shooting the sun

jonathan_ed

jonathan_ed

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Jonathan
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rite...quick picking of brains.

i had the bright idea of taking a photo of the sun at mid day on a clear day. has anyone got any tips or ideas, or if this is even possible to get any results.

I was thinking of using a ND Filter, like a 10 stop one or something, then play with shutter speeds etc in manual.

Any ideas? Or is it a case of a pipe dream?
 
Personally I wouldn't do it.

You may damage the camera, your eye or both.

I suppose it may be possible with a very dense filter but could I just ask why? The sun is quite nice when going down or coming up over a horizon but in the middle of the sky it wouldn't be a great shot anyway would it or am I just being ignorant of creative opportunities?:D
 
:agree: very unwise. Very.
 
dunno, just thought it'd be something different. May take your advise though lol, it'd be a tricky one to explain how i broke the camera to the insurance company...
 
An astronomy solar filter would work, there is the inexpensive solar film this would give a white image of the Sun, showing any sunspots, or there are the expensive hydrogen alpha filters, which give those great looking orange coloured images.

Solar film in a holder is around £50, hydrogen alpha filters used to be around the £2000 mark.
 
You can make you own solar filter with some of [**;=http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=bsolarfilm]this[/url] film. But... you need a big focal length to get any details, like the prominences or sunspots. You need the special Ha filters/scopes or a monstrous aperture scope (11" or larger) to get surface granularity to show.

This sort of imaging is normally done with a webcam type device, the crop factor gives huge image scale. My astro fitted webcam has a crop factor of 8.5 so works really well in my 1300mm scope on the moon.
 
Martyn... said:
An astronomy solar filter would work, there is the inexpensive solar film this would give a white image of the Sun, showing any sunspots, or there are the expensive hydrogen alpha filters, which give those great looking orange coloured images.

Solar film in a holder is around £50, hydrogen alpha filters used to be around the £2000 mark.
Click to expand...

Its easy to make your own holder and you can buy the film easy enough:) try here

I dont think you can get a Ha filter for lenses only scopes as they are usually a two part system! Having said that I have taken shots with both.

This was with the Baader film and nothing to see on the surface! partial eclipse last year 1st august :)

eclipse.jpg



This shot was taken with ha and an EOS 30D! I think I caught the surface? quite well but the prom and the processing was completely naff :lol: anyway it can be done :)


Sun-test-1.jpg
 
My friend tried this, but with a film camera.

He got some ace results - you could actually see the shutter closing.

However, with a digital, you'll burn out the sensor immediately, unless you paint the lens in pure black, cover it in lead or something.

Also damage to your eye - you'd have to do it on Live View and not through the viewfinder.
 
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