8 replies to this topic

[Matthew Paul]

Today I was able to take my first serious solar image.

 

I used my home built 6" f/20 Dall-Kirkham telescope (150/3050mm). The optics in the scope were made by myself, by hand, tested on home made equipment, and chemically silvered in my basement. The camera used was a cooled QHY178M. The solar filter is an older Orion glass solar filter.

 

I took a series of ~2000 images and used the best 4 percent with Autostakkert. Then sharpened in Registax. Final processing was done in GIMP. I'm very happy with the level of detail that I was able to achieve, given my limited solar imaging experience and a simple white light filter. I used the whole 178 sensor rather than an area of interest, so the frame rate was rather low compared to what is possible. I did take one close up image of the sunspot as well but the full frame image looked best.

 

I look forward to any feedback or suggestions. 

 

Thank you,
Matt

 

[davidpitre]

Congratulations on your new scope and making a wonderful first image! Can you share a picture of your scope? That is an amazing accomplishment.
Where are you imaging at the native focal length, or was a barlow used?

[Matthew Paul]

Congratulations on your new scope and making a wonderful first image! Can you share a picture of your scope? That is an amazing accomplishment.
Where are you imaging at the native focal length, or was a barlow used?

Thank you David!

 

I imaged at the native 3050mm focal length and no barlow was used. 

This is not the best image of the scope but one that I just took now. 

[gstrumol]

I used my home built 6" f/20 Dall-Kirkham telescope (150/3050mm). The optics in the scope were made by myself, by hand, tested on home made equipment, and chemically silvered in my basement. 

 

SunSpot_6inF20_DAll-Kirkham_MatthewPaul_QHY178Mono-Cooled_04percent_Sharp_Smaller.jpeg

Dang!!   

 

This is old-school amateur astronomy at its best!

[Matthew Paul]

Dang!!   

 

This is old-school amateur astronomy at its best!

Thank you! It's super fun. A lot of work but enjoyable. 

[marvyyk]

Nice shot!

[C0rs4ir_]

Hope to see more solar images of the new scope, im super curious.

Edited by C0rs4ir_, 07 June 2023 - 01:57 AM.

[Matthew Paul]

I was able to image once or twice more with this combination, maybe a month ago. They are a bit over processed but it is what it is. 

 

Edited by Matthew Paul, 03 August 2023 - 12:00 PM.

[ch-viladrich]

Hi Matt,

Great scope !

 

I would suggest to use an Astrosolar ND 3.8 filter instead of the glass solar filtre. The optical quality would be much better.