My Plan.  It was a beautiful, sunny fall day in central Pennsylvania (USA).  The scopes were set up from the night before and I had no obligations, so I thought “why not try some solar imaging?”  Mind you, I had long put away the gear (see below), since the sun’s activity in 2020 and 2021 was marginal at best (at least in my humble opinion).  So I rummaged through my boxes of astronomy gear and pulled out a cheap scope.   The goal for today was to see how well ASIAIR could be used to collect solar image data using its "video" mode.  I also wanted to test out ZWO's free ASIStudio software, which has a video stacking app for lucky imaging of planets or the sun.

The Target.  Our beloved Sun  (English).  Soleil (French).  Aelia (Roman).    Eliane (Hebrew).  Cyra (Persian).  Kalina (Hindi).  Helia (Greek).  Saviata (Indian)  Baskara (Indonesian).  Gweiadur (Welsh).   Sol (Icelandic).  Gáæhgwa (Onondaga/Iroquoi) 太阳 (Chinese).   شَمْس (Arabic).  

Solar Activity.  This image was taken at 12:30 pm Eastern Daylight Saving Time (16:30 UTC).  Earlier in the day (08:42 UTC), Aa impulsive M3.9 solar flare erupted from Active Region 3112 (Beta).  Region 3112 is the middle of the three dark spots in the image above.  The flare started at 08:36 and ended at 08:46 UTC. It was followed by M1.5 at 10:52 UTC from the same region.

The event was associated with a Type II Radio Emission (estimated velocity 967 km/s), indicating a coronal mass ejection (CME) was associated with a flare event. SDO AIA 304 imagery confirms this.  A Type II Radio Emission (estimated velocity 237 km/s) was associated with the M1.5 event, too.

The Gear.  Orion ST-80 (tricked out with crayford focuser from ScopeStuff), Daystar Quark, extension tubes, and ASI174MM camera (uncooled).  HEQ5Pro mount on solar tracking mode, with ASIAir Pro running the entire system.

Conclusions.  The ASIAir software running on the ASIAIR Plus and controlled via bluetooth with my iPhone is super easy and user-friendly for capturing the data, adjusting the gain, white balance, and exposure time/frame rate.    I dread the though of having to go back to tethering my laptop to the camera and mount and running software with a out-dated user interface and over-complicated menu options.  Don't get me wrong ... I love SharpCap and FireCapture (I have paid versions) and realize they are more powerful and necessary if you are using video cameras made by manufacturers besides ZWO.  But being able to capture videos and control their gain, exposure and frame rates via a user-friendly app running on smartphone is simply fantastic.  No cables, no laptops, no cables, or overly complicated wireless issues.  In my humble opinion, ZWO is absolutely crushing it.The ASIStudio software is super easy for quick stacking of planetary video files.  I have never used astronomy software as intuitive and user friendly.  I would still use AutoStakkert and WinJupos for processing my planetary and solar images, but I will definitely also turn to ASIStudio for quickly processing my AVI files to get a sense of which files are the best to process in greater detail.

Comments.  I am a complete novice when it comes to anything related to astrophotography, so please feel free to provide me advice, comments and suggestions below.  If you have been using the ASIAIR software for you solar or planetary imaging, please share about your experience.  If you have (or had) a Orion ST-80 with a Quark Ha filter for solar imaging, I'd love to hear from you.  

Thanks for stopping by!   ✨🔭