First Stabs at Solar Imaging

[kiwiapple]

Hi all, I'm new to this site and also am new to the world of solar imaging, so apologies if this is all rather amateurish! Last May, I attended a dark skies forum near where I live in the South Island of New Zealand, and there one of the participants brought along something I'd never seen in person before--a dedicated telescope for looking at the sun (just in case it is not obvious, NEVER look at the sun, or point your telescope/camera at it, without proper filtration or you'll ruin your equipment and possibly go blind while you're at it!). This was a revelation to me, if for no other reason than it made it possible to do astrophotography during the daytime!

A few weeks later, I was in Houston for my first return to the US since before Covid, and I took the chance to visit a telescope shop (we don't have these in New Zealand, and I only got into astrophotography since the pandemic began), and there I saw that they sold the Daystar Quark hydrogen-alpha eyepiece. Well, it didn't take much persuading on their part to get me to purchase one. When I got home in early August, I got to work trying to figure out how to get it to work properly and was quickly amazed by the sight of our star up close and personal through my eyepiece. Before long I decided to put my hand to photographing the sun, which poses a series of challenges that are quite different from any other type of photography I have tried.

Suffice it to say, I still have a lot to learn, but I am slowly getting the hang of it. My main challenges at the moment include figuring out when I have achieved proper focus, orchestrating the shots to capture all the frames needed to compose a complete solar disk image, and then processing the resulting images in all the different bits of software that are required. But I'm making gradual headway, and am pleased with the results I've achieved so far. If anyone has tips they'd like to share, I'd be very grateful!

 

[AlanLichty]

This is basically magic for those of us who have never ventured into this type of photography. I am impressed with your results although I'm afraid I can't offer useful tips.

@chuckp does solar photography like this and might be able to offer some tips.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Welcome to the forum. That is an amazing image. Like Alan I have not ventured into this space so it all looks fascinating.

 

[JimFox]

Welcome to FocalWorld!

This looks so awesome James! We have one of our older members who does images of the sun too, his name is @chuckp . With his work, I have been interested doing some solar since seeing his photos. I think it's really pretty cool looking.

And I have learned a few new things from your write up. Chuck uses a scope from Lunt that has the filters built in. That's what I have been eyeing. So I had no idea there was the H-A filters built into an eyepiece like you described. So I learned that. Now my question is, doesn't the sun damage the scope since the filter is now in between the camera and the scope?

 

[Ben Egbert]

Welcome to focal world, we have a vibrant Astro group here and those of us who dont do Astro themselves are supportive. It’s not easy for a non asrtro guy to give intelligent reply’s so you will see a lot of “beautiful ” and similar comments. So this is my first beautiful

 

[BlackRockArt]

Hi all, I'm new to this site and also am new to the world of solar imaging, so apologies if this is all rather amateurish! Last May, I attended a dark skies forum near where I live in the South Island of New Zealand, and there one of the participants brought along something I'd never seen in person before--a dedicated telescope for looking at the sun (just in case it is not obvious, NEVER look at the sun, or point your telescope/camera at it, without proper filtration or you'll ruin your equipment and possibly go blind while you're at it!). This was a revelation to me, if for no other reason than it made it possible to do astrophotography during the daytime!

A few weeks later, I was in Houston for my first return to the US since before Covid, and I took the chance to visit a telescope shop (we don't have these in New Zealand, and I only got into astrophotography since the pandemic began), and there I saw that they sold the Daystar Quark hydrogen-alpha eyepiece. Well, it didn't take much persuading on their part to get me to purchase one. When I got home in early August, I got to work trying to figure out how to get it to work properly and was quickly amazed by the sight of our star up close and personal through my eyepiece. Before long I decided to put my hand to photographing the sun, which poses a series of challenges that are quite different from any other type of photography I have tried.

Suffice it to say, I still have a lot to learn, but I am slowly getting the hang of it. My main challenges at the moment include figuring out when I have achieved proper focus, orchestrating the shots to capture all the frames needed to compose a complete solar disk image, and then processing the resulting images in all the different bits of software that are required. But I'm making gradual headway, and am pleased with the results I've achieved so far. If anyone has tips they'd like to share, I'd be very grateful!

View attachment 57794

James, welcome to the forum.

What a fascinating photo, I have only taken a few sun-shots with a badder sun filter, it's very hard to get the color right for me. Love this shot.

Oliver

 

[chuckp]

Hi James. welcome to the Focal World. Nice shot, I think you are on your way to getting some nice solar shots. I know what the Daystar quark is but I'm not familiar with it. I've had my Lunt solar scope since 2009 so I've had a lot of practice with it. What scope, camera and software are you using. Once I know that I might be able to help you. This is my solar image gallery to give you an idea of what I've done over the years. Right now I take all my solar shots with the ASI 1600mm.

 

[kiwiapple]

Hi James. welcome to the Focal World. Nice shot, I think you are on your way to getting some nice solar shots. I know what the Daystar quark is but I'm not familiar with it. I've had my Lunt solar scope since 2009 so I've had a lot of practice with it. What scope, camera and software are you using. Once I know that I might be able to help you. This is my solar image gallery to give you an idea of what I've done over the years. Right now I take all my solar shots with the ASI 1600mm.

Hi all, and thank you for your supportive comments! To answer @chuckp I am using an Svbony 80mm refractor on a Sky-Watcher HEQ5-Pro mount, ZWO ASI174MM camera and a MeLe Quieter 2 mini-PC to run Shaprcap to do my imaging.

