Large Solar Prominence with one sun spot (Tej Dyal)

Large Solar Prominence with one sun spot

This is my second ever imaging session in H-Alpha on my PST. I feel lucky to have caught a lovely huge prominence...with a lonely sunspot (the only one on the surface) looking jealous and vying for some attention!

A couple of people wanted to know how I achieved focus with the PST using a DSLR because I agree, the PST is quite notorious for its short focal travel and the sensor of the DSLR is quite far back. So here is what I use to achieve focus. The key element is Televue (TV) 2.5X Powermate and a special TV T_ring adaptor. The Powermate's eyepiece barrel can be unscrewed and replaced with the TV t-ring which in turn screws unto the T-ring specific to your DSLR. So its a 4 piece chain. Your camera, your camera specific T-Ring adaptor, the TV T-Ring adapter and the Powermate (sans eyepiece barrel). This chain brings the Canon's sensor chip closer to the Powermate's lens and so just about within the PST's focal range. This chain I use for both the close up and full sun images and that is thanks the Canon's great 5X Live View record feature which I can toggle the 5X magnification to capture either full sun or close up on prominences as I've done here. Of course, a monochrome astro camera will etch our far superior details but for some reason, with my DSLR, I can capture both surface detail and prominences in one single shoot, whereas with a monochrome camera, one has to shoot prominences separately to a surface detail shoot and then either layer them together in post processing or simply keep the two images separately...as far as I am aware, please do correct me if you have achieved otherwise.

Date: 1st June 2014

Camera: Canon 650D

Image capture type: 43secs 5X Live View video capture mode

Prime Focal (2.5X TV Powermate projected replacing eyepiece barrel with TV Powermate T-Ring)

Frames per sec: 10

OTA: Coronado PST

Mount: Nexstar Alt-Az Goto

Filters: Coronado PST

Seeing:

Wind:

Light Pollution:

Post processing: Stacking 15% best frames, RGB Balanced in Registax

Monochrome, tint, Exposure, gamma, smart sharpen in PS5

Pre-shoot prep: Focus using 5X Live View

Location: From my bedroom window, Peckham, inner London.

File: out_469

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