I got in today at about 3:30PM to clear skies. Took a look at ol' Sol with my scope; AR2822 seems to be diminishing, and AR2823 is all but gone.
Well, might as well take a farewell photo... I actually took quite a few at different exposures/ISO settings, but with this camera I keep getting the best results at ISO 100 and 1/250th sec exp. I've had three days to play with all this and I think I've nailed it.
So what do I use to create this mess? Five years ago, I bought a Celestron C80-HD with a CG4 mount of Kijiji for $180 (all CDN bucks here). These were only made for two years (96-97) and a lot of them had the last of the Vixen optics in Celestron brand scopes; mine is one of them. The camera is a Canon EOS 550D from the same site for $120. For the T-ring/adapter I use a Vixen I got for $30. I use Baader solar film; an A4 size sheet was just over $50. Make your own filter with that, and I've still got 3/4 of the sheet left over.
This costed me $380 total and my time. Take off the solar filter and it does a good job on the Moon
And here is the Sun today. 20 shots, PIPP, AS3, and ImPPG. I also put in the pale blue dot to the bottom right; our Earth to scale. I left
Full size image here
I wish you all a good weekend and clear skies, both day and night
All the best,
