· Sun images taken on April 24, 2021, @ 11:33 UTC (for the entire solar disc) and @ 11:59 UTC (zoom). The limb darkening due to the solar atmosphere is visible.
· Details of the setup. The eyepiece projection technique has been used for getting a reasonable magnification of the image, as the refractor has only 400mm focal length.
The next two sun images have been taken with a refractor SkyWatcher Esprit 80 ED Super APO. The appropriate filtering of the solar light was ensured by a Herschel Wedge Cool Ceramic Safety (HW CCS). In addition, three 2-inch filters have been mounted after the prism: 1. Solar continuum filter centered at 540nm, with a FWHM of 10nm. 2. Grey filter ND 3.0 (1/1024). 3. UV/IR cut. The atmosphere was not at all optimal for the first light of this Herschel wedge. High-altitude clouds disrupted the imaging process. With this setup, only a green narrow band of the visible spectrum is observed. The raw images are monochrome and the color of the images has been added through a post processing, which has no scientific value. The purpose is only of esthetic nature.
· Sun images taken on April 21, 2021, @ 9:31 UTC (zoom) and @ 9:43 UTC (for the entire solar disc). The limb darkening due to the solar atmosphere is visible.
· Images of the setup and a young astronomer. The quality of the sky was not optimal for this first experience with the Herschel wedge, preventing high-resolution images.
© Michel Willemin