Sun shot 1 – full resolution
As usual this July 4th weekend we had several fires in the area so the skies have been particularly hazy which definitely does not help for any kind of viewing of celestial objects. However this morning I remembered the one object that would need more than hazy skies to obscure was available for observation: The Sun.
After my DSLR focuser support rail modification the two next items high on my list were an electronic focuser and a solar observation filter for the telescope. Today I decided it was time to put them both to work after installing them late this past week. Getting a shot of the sun is harder to acomplish than I thought. My spotting scope does not have a solar filter so I could not aim the telescope. after trying unsuccessfully for about 15 minutes, I took the cover off the spotting scope and placed the back of my hand behind the eyepiece to see if I could bring the sun within the field of view. Luckily I did not burn my hand but do not try this at home…LOL.
Once in range I fiddled around with the fine adjustments on the mount controller until the sun came into view in the eyepiece. The filter is so dark, you cannot see anything until the sun “magically” appears in view. The electronic focuser is completely indispensable, especially with the heavy DSLR attached. The rail works so well you don’t notice it. It will remain on the telescope permanently (Orion should just make all refractors with a rail). I quickly swapped the 7D back in place of the eyepiece and used live view to fine focus and center the sun. I used a thick dark towel over my head and the camera in order to view the camera screen and get as clear a shot as possible. I will most likely get some kind of solar foil blanket to make this process easier. As a result my focus was not spot on, but good enough for a first run. From that point on it was just a matter of taking multiple shots at various exposures.
The 7D was set to manual, AWB, ISO-100, and shutter speeds ranged from 1/2000 to 1/8000 second. Using the RAW files I was able to see the ripples on the surface. They may look like noise but it’s just the enhanced contrast of the surface ripples (note, noise would show up in the dark area of the shot). If anyone has any ideas or tips on how to better process and filter the RAW files please drop a comment below. I’m new to this stuff and I know there are ways to enhance and extract features that would otherwise go unnoticed.
The entire telescope and camera assembly were starting to bake in the sun. In a rush to take it indoors, I forgot to take a shot with the Canon EF 2X Extender. I will post those next time I get around to it. You can read more interesting facts about the Sun here.
Thanks for stopping by.
PhotoSnob 