I wanted to test out my new home iPhone afocal photography adapter on my Coronado PST (Personal Solar Telescope).  It was clear so I opened the observatory this morning at 0925 MST, 91°F.  I attached the PST piggyback onto the 8” LX200-ACF.  I also attached the solar white light filter onto the 8” aperture.  At 0940 MST, I began viewing the sun.  In white light, a small sunspot group was visible in the 8” at 77X along with a separate small sunspot.  In H-Alpha with the PST at 32X three small prominences and one larger prominence were visible.  There were also some nice details visible on the sun’s disk.  I placed a black cloth over the eyepiece and my head while viewing and imaging.  That blocks stray light and significantly enhances the view.

I attached the iPhone adapter to the PST using the 9mm eyepiece (44X).  The full solar disk was in the eyepiece FOV.  Imaging with the iPhone was difficult however as the auto-exposure on the iPhone tended to overexpose the image.  I did a video.

I tried increasing the magnification by using a 2X Barlow Lens with the 9mm eyepiece.  Unfortunately, it would not reach a focus.  I then tried the 3X TeleXtender with the 9mm eyepiece.  It would focus but was way too faint to be usable.  I removed the adapter and viewed the sun with the 5.5mm (73X) eyepiece in the PST.  I also did an afocal video with the iPhone 3GS handheld over the 5.5mm eyepiece.  Again, overexposing was a problem.  (Back in May 2010, I had used a moon filter on the eyepieces to try to avoid overexposing.  It didn’t help.)

Closed the observatory at 1035 MST, 95°F.

At the computer, I reviewed the iPhone 3GS videos and selected a couple of frames that showed the prominences the best.  I then edited them in an attempt (not very successful) to bring out the prominences.  Here is the 9mm image and an inset with the 5.5mm image (upscaled 150%):

When viewing through the PST, there was a lot more detail in the prominences and on the disk than seen in this image.  Overexposure was the biggest killer.  I have more work to do to get reasonable images from my PST.  (I have tried using my Nikon D70 DSLR at PST prime focus but can’t focus with it.  And the DSLR is too heavy for my Digital Camera Adapter.)