Sunspots

[jimhines]

I was testing the solar filter for the camera, in preparation for Monday’s eclipse. We won’t be seeing the total eclipse, but I’m hoping to get some good shots of the partial.

As I was processing the results, I realized I’d captured sunspots!  (Those dark spots in the upper left.)

Click to embiggen.

For those who wonder about such things, this was taken on the 100-400mm lens, fully zoomed to 400mm. ISO 640, f/10, with a 1/3200 shutter speed. I had to set everything manually, because the camera overexposed the shot if left to its own devices.

I think next time I’ll try to reduce the ISO down to about 100 and see if that gets rid of the minor graininess.

Processing involved cropping the shot, noise reduction, and an orange overlay.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Comments

[thewayne]

What uni are you at? My wife operates the 3.5 meter at Apache Point Observatory and also operates the Apollo lunar laser ranging program. They're just coming out of summer shutdown right now, I'm planning on helping out at the National Solar Observatory for Monday.

[beccastareyes]

The University of Nebraska at Lincoln. I do mostly space-based things (with the Cassini mission's data), so the only time I am at the telescope are public nights.