New Camera!

Improved Solar Images!

I used my new solar imaging equipment for the first time recently.

Box shields laptop from the Sun.

Next time I'll place the table on the left side of the telescope for better wire connection.

The new camera is a DMK41AU02.AS from The Imaging Source. Beautifully small and lightweight, it fits where an eyepiece would normally go.

The DMK camera with Barlow lens on the Lunt 100mm solar telescope.

A laptop runs the camera. The box shields the laptop from the Sun, allows the laptop's screen to be visible, and also nicely shades me while I work.

Wireless trackball and telescope control are also visible.

The new camera worked perfectly right from the start! I could hardly believe how simple it was to get a well-focused image on the computer screen! Within less than 60 seconds of connecting the camera to the computer I was looking at an amazing image of the Sun. The camera software allows single frame images as well as video recording. Here's my first single frame image with no post-exposure processing whatsoever:

One 30th second exposure - no processing or enhancements (click to enlarge)

Here's the second single frame image showing a white active area around a sunspot group in the upper left and an emerging sunspot at the upper left rim (again, no post-exposure processing):

Notice the dark filament right of bottom center (click to enlarge)

Now check this out! Here is the same view shown above but produced by stacking multiple video frames and processing the result. The amount of detail revealed is astounding!

Please click to enlarge this image to fully see the detail.

Finally, I tried a 2X Barlow lens to magnify the telescopic image. Here's the higher power single frame image of the active sunspot group with no post-exposure processing (click on the image for greatest detail):

Notice the fine detail in the white active area and the spicules on the Sun's limb.

Compare the previous image with the amazing image below produced by stacking 151 video frames and processing the result. (The view is slightly shifted. Notice the flame-like spicule detail on the Sun's limb! Please click to enlarge so you can really see the detail.)

A sunspot is emerging near the Sun's limb at upper left.

I've hardly begun to explore the methods of enhancing these images and producing even sharper images from recorded videos. I'm looking forward to learning the tricks of image enhancement.