Sunspots - 16th May

Just took a peek at the sun this afternoon.
Plenty of spots on view especially near the centre of the disc.
I tried capturing an image of it with my new camera.
The results were only ok. I've still got alot to learn about this camera and astrophptography in general, including Photoshop.
Details are:
Scope: 8" f/10 LX90 with Thousand Oaks Solar filter
Camera: Canon EOS 300d
Exposure: 1/800th sec.
www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...357_16052004_sun.jpg

BTW, can anyone recommend a good website which explains about how to create and manipulate layers in Photoshop?? I need to do some reading!

Thanks,

Michael

Michael,
Glad to see your back and already getting good use out of the new camera!
Nice detail visible there, bodes well for the transit in June, presuming its clear.

I tried imaging the sun today as well. All dismal failures. In preparation for the transit I thought it might be a good idea to see if the equipment I'm brining could actually take a picture. Neiither eyepiece projection or the webcam produce decent images, a focal reduce would help but its not worth buying just for that.

So it looks like I'm left with the trusty 35mm film camera. Anyone have any advice for exposure settings? The may S&T managed to do an article on photographing the transit without mentioning any guidelines for exposure lengths, thanks S&T!

Cheers,
~Al

So it looks like I'm left with the trusty 35mm film camera. Anyone have any advice for exposure settings?

Hi Al,

I presume this is with a suitable filter over the (objective) lens of your camera?
What I thought of doing is placing Grade 14EW welders glass over the front of my telescopic 35mm SLR camera lens, and taking exposures from 1/30th of a second and below. The standard exposure times on all automatic 35mm cameras is 1/125th of a second, but I would say even beyond that to even 1/250th of a second is fine for the sun. I would think that above 1/30th of a second MIGHT saturate the image on film.

Now, I haven't tried this yet, but I plan to soon, because this will be my only way of getting a photograph of the event - apart from using the camera lens for close-up on projection.

Seanie.

I presume this is with a suitable filter over the (objective) lens of your camera?

By lens you mean the 4" Mak yea?

Baader astrosolar bodged filter at the moment since the proper filter hasnt arrived yet, but Im told its on the way.

I'll try again during the week with a range of exposures and see what comes out I think.

Cheers,
~Al

I also tried capturing an image of the sun with a focal reducer in place.
Below is the url if you wish to see the result.
Details are:
Scope: 8" f/10 LX90 with Thousand Oaks Solar filter
Camera: Canon EOS 300d
Exposure: 1/1,000th sec.
16/05/2004 12:29pm

www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...294_16052004_sun.jpg

Which is better for the venus transit: a full disc image or one only showing a portion of the sun's disc with venus in slightly greater detail/size??

Michael