Sun Spots and More

These are my first images of the sun.  While getting the equipment set up, I was both excited and anxious.  With a family and other commitments, astrophotography is sometimes a challenge to fit in.  I've been very fortunate and have gotten a lot of support.

Equipment Summary:

1. Orion StarSeeker 80mm Goto Refractor
2. Dielectric Diagonal - prevents loss of light common in standard diagonals
3. 3x Orion HighLight Barlow
4. Orion StarShoot Planetary Imager
5. PHD Planetary Software - used to control camera and takes pics 
6. RegiStax 5.1 - used to process images
7. Orion Solar Filter

Date/Time:  6/26/10  9:00am

Location:  Backyard - Pittsburgh, PA

Seeing:  Clear, Some Clouds

Weather:  Warm, Humid

Exposure:  64 ms x 1 image

Experience:  Good.  Taking pics of the sun is a unique experience.  Instead of the darkness, you're dealing brightness and heat.  Fortunately, I was near a tree to shade my laptop.

Notes:

1. The images are okay.  You can see a few faint sun spots, but I was hoping they'd be more prominent.  I will try to process the images to get the sun spots to come out more clearly.
2. If you double-click to enlarge images 1 - 3, it will be easier to pick out the sun spots.
3. I'm not sure why the sun's color varies so much in these pics.  During my imaging session, I noticed at different times, the sun appeared brighter or darker on my laptop's screen.  Maybe there was some haze, or heat wavelets, or water vapor in the air.

Lessons Learned:

1. After about 20 minutes, I got worried about keeping my telescope in the sun any longer.  They say the tube assembly can overheat in the hot sun.  So I hurried up, and finished with only a few pics.  In retrospect, I was fine.  In terms of temperature, it wasn't that hot at 9am.  I should have continued.

Next Time :

1. Yes!  I was playing with image 1 in my PHD Planetary software and found a number of processing features to bring out more image details ... some hidden surprises too.  So stay posted.  My next post will be alternate images of the pics below.
2. Also, for my next imaging session, I'm going to reduce the exposure time in the PHD Planetary software that controls my imager which should improve picture clarity.  Currently, I've been using the default of 64 milliseconds.  Also, next time, I'll try stacking the images too.

Clear skies!!!

Look very carefully and you'll see a few sun spots.

In this pic, one sun spot stands out in the upper right.

Can you find all the hidden sun spots?

This pic looks overexposed.  I think the focus was a little off.