Some of the problems of solar imaging and their related technical solution. This is a section that will change with experience.
This section displays some of the more interesting images with notes of dates and any other useful information. There are also images in the gallery (only) which show a summary of the solar activity on a day by day basis.
Here images showing changes in the solar suface are shown. For example sunspots taken on different days and prominences often over just hours.
Making a Solar Ruler
It is useful to be able to measure printouts and discover the actual size of a particular feature on the sun, particularly prominences. To measure sunspots not at the centre of the disc would require not only a ruler scaled correctly but also a bit of trig as the spot is not seen “head on”. This is not impossible, but I have not yet imaged enough sunspots to make it worthwhile. Prominence are seen at the edge and are so head on, except that thy can be part over the disc and equally part behind. But to make a ruler seems interesting as it will certainly give an order of magnitude of size and movement. It is necessary to stick to the same camera and Barlow. This is how I make the ruler. I have not put in my numbers as these will depend on the user’s set up. (a) Print the picture to a constant dpi and to the same size not allowing any scaling in photoshop. This means that the scaling from each picture is constant. (b) Improvise some way of measuring the solar diameter disc from the image, e.g. by using a compass with centre off the image and adjusting the radius till it matches the edge of the sun. (c) Calculate the relationship between inches and km, knowing the size of the sun is 1.392 Mkm. In my case I worked out the 10,000km was represented by 0.144 inches. Using this it is possible to make a ruler an image of which is below.