David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Sunrise on the Bay of Biscay from the Deck of the MV Explorer. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 70-200 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 200 mm, f/8, 1/125 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro and Photoshop CC.
Sunset on the Baltic Sea. Are there offshore oil platforms in the Baltic Sea off Denmark? Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera FT1 adapter and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec).
Silhouette of a sailboat passing in front of the sun at sunset from the deck of the MV Explorer. Crossing the Baltic Sea from Stockholm to Copenhagen.
The sky was clear so I took my telescope out. First to see the big sunspot (AR 1339), and then later the waxing gibbous moon. The Questar telescope comes with a solar filter to safely view the sun and sunspots.
One of the websites that I follow for sunspot and auroral (northern light) activity is SpaceWeather.com. I noticed yesterday and today that there are three new sets of active sunspots (1260, 1261, and 1263). My telescopes have solar filters to allow safe viewing of the solar disk. The following images were taken with a 3.5″ and 7″ Questar telescope and clearly show the sunspots. The third image has some clouds passing in front of the solar disk. The solar filter for the 3.5″ telescope is darker (lets through less light) than the filter for the 7″ telescope. This required increasing the ISO and decreasing the shutter speed for the smaller telescope. Another issue with the smaller telescope is that it is much more sensitive to mirror slap and shutter motion. In order to get a sharp image, I used the mirror-up feature and waited 30 seconds to let the entire system stabilize. With the larger telescope this is still a problem, but attenuated due to the overall extra weight of the telescope relative to the Nikon D3s camera. The higher magnification of the larger telescope however, increases the effect of vibration. Focusing was done viewing the image through the camera using LiveView — and using a HoodMan to be able to view the LCD screen. After shooting images (and videos) for about 30 minutes, I did get a sensor over heating warning (which then turned LiveView off).
