I’ve been watching a number of solar prominences come and go in recent days. Several seemed worthy of imaging. Unfortunately, when I went to grab my camera, I was unable to locate my Scope Tronix adapter. This was a bother, but I was too lazy to do anything about it. Until today, that is. Today, the Sun was sporting two pairs of large prominences on opposite sides of the Sun. This was more than even I could ignore

I knew that my adapter couldn’t be far… it’s always kept with my astro gear… err… with my photo gear… err. Well… I tore through everything and, there it was… sitting right where I put it… inside the case for my Coronado Solar Max 40

I brief play with focusing and I snapped the accompanying image. It doesn’t show all of the detail visible in the eyepiece. This is a shame as what I saw was quite amazing. Its also a shame because I’m aiming for much better. I’m still struggling with capture of the finer details in a number of types of images (planets & sun in particular). I suppose I’ll need to read up on things if I’m to overcome this (current) limitation.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Sun
* Magnitude: roughly mag -27 * Size: roughly 1/2*

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Sony DSC-F717
* 1/100s at ISO400
*PhotoShop CS2 Curves (mac version)
* Coronado Solar Max 40 Solar Telescope

Solar activity has been on the rise lately… with a slew of prominences showing up. I missed a huge one yesterday because of the weather. Fortunately, clear skies came before things fully subsided. As you can see… solar imaging is a whole new endeavor for me. I’m currently shooting with the Coronado mounted on a camera tripod. This puts some limits on what I can do. I’ve also got to work out some focusing details when I use eyepiece projection to capture the image. Anyway… it was nice to get out for a quick break this afternoon.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Sun
* Magnitude: roughly mag -27 * Size: roughly 1/2*

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* 1/60s at ISO400
*PhotoShop CS2 Curves (mac version)
* Coronado Solar Max 40 Solar Telescope

Checkout some of my other Solar Images if you have a minute.

Todays clear skies brought the opportunity to do a little solar observing. Given how cold its been at night, this is a nice addition to the hobby.

I’ve almost got the focusing down for imaging. Views come quickly into focus, but through the view finder of my Sony camera, its still a bit of a struggle. This shot was the best I’d could muster in the alloted time. I’m hoping to work through the details a bit more rigorously in the coming weeks.

Anyway, here’s a trio grouped tightly together. Just to put things in perspective, each of these solar prominences are larger than our entire planet. These are some truly massive events. If you just think about the amount of matter and energy involved, it really helps to put things in perspective.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Sun
* Magnitude: roughly mag -27 * Size: roughly 1/2*

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Sony DSC-F717 Digital Camera
* 1/50s at ISO200
*PhotoShop CS2 Curves (mac version)
* Coronado Solar Max 40 Solar Telescope

As luck would have it, skies cleared here in Park City and I got word (via Spaceweather.com) that there was a nice prominence visible on the Sun. I figured I’d take a few minutes out of a busy morning to see what all the fuss was about. Wow! What a sweet view. Not one, but two prominences jumped right out at me. Sweet! I enjoyed the view for a while and then decided that this was simply too nice not to be imaged.

This was my first success at imaging through the new scope, a Coronado Solar Max 40 solar telescope.  I’d had a couple of failed attempts previously. It seems that I need a bit more back focus than I was getting. I kept fiddling with this until I got to focus. I had to have the eyepiece pulled half way out of the diagonal before the image got sharp. I’ll pull together some sort of tube extender for my next effort. Anyway, I was quite happy to see that this actually came out close to what I was able to observe. I say close, because there was a bunch of detail on the surface of the Sun that did not appear in my image. As my target was the prominence, this wasn’t too big of a deal, but… going forward, I’ll need to get this resolved as well.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Sun
* Magnitude: roughly mag -27 * Size: roughly 1/2*

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Sony DSC-F717 Digital Camera
* 1/50s at ISO200
*PhotoShop CS2 Levels (mac version)
* Coronado Solar Max 40 Solar Telescope

I’ve always enjoyed viewing our star. Watching sunspots grow and morph over time has always fascinated me. Up until the arrival of my new Coronado Solar Max 40 telescope, this has meant that solar flares and coronal mass ejections were off limits. CME’s are some of the most spectacular views in astronomy, so adding them to my list of observing targets is a big plus.

My first thoughts when unboxing the Solar Max was…its cute. I mean that in a positive way :)  It is a 40mm f/10 aperture. That’s a 400mm focal length… or about a 16″ telescope. Many folks have larger aperture binoculars (i do).  The scope is a beauty though. Craftsmanship is definitely a priority for Coronado. This is as stout as a tiny telescope can get.

As the weather gods would have it after any optics purchase, skies have been cloudy with copious quantities of snow falling for the last several days (over 2 feet in less than a week). The new year is expected to bring clear skies…. or so they say. Look for future updates on my progress with this beauty.