The top of G-deck turned out to be a good decision. There were a few other people there, but nothing like the crowds in Woodruff park (where I understand fights broke out over viewing equipment.)
I used a regular photographic tripod, which is decidedly sup-optimal for astronomy, but good enough for this purpose.
You can see how the shadow appears to roll over the sun in the sequence below.
I ordered a solar filter for my long lense. It looks something like a very fragile and expensive piece of tinfoil, but works.
Even with that filter, getting the exposure correct can be a bugger. I ended up in manual mode 1/4000 s f29 iso2000. The featured image shows the results, and, yes, those dots in the middle of the sun are sunspots. So we’re ready to go. I’ll probably play around a bit with the film speed to reduce noise, but this is decent enough to work. I’ll use a tripod tomorrow and be at the top of G-deck.
If you don’t adjust the exposure, the sun is completely washed out. Not at all what you want.
Very preliminary, but we’re announcing Treadco – bespoke machine learning and datamining for the discriminating user.
The name and form might change, but we specialize in highly efficient and highly accurate machine learning and data analysis.
R. Harrison, Creative Enterprises 