Saturday, August 18, 2012

Active Region 11543

Following my trial runs with a borrowed barlow lens, I purchased my own 2x barlow this week to use in imaging sunspots.  While the weather has been mostly overcast the past few days, I was able to get out this morning and snap some quick pictures of departing Active Region 11543 in white light.  The seeing conditions were rather poor with haze and passing clouds, but I was more interested in continuing to learn what exposure and ISO settings were best for closer up images of sunspots.  Already I have discovered just how sensitive the camera senor is and I am learning that depending on the location of the spot region I will need to utilize different settings.

For example, spot regions that are near the middle of the solar disc can utilize shorter exposures as there is more light reaching the sensor, as opposed to spot regions near the limb where a smaller portion of the solar disc is in the sensors field of view.  Shorter exposures are advantageous as they are less affected by atmospheric turbulence and vibrations from the mount/telescope/camera/operator combination.

Anyway, the image at left was taken this morning with my TEC 140 APO, a Lunt Solar Systems Herschel Prism, and a Canon T2i with a 2x barlow lens.  The color is false, only added as the comments I received from friends at work on my previoius post unanimously liked the false color...and I am all about appeasing the faithful readers!  Click the image to enlarge it to full size.

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