Sun April 25, 2021

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Thefatkitty Canada
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Sun April 25, 2021

#1

Post by Thefatkitty »


Hey all, hope you're good.

Today was an odd day here for the weather. According to TWN etc, it was supposed to be cloudy out, but around noon it was pretty clear, just the odd white fluffy going by. It was very windy as well.

I had a window of opportunity with the Sun being between the roof and the tree. I took out my C80-HD with its Baader solar film, and my Canon 550D.

The 550D is a good camera; it replaced my Canon T3 when it bit the dust. However, there's two things I don't like about it.
First, the live view. On the T3, what you saw on the screen was what you got on the picture in terms of brightness. On the 550D, you have crank the exposure up to 1/3 sec to see the full Moon. Then I check the focus, and put the exposure back to 1/500 sec or the like to get the shot properly exposed, and meanwhile it's so dim on the screen you can't see it. Very annoying.
Another thing is the difference between exposure times for the two. What I mean is this: For example, on the T3, I always shot the Sun at ISO 100 and 1/1000 of a second exposure. On the 550D, the same ISO needs a speed of 1/250 second. I'm finding the resulting pictures from the 550D are just not as sharp as the ones from the T3. I guess I should try a higher ISO setting next time and see what happens with a shorter exposure.

Like I said, it's a good camera; takes a great daytime shot, has the sensor-cleaning feature that the T3 lacks, and is 18MP instead of 12.2MP. But for what I use it for mostly (Sun and Moon), I'd take another T3 any day.

So that's my Sunday rant :lol:

A long story short, I tried a few stacks, and finally just chose 5 pictures that looked "good". I aligned those in PIPP, ran that through AS3 and stacked the best 50% of it. I played with it in Photoshop and this is the result.
There's a few blemishes at the bottom left; I blame the sky conditions... ;)
Sol_04-25-21.jpg

A close up of AR2818 and AR2820 to the left, and the "smudged" area to the right at the bottom is where AR2816 is; you may be able to make out the black dot:
Sol_04-25-21_2.jpg

The rest of my day got cloudier as time progressed, and that seems to be my forecast for the next while. Hope you have better luck than I!

All the best,
Mark

"The Hankmeister" Celestron 8SE, orange tube Vixen made C80, CG4 & AZ-EQ5 mounts.
Too much Towa glass/mirrors.

H/A - PST stage 2 mod with a Baader 90mm ERF on a Celestron XLT 102 (thanks Mike!)
Ca-K - W/O 61mm, Antares 1.6 barlow, Baader 3.8 OD and Ca-K filters with a ZWO ASI174mm.
W/L - C80-HD with Baader 5.0 & 3.8 Solar film, Solar Continuum 7.5nm and UV/IR filters with a Canon EOS 550D.

Oh yeah, and Solar Cycle 25 :D
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messier 111 Canada
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Re: Sun April 25, 2021

#2

Post by messier 111 »


very nice result , thx
I LOVE REFRACTORS , :Astronomer1: :sprefac:

REFRACTOR , TS-Optics Doublet SD-APO 125 mm f/7.8 . Lunt 80mm MT Ha Doublet Refractor .

EYEPIECES, Delos , Delite and 26mm Nagler t5 , 2 zoom Svbony 7-21 , Orion Premium Linear BinoViewer .

FILTER , Nebustar 2 tele vue . Apm solar wedge . contrast booster 2 inches .

Mounts , berno mack 3 with telepod , cg-4 motorized , eq6 pro belt drive .

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”
― Isaac Asimov

Jean-Yves :flags-canada:
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Solsearcher Canada
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Re: Sun April 25, 2021

#3

Post by Solsearcher »


Nice captures Mark , now that the snow's gone I am just waiting for a window ,
Solar scopes (Coronado Ha) 60mm double stack , 90mm double stack , 150mm single stack .
W/L scope Williams Optic Megrez 110mm / Lunt herschel wedge .
Night scope Celestron 9.25 XLT
Mounts HEQ6 , HEQ5 , Losmandy G8
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Makuser United States of America
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Re: Sun April 25, 2021

#4

Post by Makuser »


Hi Mark. A nice pair of solar images from you in white light. I especially enjoyed the closeup of AR2818 and AR2820. Thanks for sharing these captures with us Mark, and I hope that the weather allows you more opportunities to continue this great work.
Marshall
Sky-Watcher 90mm f/13.8 Maksutov-Cassegrain on motorized Multimount
Orion Astroview 120ST f/5 Refractor on EQ3 mount
Celestron Comet Catcher 140mm f/3.64 Schmidt-Newtonian on alt-az mount
Celestron Omni XLT150R f/5 Refractor on CG4 mount with dual axis drives.
Orion 180mm f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain on CG5-GT Goto mount.
Orion XT12i 12" f/4.9 Dobsonian Intelliscope.
Kamakura 7x35 Binoculars and Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 Binoculars. ZWO ASI 120MC camera.
>)))))*>
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