Gap in the clouds for some spots...

Managed to get a 5 min gap in the clouds.
I got out my new Intes Mirco Herschel Wedge, Baader Continuum filter, variable polariser and Canon 400d and managed to grab this image with the gear hooked up to my TEC140.



My first time using some of this gear so hopefully my processing skills of the image will improve with time once I got a nice cloud-free day - whenever that will be

Clear Skies,

Impressive Image Michael! No such luck with any gaps here - it's tipping down with rain! Maybe later?

Nice one Michael, looks like the Herschel wedge is the bees knees.

Excellent grain structure. The penumbral region around the left spot seems to be showing more detail than the main spot. Have you tried a webcam with this set up it should prove great. Well done it is NOT easy to get anything like that detail from todays weather and from a single shot. I have to collect the baader version - cant wait.

DaveG

Yes, I do like it Dave. Obviously, as you know but in case others don't, it can only be used with a refractor. And, you MUST use a variable polarising lens or some sort of appropriate neutral density filter to get the light down to a safe and comfortable level. The Orion variable polarising lens is the one I have and it can vary the brightness from too bright to virtually zero, so there's a good range there. I find it important to have precise control over the image brightness in order to see the optimum level of detail. Varying the brightness also allows for using things like various eyepieces and binoviewers.

FWIW, the herschel wedge looks like an elongated diagonal:

www.telescope-service.com/solarpics/start/InH2.jpg

The glass in it is not like a normal diagonal however - it's got a completely different angle to it and so only reflects about 5% of the light. The rest is deflected away very safely towards the base. I've heard some people express caution about using one of these devices due to the way the excess heat is exhausted out of the system but to be honest I can't see any way in which it can cause any harm, such is the way it is manufactured. The beam is dispersed and to me it only felt very mildly warm - certainly nothing dangerous which could cause a fire!

With the 5% coming towards you, this is still alot of light. Therefore, it needs to be cut down more. I use the variable polarising lens to get a comfortably bright image and also use the baader continuum filter to narrow the bandpass a little and show some extra detail.
www.telescope-service.com/baader/solar/s....html#SolarContinuum
I does however give a green colour to the image though, which I then amended in PS when processing the image. I think the filter helps improve the contrast and makes it easier to see the granulation but YMMV. The fact that it is a reasonably narrow bandpass may also help improve seeing conditions??

Today, I had this on my refractor along with a 2" barlow and 1.6x barlow and my binoviewers to give a magnification in the region of 440x. This gave great views of the sun and I could easily see detail within the sunspots like what you see in the image above. In fact I would say the view through the eyepiece showed alot more detail within the sunspots particularly the penumbra.

Overall, I'm very happy with it.
It's very versatile too so it can be used on a number of refractors.

Excellent grain structure. The penumbral region around the left spot seems to be showing more detail than the main spot. Have you tried a webcam with this set up it should prove great. Well done it is NOT easy to get anything like that detail from todays weather and from a single shot. I have to collect the baader version - cant wait.

DaveG

You're welcome to pop over to my place and bring your cameras if you like. A webcam would definetly pull out more detail.