First (Solar) Light - My first shot at the sun (ever) at the end of summer … 20220921 16:19cedt (Wouter Cazaux)

First (Solar) Light - My first shot at the sun (ever) at the end of summer … 20220921 16:19cedt

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

First (Solar) Light - My first shot at the sun (ever) at the end of summer … 20220921 16:19cedt

Looking at the stars in the night sky, we tend to overlook the one star that is closest to us: our sun …

So, I started a new chapter in my Astrophotography: Near the end of August I was invited to the local StarNights-party to give a presentation about ‘My journey back to the stars (or rather, back into Astrophotography)’, and I got to meet someone who gave some very good advice and guidance on how to kick this off.

By chance, the day after he gave me a tip about a second hand telescope, similar to what he uses for his solar photography … the rest is history: I’ve collected the bits and pieces, a DayStar Quark, ERF, etc … and started constructing the new (second hand) scope … culminating in this perfect moment to gaze at the Sun and fire of my sun-shots

All summer I had seen the sun-images of others. So strange to be able to rise to the same occasion on the last day of the summer, or rather the first day of autumn

I couldn’t fit the sun on the camera sensor, so my first sun-image consists of two panels capture at 1080p, top and bottom. Processing in AutoStakkert, PixInsight for the wavelets and Lightroom for the panel merge. Two additional images captured in 480p, showing some of the current active regions more closely (still looking on where I can find the details about the AR-numbers)

I’m off to a bright start, I would say … happy with this First Solar Light

TechnoSky102/1100, reduced to f22, ASI 174MM, EQ6R-Pro, DayStar Quark Combo (Chromosphere/Prominence)
1080p, 4ms, Gain 100, 60s, 2x
AutoStakkert, PixInsight, LightRoom
20220921 16:19cedt

It’s funny how creative someone gets when he has a ‘mission’. To reduce the scope to f22, I made a self-constructed scope-cap, built from a drainage-pipe plug, fitting an isolation-band on the internal side, so it squeezed over the scope dew-shield. A DIY scope reduction cap with a total cost of less than 10 euros …

Any constructive guidance is welcome …

Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭

Follow me @astrowaut

Final
Original
B
C

B

Title: Detail image (1/2), captured at 480p

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Detail image (2/2), captured at 480p

Uploaded: ...

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