The Sun

I think I've gotten most of the kinks worked out of my solar imaging setup. Now I'm starting to learn how to take pictures with the Coronado PST and Meade Deep Sky Imager (DSI). I mentioned in my previous article that there was a lost of dust in the optical path. It turned out that the majority of it was in the camera, so it was easy to clean up.

There was a lot to see on the Sun today. Sunspot AR1429, which emerged this past Friday, unleashed a massive X-class solar flare late on March 4th, local time. The sunspot is visible in this image in the upper-right. Sunspot region 1428 is in the lower-right.

AR1429, upper-right; Sunspot region 1428, lower-right

Below is a more detailed view of the sunspots in AR1429. This image was generated using a different setting on the PST's filter tuner. This setting seems to filter out a lot of the finer details that are normally seen in Ha.

AR1429, left; Sunspot region 1430, right

This image is a little further "down" from the two above, and shows a solar prominence in the lower-left. Solar prominences are clouds of gas that are suspended above the Sun's surface by magnetic fields.

Sunspot region 1428, upper-right; A solar prominence, lower-left

Sunspot region 1423 is visible on the right side of this image. The dark streaks across the surface are called filaments. Filaments are the same as prominences, only seen from above. Another, smaller, prominence is located in the upper-right.

Sunspot region 1423, middle-right; Prominence, upper-right; Solar filaments

I have a lot of things that I want to try, time and weather permitting, before the Venus Transit on June 5th.

Solar Photography - A Quick Experiment

A quick experiment with using an old Meade DSI camera and a 2x Barlow on the PST. There was a lot of dust in the optical path--mostly on the imaging chip, I think. I cropped out about 80% of the image to get a "clean" bit.

The DSI is a monochrome (black & white) camera. I colorized the image to make it look more "natural."

I need the skies to cooperate a bit so that I can spend some time working out how to do this stuff. So far the weather forecast doesn't look promising...

Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and the Moon

Tonight, the Moon passed close to Venus. Mercury was right on the horizon, too!

Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and the Moon

Here is a labeled version of the above image:

Meanwhile, in other parts of the sky:

Dark cloud after sunset

High cloud illuminated by the last rays of the sun after sunset, passing in front of the constellations Auriga, Lynx and Ursa Major.

The Sun

I recently gained access to a Coronado Personal Solar Telescope (PST). The PST is specially designed for solar viewing. It has a built-in filter for viewing Hydrogen Alpha (H-Alpha), which is one of the wavelengths of light emitted by hydrogen atoms that are being "stimulated" by ultraviolet radiation. It is one of the most common colors visible from stars since their outer layers are primarily composed of hydrogen atoms. H-Alpha is in the red part of the visible spectrum.

This morning I attached the PST to my Vixen Super Polaris mount and pointed it at the Sun. What I saw blew my mind! The detail was amazing! I could see prominences, the granular surface of the sun, and a sun spot with amazing clarity.

After trying various eyepieces I decided to see if I could take some pictures. Unfortunately, my Canon EOS Rebel XS won't come to focus in the PST's eyepiece tube. I was able to take some afocal shots, though, using the EOS Rebel and my Canon PowerShot A540.

Here are a few processed images, which certainly do NOT do justice to the naked-eye views.

This is a stacked image composed of 23 separate exposures taken with the Canon EOS Rebel XS. There was a lot of atmospheric turbulence, which may explain why the lower-right side of the Sun's disc appears slightly out of place. Note the prominences visible to the lower-left. The dark streaks across the face are probably prominences, as well. Some of the bright patches are plages.

I used a longer exposure time for the frames that were used to compose this image. Some of the features on the face are overexposed, but the relatively dim prominences along the limb are visible. In the future I will attempt to apply some High Dynamic Range techniques to even out the exposure.

This image was composed from several hundred frames from an AVI recorded with my Canon PowerShot A540.

Messier 41

Messier 41 is an open cluster in Canis Major (the Greater Dog). It can supposedly be seen with the naked eye in dark skies, but I have not been able to see it from here. This image was made under a fairly bright, moonlit sky.

Messier 41; Epsilon-200 on NJP; 25x60

New Year's Moon

Moon, January 1, 2012; Epsilon-200 on NJP; 30x1/250

This image is best viewed by opening it in a separate tab or window.

Huntsville Panorama 2

I learned a few lessons from my previous attempt to create a nighttime panorama of the town, so I set about trying it again at the first opportunity.

Right-click on the image and open it in a new tab or window for best viewing.

The main differences between this and the previous version are:

• I made sure that the camera was level before taking pictures, so it was not necessary to cut out a great deal of the original images in order to level the view.
• I picked a better location on the parking garage roof that granted a wider view of the town.
• Each image is a stack of two separate exposures (1/2 second and 5 seconds). This helps bring out the contrast on brighter objects.

Also, I found that the reason that Hugin failed on the last step on the previous attempt was because I had not installed Enblend.

From left to right:

• The Bank of America building on the west side of town
• Businesses at the I-45/Hwy 30 intersection, Home Depot and the Holliday Transfer Facility
• Sam Houston Village at Sam Houston State University
• The LDS Institute
• Belvin-Buchanan Hall
• Elliot Hall (the building with the two bright white lights)
• Businesses at the intersection of U.S. 75 and 11th Street (Hwy 30)
• First National Bank
• First United Methodist Church
• The Square, including the Walker County Courthouse
• First Baptist Church Family Life Center
• First Baptist Church sanctuary
• Lone Star Hall
• Huntsville Unit