Sun in White Light
With Questar 3.5"
+ Baader ND3.8 Full Aperture Filter Freshly Minted!
Uploaded 6/9/13

Weekend Report
For the weekend of June 8-9, 2013
 
 Here
            are a few shots of the Sun from Saturday morning after I came
            back from an early morning run with the 3.5 Questar set up on
            the balcony. I had just finished making a new solar filter for
            it, and this was the test run. It passed.
 
Images below are 800-1290 wide and non clickable
 

            
 WHITE
            LIGHT:

            
Lets
            start with the prime focus images. At 1300mm FL, only about 1/3
            the sun can be imaged at a time with one shot. A very nice sunspot
            group appears near the center of the Sun:

            


            
The
            opposite side of the limb shows some interesting facular details
            too:

            


            
Next,
            we switch in the 2x built in barlow with a lever on the back
            of the tube for a closer look. Now that granulation starts to
            really show!

            
And
            the

            
And
            the Facular Regions:

            


            
Finally,
            with the 3x Klee barlow, the granulation is now very easy. While
            not completely resolved into angular polygons, the small 1.4
            arc second details still recorded remarkably well:

            



Instruments:  Vintage 1960 Questar 3.5
 with Baader ND3.8 filter + Continuum + IR/UV blocker
Platform:  Questar
Camera:  DMK 51 USB
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing 2/5, Transparency 9/10
Outside Temperature: 90F
Processing: Autostakkert 2,  Photoshop CS2

Solar Home Page

HOME  SCHMIDT  GALAXIES     EMISSION NEBS     REFLECTION NEBS   COMETS  
   GLOBULARS     OPEN CLUST     PLANETARIES     LINKS