutely no control over that. It has been quite hazy most days and even the clearest of days lately have been slightly hazy. Convection currents don't help at all either and it has been so hot lately that I am trying to view through a lot of wavy convection currents. That is bad news for astronomy or photographic imaging in general.
Anyway, I've learned that we are in a rather boring cycle of solar activity and detail. I've done a lot of research about our Sun in recent weeks and I've learned a lot. I'm making progress so the more I observe and image, the better my imaging gets.
Yesterday, I actually recorded a few video clips... here is just one video clip alternating between two different types of false color. This short video clip shows the sun rising in the sky yesterday morning...
Comments
Post a Comment