I am new to solar imaging and fairly new to astronomy. About 2 years ago, I bought my first and only telescope. A used SW 14" GOTO Dobson. I am amazed at the versatility of the instrument. It's great for visual, and also does very well for planetary, comets and DSO imaging, including mag 8 nebula (https://www.astrobin...ers/MikeHuerto/) . So I naturally, wanted to see if I could complete the circuit with some solar imaging. I wanted to keep it cheap and simple. I was concerned with overheating and melting the secondary etc etc. So I first opted to make a 100 mm off axis filter using Baader Astrosolar OD 5. I made a solar-finder using a toilet-paper tube and tape.
I took it for a test drive today. I used Sharpcap to capture 2000-10,000 frames per session. Absolutely no problems with overheating. The tube and secondary stayed at about 35 C (close to the ambient temp today in Spain!).
Here's a stack from one of them, and a screen shot from the full screen view
I've also included some pics of the set-up. Still need to improve focus, use flats, and experiment more with this set-up. Will test some Baader OD 3.8, also at 100 mm diameter, and then step by step try larger and large filters.
Region 3023 @ 12:54 UTC +2, May 27th
Capture area 488 x 488
Color space RAW8
FPS 100
Gain 20
Exposure 1.4 ms
Frames:10,000
Stacked in AS 5,000
Time zone UCT +2
Sharpened in Registax.
Color conversion (duotone) in Photoshop
Screen shot with 3023 and 3024 below it (not stacked)
Capture area 1304 X 976
FPS 27
Gain 20
Exposure 1.4s
So, yes, I know that a large Newtonian is not the ideal instrument for solar imaging, but I'm just on a bit of mission to use this scope for as many targets as possible - and avoid accumulating a garage full of toys!
CS
Mike
EDIT: Forgo to mention, the camera was the ASI224MC - so not even an MM camera!
Attached Thumbnails
Edited by Mikehuerto, 27 May 2022 - 02:42 PM.
