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Solar observing/imaging - interested in your experience.

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Have you tried solar observing/imaging?
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14% (2 votes)
7% (1 vote)
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Paul Sanfilippo avatar
Paul Sanfilippo avatar

Hi,

I’ve been doing astrophotography for a couple of years and continue to enjoy all aspects of it. I also enjoy looking at images of the sun on AB, but do get to a point where I feel they are a bit repetitive (I know one could say the same about night time observing/imaging).

I’ve toyed with the idea from time to time of buying a basic Ha solar scope (e.g. 40 mm Lunt) but even these are relatively expensive when someone is unsure if the interest will rapidly wane after looking through or imaging with the scope a few times (I would hope that wouldn’t be the case but I just don’t know)

However, it does have appeal though for being able to do something astronomically related during the day and especially when the nights are cloudy (as they have been here now for weeks)

I assume only a relatively small proportion of AB users are into solar observing/imaging, but I’m really keen to hear from those who’ve tried it - e.g. how you got into it, what did/didn’t keep you interested, how often do you do it, do you do night time astro as well, etc.

Thanks,

Paul

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Keith Mombourquette avatar
Keith Mombourquette avatar

I enjoy it very much. I use a Daystar Quark and an 80mm Svbony doublet and get decent images. I enjoy it enough that I recently ordered a Heliostar 100 but it has a 3 month wait time. I have an observatory so it is easy to put the solar scope on a mount that is already polar aligned and go. I especially enjoy taking solar time lapses.

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Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar

I have from time to time. The main thing for me is the high cost of entry. I know you can do white light with mylar film but the real action is with custom built white light reflectors , spectroheliographs or double etalon refractors. It is interesting especially this year when a clear night has been hard to come by. I will probably get into it some point when I’m a bit more flush.

Astronominik avatar
Astronominik avatar

I got really hooked on solar after moving to a city and not having a lot of opportunities to drive to better skys to observe at night.

For me the dynamics of the sun and seeing it evolve over time makes it fun. I think its not for everyone though. Sometimes i am lucky and catch a flair or filament erupting.

I do a lot of sidewalk astronomy with my Lunt which is great for meeting people and showing astronomy to the general public during the day.

As to the repetitive nature of solar images. I get what you meen but i think its like in DSO, the more you do it yourself the more interesting are small details, differences in processing and aquisition.

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Harlan Dolphy-King avatar
Harlan Dolphy-King avatar

I finally just pulled the trigger on a Daystar Quark Chromosphere, should be here next week.

I found a used Explore Scientific 127ED to pair with it, and I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas to arrive. AbSOLutely love seeing the images people take. The dynamic nature of the Sun keeps it interesting!

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dan baldwin avatar
dan baldwin avatar

I’ve been doing astrophotography for several decades, started with hypered film and hand guiding with OAG. I was never interested in Solar until just a few months ago and am now totally hooked on Ha observing and imaging, especially making animations. The way the sun changes daily, hourly and minute by minute is so much different than either DS or planetary imaging. Currently I’m doing both solar by day and DSO at night. Only problem is now clouds and wind are bothersome 24/7 instead of just nighttime :)

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Michele Rainville avatar
Michele Rainville avatar

Fun but hot lol

Matthew Singer avatar
Matthew Singer avatar

We are in solar cycle 25, which started in 2019 and is expected to continue into 2030. There’s a chance that after 2030, we could end up in a situation similar to solar cycle 24, where the sunspot count dropped a lot and for a long time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle_24#/media/File:Solar_cycle_24_sunspot_number_progression_and_prediction.gif

The sun is currently interesting because it’s quite active.

Having observed during the solar minimum between about 2017 and 2020, I found the sun was featureless for long stretches. Of course, there were prominences, but sunspots and flares became very rare. Prominences are nice if you’re really into them, and can observe them often enough to come across some you find interesting or unique.

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AdAstraAnimadverto avatar
AdAstraAnimadverto avatar

I bought the Acuter Elite Phoenix 40 and I’m really having a lot of fun with it! Lately it’s the only scope I’ve been able to use due to the combination of shorter nights + bad weather! What I particularly like is the fact that even in a 30 min session you can see prominence evolving!

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