bobgreef@hotmail.com (bob greef) [22 Dec 02]
Please find attached Solar Pic featuring Delta class active area 226 on 19th December 2002, 10.00 local time (GMT). Details: ETX 70 with 20mm Helios Eyepiece, Helios 2X Barlow, Orion Full Aperture Solar Filter, Coolpix 885 set to Auto and mounted on BCF afocal digital camera mount. I think I'm starting to get a little better at this. There is absolutely no substitute for experience in this game is there? Kindest regards, Bob Greef Wymondham< Norfolk England Mike here: I did a little "sharpen edges" to bring out the sunspots.
ughbug@telocity.com (Matt Franduto) [19 Dec 02]
First, thanks for your web site. It's been an incredible help to me. Last Christmas, my wife bought me an ETX-70. I've been observing and goofing around with taking pictures, but, overall I don't think I've had a picture good enough to submit to you. However, I really like the attached photo of the Sun with it's sun spots. It was taken in early November in Strongsville, Ohio. It's through an ETX-70, holding a Nikkon FG 35mm SLR up to the eyepiece. After developing at Target, the photo was scanned in and has not been touched up in any way. If you can use it, great. If not, I hope you enjoy it. I certainly did. Matt Franduto PS By the way, I was always afraid I'd be hooked once I owned a telescope and, well, I just bought an 8" LX-90 w/UHTC and a Minolta D'image 7. Next step adapters, etc., etc., etc. !
pietducci@comune.carrara.ms.it [18 Nov 02]
SUN: 8 NOVEMBER 2002 - 3.52pm ETX 90/EC - EYEPIECE MEADE PL. 26mm DIGITAL CAMERA "PENTAX 330RS" ZOOM 3X - SET IN AUTOMATIC MODE "ASTROSOLAR" FILTER STEADYPIX UNIVERSAL CAMERA MOUNT BY "ORION U.S.A." SINGLE PICTURE ELABORATED WITH "PHOTOSHOP" PIETRO DUCCI - CARRARA - ITALY
chris.sorensen@wanadoo.fr (Chris Sorensen) [31 Aug 02]
Here's the sun
millebr@erols.com (Brad Miller) [31 Aug 02]
Thanks for a great site. I've made a couple of the modifications to my ETX-90, which really improved it. These were taken today (21 Aug 02) thru the 90, with a Baader solar film filter and an Olympus C-2100 with a Scopetronix Maxview 40. Exposure times @ 1/50th .
oldwexi@aon.at (Gerald Wechselberger) [18 Aug 02]
Before the big Asteroid search today evening starts - the Sun showed a spot from the very best i have seen so far. Find attached a single image captured with the ETX125EC and 26mm Meade Eyepiece projection to a Canon G1 digitalcamera with 1/40 Sec exposure. I used the glass solar filter from Thousand oaks. Wish you a nice vacation and thanks for running your excellent homepage!! P.S.: i am in the final stage to get me an LX200 12". Will put it as guidescope on the ETX!? Or vice versa!
chris.sorensen@wanadoo.fr (Chris Sorensen) [18 Aug 02]
Today, August 15th, is a holiday in France. Had some time to take pictures of the Sun. I changed filters, so the focus is better. As usual : ETX-70, Canon-A30, ScopeTronix Digi-T CameraAdapter
Jean-Claude PIRAS [14 Aug 02]
Here are some more pictures taken by Jean-Claude PIRAS. They are much better (for a second try). He took them with his ETX90-EC + Electronic Eyepiece (alone). All of this driven with StarryNightBackyard on his laptop.
bobgreef@hotmail.com (bob greef) [14 Aug 02]
Another pic for your guest gallery, a very active sun. Details: The Sun 26th July 2002 ETX 70, 25mm eyepiece with 3x Barlow, Nikon Coolpix 885 set to infinity handheld over eyepiece. Filter: Orion full aperture. a bit of tweaking with thee contrast and brightness with Photoshop LE.
chris.sorensen@wanadoo.fr (Chris Sorensen) [11 Aug 02]
The sun taken by my good friend Jean-Claude PIRAS. These are his very first astrophotos ... taken with an ETX90-EC, homemade solar filter, Meade Serie-4000 9mm eyepiece + Meade electronic eyepiece.
roma11@netvision.net.il (Roy Faiman) [11 Aug 02]
This is my latest attempt "shootong" the sun through my 125. If you like it and you think it would fitt nicely on your site, you are most welcom to post it . The picture was taken Afocaly, with a Minolta Maxxum 7Xi, 50 mm lens on T400 CN Kodak film.
astrosfigato@katamail.com (weega) [31 Jul 02]
Here's a puzzle of 2 images obtained stacking 38 frames captured on 29/07/02 at the prime focus of my Etx90 with a Philips Vesta webcam. I used an Astrosolar filter. Picture elaborated with Registax. Sun-spots' numbers are 50-39-44 from left to right. You can see other picture of recent spots here: http://digilander.libero.it/weega/foto/sole2.htm. Daniele Vigan from Monza (Italy)
a.hatwood@net.ntl.com (a.hatwood) [31 Jul 02]
This is my first attempt at solar photography. It was taken using a Fuji FinePix 2600zoom attached with a home made mount to a Paul Rinni 40mm eye piece. The camera was set in manual mode and the exposure was the shortest the camera could manage. The telescope was an ETX125 with a full aperture solar filter. The inset was a stack of 4 images compiled with astro stack. Thanks again for the great site. Ps. I poached the design for the mount from your site too!!
ibanezplayer1988@mindspring.com (Spencer Petzold) [31 Jul 02]
Click for Movie (QuickTime required).
