Sunday 5 June 2016

A Blank Sun In White Light - 5th June

I decided to dust off my Lunt Solar Wedge this afternoon and try a full disk in white light.  You can tell solar minimum is heading our way in a couple of years, for the first time in ages the disk was completely blank, a few areas of plage if you look very closely, and maybe a single pore.  Taken with the ED80 at 600mm focal length with the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera.  Using the new GPIO connector for this camera I was able to power it from a 12 volt battery rather than over the noisy USB3 connection, and, as a result was able to apply noise free gain to keep the exposure time as short as possible.  When I have a little more time over the summer I want to write an article discussing the benefits of how cameras are powered.