Photographing the Sun

Thousnad Oaks is the best out there. I took this shot with my Coolpix 995 a few year agot through my telescope using a Thousands Oaks filter.

That is a pretty darn neat shot too. I was at first thinking to myself "why??", your shot answered that for me quite fast. I still prefer to take a shot of a person, but I can see the value. :)
 
Short answer: Don't! Do yourself a favour and get or build a solar filter, don't risk your eyesight.

That was in the back of my mind too.

The camera should be fine.

Would the sensor not be in danger of any kind from frying a few pixels or something? I thought I read that somewhere :confused:
 
I wish to photograph the Sun. Can I do this by reducing the strength of the lighting by using 2 semi-crossed polaroid filters?

You definately want to use a filter that is explicitly intended for solar use, anything else is potentially going to lead to serious injury.

Coronado Instruments is a big name in solar scopes, filters, etc. They sell direct as well as through most of the major astronomical retailers.

Another popular alternative among amateurs is the use of Baader film, also available at many retailers, to make your own filter. Its cheaper than coated glass filters, but far more fragile.
 
Joves, what focal length telescope was that taken with?
(Just trying to get an idea what I could expect from my telescope.)

The moon is roughly the same apparent size as the sun in the sky, right? Would it be safe to assume that the level of magnification I would get with the sun would be similar to photographing the moon with my telescope?
Was taken through my 8" f/6 or 1220mm Newt with a 40mm eyepiece. I haver drilled holes in mine to move the mirror cell forward to shoot at prime focus when I built it. I like to shoot afocally. The best book to get for the set up is Edmunds Scientific's book All About Telescopes. It has been reprinted so many times and, sometimes they are out of it but, it is worth the wait.
 
Would the sensor not be in danger of any kind from frying a few pixels or something? I thought I read that somewhere :confused:

I thought normally yes but the wavelengths that typically do that are the visible as the glass in the lens would naturally cut a lot of UV, the dual polarisers would cut most of the visible, and then the infra-red would be taken care of by the sensor's own low-pass filter. So the parts which may damage the eye are taken care of in camera by other means.

Personally I wouldn't put this to the test though :)
 
Just thought I'd mention that a solar filter usually blocks 99.999% of incoming light. Do you want to risk relying on the glass to filter the UV, two polarizers to filter 99.999% of the visible, and the IR filter to block the IR ... or would you rather just get an actual solar filter? It has been 6 years since E&M, but I'm pretty sure that the first polarizer blocks 50% of the light, and the next only blocks another 50% of that.
 
Err not quite. The polarising filter emits polarised light and the drop in output is due to the design of the polariser itself. Nice crystal polarisers used in photonic communcations for instance don't attenuate anywhere near 50% of the light.

But since the light is polarised the next filter will attenuate the light with direct proportionality to the filter angle. Thus if the filters are 90 degrees apart in theory all light is blocked in theory anyway.

But yeah, not good anyway.
 
I wish to photograph the Sun. Can I do this by reducing the strength of the lighting by using 2 semi-crossed polaroid filters?
Do you just want a blob of light or do you want some detail like sunspots?

Some detail - sunspots etc, Keith.
Sorry about taking so long to answer, had problems with the computer.
Bob
 
Well, if you want a sun star r whatever you call them, you can get pretty good result from 1/500 at f/22 at ISO 200.
Dont ever look at the sun. I just take a burst and have the camera pointed at the sun, one shot out of 10 or 15 should be what I wanted!

If you want what everyone else is talking about....listen to them. I konw nothing about the sun, other than I just shouldnt look at it.
 
Thanks Garbz - how do I build a solar filter?
What about welders glasses? I have a pair, and if I put both lenses together, it seems to adequately limit the lighting.
Bob

I wish to photograph the Sun. Can I do this by reducing the strength of the lighting by using 2 semi-crossed polaroid filters?

Short answer: Don't!

Solar filters are very specific for a reason, much of what is emitted by the sun which is capable of damaging eyes is not in the visible spectrum. Polarisers are spectrally variant. The ones for photography do a great job for the visible spectrum but there is little data to how it handles infrared or UV light. This means when you look through them your pupils may dilate while not realising the very thing that could cause blindness has not been reduced. There have been plenty of cases of people going blind looking at solar eclipses by using photographic ND filters, or looking through floppy discs or that sort of thing.

Do yourself a favour and get or build a solar filter, don't risk your eyesight.

The camera should be fine.
 
Thanks Garbz - how do I build a solar filter?
What about welders glasses? I have a pair, and if I put both lenses together, it seems to adequately limit the lighting.
Bob

I wish to photograph the Sun. Can I do this by reducing the strength of the lighting by using 2 semi-crossed polaroid filters?

Short answer: Don't!

Solar filters are very specific for a reason, much of what is emitted by the sun which is capable of damaging eyes is not in the visible spectrum. Polarisers are spectrally variant. The ones for photography do a great job for the visible spectrum but there is little data to how it handles infrared or UV light. This means when you look through them your pupils may dilate while not realising the very thing that could cause blindness has not been reduced. There have been plenty of cases of people going blind looking at solar eclipses by using photographic ND filters, or looking through floppy discs or that sort of thing.

Do yourself a favour and get or build a solar filter, don't risk your eyesight.

The camera should be fine.
You mean for when you are using a cutting torch or brazing. No they dont cut out that much light. Now you can use the glass for Arc welding. While not as good as a solar filter it is acceptable. I have used my old welding mask to look at partial solar eclipses and, never suffered any eye problems when doing that.
 
Yep the welders used for arc welding are sufficient as by design they protect the users from a very very wide range of light wavelengths.
 
Yes, you can capture the photograph of Sun by reducing the strength of the lighting by using 2 semi-crossed polaroid filters but after you are taking a picture just visualize what you can see in that photo. If you want the photo of current sunspot activity then just pin your camera on darker side of the Sun.
 

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