 

[chuckp]

Hi all, and thank you for your supportive comments! To answer @chuckp I am using an Svbony 80mm refractor on a Sky-Watcher HEQ5-Pro mount, ZWO ASI174MM camera and a MeLe Quieter 2 mini-PC to run Shaprcap to do my imaging.

I was using sharpcap for a long time but I got a crazy amount of dropped frames at times. I use ASIcap now and I might get a couple at the most. Can you get the surface detail and the prominences focused in the same shot? With my scope I just focus on the surface detail and the proms. are in focus also. When capturing video if the proms are bright enough I make sure the histogram doesn't clip on the bright side and then I use shawdow and highlights in Photoshop to balance both the surface and the prominences. I usually can't see the prominences when capturing but they do show up with the shadows and highlights. Now if the proms. aren't very bright I will take a surface shot and a prominence shot and blend them in photoshop.
I forgot to send the link to my photos. https://pbase.com/hobbynaut/solar_images

 

[kiwiapple]

I was using sharpcap for a long time but I got a crazy amount of dropped frames at times. I use ASIcap now and I might get a couple at the most. Can you get the surface detail and the prominences focused in the same shot? With my scope I just focus on the surface detail and the proms. are in focus also. When capturing video if the proms are bright enough I make sure the histogram doesn't clip on the bright side and then I use shawdow and highlights in Photoshop to balance both the surface and the prominences. I usually can't see the prominences when capturing but they do show up with the shadows and highlights. Now if the proms. aren't very bright I will take a surface shot and a prominence shot and blend them in photoshop.
I forgot to send the link to my photos. https://pbase.com/hobbynaut/solar_images

Thank you for the link to your photos (which are amazing), and for the tips. I have not tried ASICAP, but that's a good idea. One of the main issues I've been having lately in my set up is that the focusing control using the ZWO EAF is very laggy. I can tap the "in" or "out" button and then my system just thinks about it for a while before it actually changes. This makes the process take a very very long time and I cannot figure out why it happens (since sometimes it does not). In case it helps someone to diagnose my problem, I am using the MeLe Quieter2 mini PC to control the telescope and all its gear, and then I remote into the Quieter2 using either a Mac Mini M2 or a MacBook Pro M1 using Remote Desktop. When I have been able to get the focus to respond in a timely manner, I can get the surface to be in focus, and then the prominence is in focus, too (generally). And what I often do is to adjust the gain to see the prominences more clearly, but I just shoot to expose the surface properly and use brightness/levels in Photoshop to pull the prominences out.

 

[chuckp]

Thank you for the link to your photos (which are amazing), and for the tips. I have not tried ASICAP, but that's a good idea. One of the main issues I've been having lately in my set up is that the focusing control using the ZWO EAF is very laggy. I can tap the "in" or "out" button and then my system just thinks about it for a while before it actually changes. This makes the process take a very very long time and I cannot figure out why it happens (since sometimes it does not). In case it helps someone to diagnose my problem, I am using the MeLe Quieter2 mini PC to control the telescope and all its gear, and then I remote into the Quieter2 using either a Mac Mini M2 or a MacBook Pro M1 using Remote Desktop. When I have been able to get the focus to respond in a timely manner, I can get the surface to be in focus, and then the prominence is in focus, too (generally). And what I often do is to adjust the gain to see the prominences more clearly, but I just shoot to expose the surface properly and use brightness/levels in Photoshop to pull the prominences out.

Try shadows and highlights I think you will like the results.
I just use the manual focuser it works the best for me. I don't use very many frames for the full disc shots. 400 at the most. When I use the barlow for a close up shots I get about 1000 frames. The bad part of imaging the sun where I live is that it is very hot and humid. I could only take a hour at the most.

 

[kiwiapple]

Try shadows and highlights I think you will like the results.
I just use the manual focuser it works the best for me. I don't use very many frames for the full disc shots. 400 at the most. When I use the barlow for a close up shots I get about 1000 frames. The bad part of imaging the sun where I live is that it is very hot and humid. I could only take a hour at the most.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I tend to shoot 500 frames in general, 1000 if I think the seeing is not too good. And I'm pretty sure the sun is the same temperature and humidity from where I am as it is from where you are, though by the time it reaches me here in southern New Zealand it has lost most of its heat... ;-)

 

[Dan Moorehead]

Stunning

 

[JimFox]

Try shadows and highlights I think you will like the results.
I just use the manual focuser it works the best for me. I don't use very many frames for the full disc shots. 400 at the most. When I use the barlow for a close up shots I get about 1000 frames. The bad part of imaging the sun where I live is that it is very hot and humid. I could only take a hour at the most.

Chuck, what Barlow are you using again?

I was researching Barlows a couple of months ago, but everything I read just killed the Barlows for destroying the image quality. I may just have been unlucky, but I couldn't really find a single good review of Barlows and their uses for astrophotography.

 

[chuckp]

Chuck, what Barlow are you using again?

I was researching Barlows a couple of months ago, but everything I read just killed the Barlows for destroying the image quality. I may just have been unlucky, but I couldn't really find a single good review of Barlows and their uses for astrophotography.

I'm using the Televue 2x 1 1/4". I also use the Televue 2.5 Powermatwe also for my planetary shots.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Wow - I am sure most of us in the hobby would be over the moon (OK, make that over the Sun ) to get starting solar images of this quality. And you are now tapped into our resident expert - Chuck has been producing fantastic stuff imaging the Sun for quite a while. This whole thread is a fascinating read just picking up on what the 2 of you are doing. I have to be careful though as I have not been planning on buying a solar setup myself anytime soon

ML