Sun Finder

[Altocumulus]

Ok, maybe a blue-sky thought - for Solar imaging.

When I image the Sun, I slew my 'scopes towards the star, but even with a good polar alignment or using shadow I often still miss.

I increase camera gain/exposure until the histogram just starts to show a peak of around 2-5%.
I aim to see that peak widen and move to the right, by slewing the mount ENSW as appropriate. Obviously as the
brightness increases on the histogram, I then decrease the gain/exposure accordingly - at some stage a glow will show
in the live view.

My question is could this process be automated in Sharpcap, mount connected of course - though I do admit to enjoying the manual challenge. I find it an easier process pre- meridian flip than after for some reason.... .

I guess it's something the Skywatcher SolarQuest and the Hinode guider do.

[admin]

Hi,

yes, I use a similar technique for finding the sun and also for finding the moon on a new setup with a new camera. Not a bad idea to automate it.

Another trick I have is a home made camera based solar finder...

I have an SVBony solar finder which is relatively cheap and an old QHY5LII camera + wide angle lens. Tape them together and you have a camera based solar finder - through the QHY camera you can see where the sun is on the solar finder grid.

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I can't find an image showing the resultant image from the QHY camera at the moment, but with the right exposure/gain adjustment you can see the sun and the gridlines of the finder...

cheers,

Robin

[Altocumulus]

Thanks Robin.

I used to use a spotter scope aligned to the main scope, with a diy baader film cover and any odd camera lying about. It was good and easy to do - but I needed to reduce weight, so I stopped using it when I started to use this technique.

Geoff