Framed with a delicate whispy prom, AR11664 slowly nears the suns western limb. Taken with the SS70 @ f15 with the DMK31. A great start to the 2013 solar season!
Images of the Sun, our local star, at a range of wavelengths with specialist solar telescopes. Imaging tutorials, solar bits and pieces for sale, talks and outreach with the Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project CBSAP.
Monday, 28 January 2013
Southerly Proms 27th January
Plenty of small proms on sunday. Taken with the SS70 @ f15 with the DMK31.
CaK Closeup - 27th January
Didn't think this was going to come out at all, but it did! Taken with the 70mm frac and 2x barlow giving f12 with the DMK31. Plenty of promise in this CaK filter me thinks!
Sunday, 27 January 2013
CaK Sun - 27th January 2013
I couldn't resist taking a picture of our star today in CaK wavelengths (393.4nm), when there aren't many large active regions about there is always something to see in these near ultra violet wavelengths. This was my first attempt at using a ND filter-less Lunt solar wedge as an ERF in conjunction with my own CaK filter stack; this worked as expected. Using the 70mm scope at f6 I was getting exposure times of 1/500 second. This is pretty good given the low altitude of the sun, and I expect certainly in summer to be imaging nearer 1/1000 second, which will be great to avoid image smearing due to the poor seeing that afflicts these shorter wavelengths. This also leaves plenty of light for imaging at longer focal lengths, again when seeing allows. Not all is as I would like with this setup; I am certain there is an infra red leak occuring somewhere, this is manifesting itself as a 'blooming' to the raw image. The CaK PST employs a soft coated silver ITF (induced transmission filter) in its original configuration, which certainly in visual inspection would appear to be exactly the same sort as is used with their Ha PST. The purpose of this filter is to essentially take out wavelengths >1500nm. The next time I get some decent imaging time I want to try and image with an ITF in the stack, and also trying in its place some Schott KG5 which has similar properties at these long wavelengths. I am fairly confident this will improve matters.
A Quiet Sun? 27th January 2013
It is being written in some places on the web that our star is inactive and there is little to see, well, I guess this depends just how close you look.
Despite there only being a couple of named active regions in this photo, when you look closely there are several, as yet, unnamed active regions. The large single spot is fairly inactive and displays a classic light bridge dividing it in two, indicating that it is dying or decaying. Several small filaments can be seen draping the solar disk. The image was taken with my recently modified 70mm f6 workhorse scope, this today was running at f15, and these images show that despite suffering from less than ideal conditions for imaging today, this scope seems to strike a great balance between regular use in the battle against poor seeing, and getting a decent level of resolution.
Whispy Proms - 27th January 2013
There was a great view of lovely row of whispy proms visible on our star today. Seeing wasn't that good as the sun was only 10 degrees above the horizon, but i'm pleased with the result!
The image looks pretty good in black and white too, I can't decide which I prefer so have included both. Click on either to view larger. These were taken with my new 70mm PST mod. Today I decided to up the magnification and image using the 2x barlow lens, given the poor seeing conditions with a cold front just passing through causing instability in the atmosphere (and the low sun!) i'm surprised how well it came out. This is good omen as if produces good results in these circumstances then in better conditions the results can only get better. Hedgerow Prom Closeup - 26th January
A lovely hedgerow prominence seen here taken with the SS70 PST mod @ f15 with the DMK31 camera. The sun is well and truly above the trees, the 2013 solar season is properly underway!
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