Besides just using my fathers 90mm ETX I decided to do some astrophotography as well. the thing is its hard for an amateur to determine what shutter speed to set you camera to. Well, I was shocked by my little experiment. I bought a role of 12 exp. 800 asa film and took ten photos of the sun with ten different speeds. The speeds are as follows from first to last: 1 second 1/2 second 1/4 second 1/8 second 1/15 second 1/30 second 1/60 second 1/125 second 1/250 second 1/500 second The ten different photos were put into a movie so you could see the difference as they went along. Due to the aging of my scanner the sun spots are not as apparent as they should be but they are there. If this is posted on your web site I hope it will have use for your visitors. Experimentation Hypothesis: Sunspots will be able to be noticed around the 1/60th of a second shutter speed. This guess was based on previous photography of the moon. Description: I placed my Hanimex camera on the threaded lens hole of my father's ETX and took pictures at each shutter speed available. When the pictures were developed I was able to make a good observation of all the different photos leading to my conclusion. Possible Variables: air quality, sun magnitude, sensitivity of film (asa), and telescope aperture, and solar filter. Conclusion: I found that the best shot I took was with the 1/500 second shutter speed. although it is not as good as I believe taking another picture at 400 speed with 1/500 of a second. I conclude that my idea that the sun needs relatively more shutter speed was proved wrong by my developed photos. But that the fastest photo speed indeed took the best photo.
BOBCATH28@email.msn.com (ROBERT DEROUIN) [23 Jul 02]
Here is another effort from Johnston,RI on the morning of Sun;July 21.Using a 125ETX on auto mode (Nikon Coolpix 885) with a 26mm plossl and a lot of image processing.Hope you can use this photo of a 'naked-eye'sunspot!.
clein4997@attbi.com (Chris Lien) [23 Jul 02]
I was able to obtain a picture of Sunspot 30 on July 17, using my MEADE ETX-90ec and a SAC-7 (air cooled) CCD. I used a full glass solar filter I purchased from Orion. I believe they are selling the JMB Identiviews. The CCD was attached in prime focus and I used Astrovideo to capture the image. I adjusted the brightness and contrast enough to try and bring out as much detail as possible using Paintshop Pro.
aon.912183187@aon.at (Gerald Wechselberger) [23 Jul 02]
Sun spots are still nice. So, find attached for your ETX Guest Gallery 2 other images of the sun imaged on Friday this week. ETX125EC and Canon G1 was used.
marc.delaney@ntlworld.com (marc.delaney) [23 Jul 02]
A large sunspot group has been traversing the surface of the Sun this week (Sky & Telescope website), so I tried my hand at photographing it.The result, enhanced asomewhat in Photoshop, is attached. ETX-105, 26mm Superplossl eyepiece, ScopeTronix Class-A Solar filter, Coolpix-995 camera, ScopeTronix Digi-T camera adapter.
divenuts@gte.net (divenuts) [19 Jul 02]
I took this photo 7/15/02 using my Televue Zoom on a Dr Clay Supercharged ETX 125 with a Nikon 995 using a Scopetronix thread-on Solar filter. Quality degraded a little with file size reduction. SOLAR BLAST: Twisted magnetic fields above giant sunspot 30 erupted on Monday, July 15th, at 2005 UT. The explosion sparked a powerful X3-class solar flare and hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME, pictured right) into space. Although the CME was not squarely Earth-directed, it might nevertheless buffet our planet's magnetic field as early as July 16th (although the 17th is more likely). Sunspot group 30 is still growing and now stretches fifteen Earth-diameters from end to end. From Spaceweather.com
JRPowell59@email.msn.com (Joseph Powell) [23 May 02]
Here is one of the Sun from 5/11/02 ETX-125, 40mm Plossl 500 series using a Sony MVC-FD92 hand held to the eyepiece.
vincent_ysc1@yahoo.com (chan sing) [16 May 02]
Attach photo used ETX90EC with solarmax40,40mm eyepiece projection with cp990 digital camera.photoshop enhance and resize to 640X458.more bigger image size can be find from here http://members.tripod.com/~chan.ysc/etx/solar_etx90_1l.jpg
divenuts@gte.net (Chuck Callaghan) [17 Apr 02]
I took this photo yesterday (4/16/02) after reading about the solar coronal mass ejection. The photo included is the prime suspect of the source,sunspot 9906 is the large sunspot near the center.
the.grahams@verizon.net (The Grahams) [3 Mar 02]
This is a composite of two images taken March 1, 2002 with a 60mm ETX and a Solarmax Ha filter. The combination of scope and filter are wonderful! I keep it at work and use it as my lunch time solar-scope. I can put it under my arm and take it anywhere.