Coronado PST Solar Imaging?

[Syzygy]

Hi,

 

Having just joined the forum yesterday, I've upgraded my BYE to V3.1.6. Having recently purchased a Coronado PST solar scope, I am hoping to take some pictures of the sun and Avi's too. I've already attached my Canon 60D to the scope and taken some reasonable pictures, but I feel that getting a good focus is paramount as it is quite difficult to gauge on a small viewing screen on the camera?

 

This is where I believe BYE may come in really useful?

 

Has anyone else used the Coronado PST with BYE, and did you achieve good results?

 

I am using a EQ3 Mount with goto - I set it up facing North then inputting the data required Long/Lat date time etc... and the use solar tracking to good use. I've had it running for an hour and the sun remains dead centre of the eyepiece!

 

It's been foggy and cloudy here since, the joys of living next the the sea and a lighthouse!!

 

Any advice would be most welcome...

 

Syzygy... aka Gerry.

 

[astroman133]

Gerry,

 

Your focus appears reasonable. It is tedious to get focus when you can't use the FWHM metric to help.

 

One issue is that the surface is much brighter than the prominences. This means that if you brighten the image to see the proms, that the surface detail is washed out. I would suggest shortening the exposure duration to darken the image enough to show the surface detail.

 

If you can do that then you can take AVIs with both long and short exposures, stack them separately and then combine them later to show both proms and filaments.

[admin]

Yeah, as Rick said FWHM is not usefull here.... but StDev may help to get you very close, you just have to work with the higher number instead of the lower.  Once you are close enough you will still have to rely on your instinct/eyes to reach perfect focus

[Syzygy]

Thanks Guys!

 

Sound advice... I look forward to seeing the Sun on the bigger screen too!