No Sunspots visible from the ISS!

Originally posted by GaryN
I am not discussing need here. I am talking about crew members, some of whom have been astronomers, taking some pictures on their own time, with their own gear. They seem to have lots of time to snap countless images of the most mundane onboard activities, playing the fool, etc

Well again, as astronomers they probably don't see much point a single shot picture of the Sun in whitelight is never going to be as impressive as anything they probably have already done on the ground. I don't know, ask them nicely. I suppose out of curiosity they could after all there is no harm in it.

Did you watch the videos? It was stated that the ISS was a very stable platform. There was no image blur with the shot of the stars. So how fast would the Sun go past a 'window' on the ISS? If the Sun were visible, how long an exposure would you need, through a dark filter, to get a decent image?
Did you see the tracker made with a cordless drill and some scrounged bits and pieces? The guys they send up there are highly educated, skilled, resourceful. Think they couldn't figure out how to get a picture of the Sun??

Yes I watched the videos but I didn't see the barn door tracker first time round which I'm surprised they had to be honest, while the stability of the ISS is important without the BDT there would be motion blur on the stars. So concievably then yes it should be possible to take a relatively decent pic of the Sun with using the BDT. But it'd still be a relatively uninspiring image which may go some way to suggesting why they don't want to bother using a dslr and telephoto lens.

Here is the page for the SOLSPEC experiments. Why bother doing this from the ISS? Surely they can do that with all the other instruments they have in space? Anyway, imaging the Sun over its full spectrum does not seem to be a problem, but access to the results requires a little work, and the dataset does not, as far as I can determine, include any images of the Sun.
solspec.projet.latmos.ipsl.fr...

What's your point? SOLSPEC isn't designed for imaging it's designed for data gathering, as it as been mentioned there are already cameras in place on other equipment to do so whether or not you consider them cameras is of little difference, they return probably the most detailed images we have.
Like they said in the Q&A snippet you posted, they are not measuring them, fair enough.

I doubt anyone will find an image taken with a standard camera, even attached to a telescope from space, of Mars or Venus or any other planets too. There is a reason for this, but unless you spend a good amount of time looking into how they do image things in space, you will never understand.
Here is a good start for anyone really interested in finding out why you can not take a picture of our Sun, from space, with a regular camera. Yes, I know, I'll be shown that fuzzy blob next to the crescent Earth again, and that is the only place you will see it. I'll get to explaining that if anyone shows any interest.
www.space.com...

That link does not say at all why you can't take an image of the sun it only touches on how it works to take images, which incidently is the same way it works for ground based telescopes to an extent no matter what camera you use, and a ccd is a pretty normal camera all things considered. Just about all astrophotography requires the blending of different filters etc.. and the end result is completely different from what you visually see.
The only way Hubble could do solar work is if they had a solar filter in place other wise it would destroy their ccd. And presumably they don't have a solar filter(maybe they do) because if there was any blemish to the filter when it came to use it, it would put the ccd at risk which lets face it isn't an easy repair job.
And if your version of what a camera actually is is limited to a Nikon D300 then I doubt you will have much luck finding the answers you seek.

There are loads of planetary images taken by Hubble, primarily taken with their Widefield and Planetary Camera , but I'm guessing they're not cameras too.

www.skyimagelab.com...
lasp.colorado.edu...

But what you seem to want is just a regular shot with a camera and solar film, bug 'em enough and you may just get it. It should be easy enough, I agree with you on that point although I'd not expect a great image.

Well thanks for showing an interest in this subject pazcat.

But what you seem to want is just a regular shot with a camera and solar film, bug 'em enough and you may just get it. It should be easy enough, I agree with you on that point although I'd not expect a great image.

Yes, I'm not saying it would be any better than the image taken from Earth, but it would show that it can be done. I have bugged NASA, in particular the Director of EVA missions, but never got an answer. I offered to pay for the gear too, just incase it was fried in the attempt!
As for instruments like Hubble, the other item of importance is some of the lenses they use. As far as I have been able to find out, they are ground in-house, they are not off-the-shelf. There is no information as to their exact structure, it seems to be classified. The lenses have a very specific profile, and near the outer edge, a grating pattern. Each lens can only 'decode' a very limited set of wavelengths, so we are restricted in just how many wavelengths we can view. The instruments are improving all the time, so we will be able to see more of the structures in space than we can now, and I think some of those results will be very interesting, if we are allowed to see them.
Also, if you look into the instrument that is used on SOHO to show the 'white' light images, you will see it is far from a regular camera, very complex optics. And I still am not clear exactly what color the Sun is, they false color it from white to orange. There are a number of opinions on the net, most seem to go with white, but some say pink, some green. This raises an interesting question. If we are not sure of the color of our own Sun, how can we be sure of the color of other Suns? And how can we then use color to determine temperature, which would totally knock all the models of size and distance of those Suns for a loop.
Ask Google, "what color is the Sun?"
Also, everything is based on our present understanding of light and colors, but what if even those assumptions are incorrect?
The Michel-Levy Chart proves that light has four primary colors.
milesmathis.com...
It may seem that I am totally off topic, but it is a very long and involved process if you want to understand why you can not just take a photo of the Sun, from space, with a regular camera. It involves looking into obliquely incident planewaves, and maybe the "Four-wave coupled-mode theory of obliquely incident plane waves on waveguide diffraction gratings"
Get a life, you say?

a reply to: GaryN

Ahmm

Transit of Venus with sunspots

Earth's planetary neighbor Venus passes across the face of the sun on June 5, 2012, seen here from the International Space Station. Expedition 31 crew members aboard the orbital outpost had cameras set up in several locations to record the rare event.

Another nail in the coffin of your theory re light in space.

originally posted by: wmd_2008
a reply to: GaryN

Ahmm

Transit of Venus with sunspots

Earth's planetary neighbor Venus passes across the face of the sun on June 5, 2012, seen here from the International Space Station. Expedition 31 crew members aboard the orbital outpost had cameras set up in several locations to record the rare event.

Another nail in the coffin of your theory re light in space.

Nice find! Here's the NASA archive page with this image: spaceflight.nasa.gov...
And here's a NASA article describing the preparations for this experiment: www.nasa.gov...

Pettit describes the camera system: "I'll be using a high-end Nikon D2Xs camera and an 800mm lens with a full-aperture white light solar filter."

Here's a portion of many images taken during that experiment: eol.jsc.nasa.gov...

Here's a very high-rez image, where you can see additional tiny sunspots: eol.jsc.nasa.gov...

a reply to: wmd_2008

Another nail in the coffin of your theory re light in space.

I have shown you where the Sun was at the time of those images, it was close to the rim of the Earth so being seen through Earths atmosphere, which is what makes it visible from Earths surface. They can not see deep space from the Cupola, only look sideways, through the atmosphere. If a filter shows sunspots from Earth, it will show them from the Cupola. How much simpler can it be?

a reply to: GaryN

Total rubbish and you know it so what about the picture on the other thread YOU seem to be avoiding that I wonder why!!!!