Category: Michael Dean After Dark

  • How I shoot photos of the Sun

    I decide whether or not to shoot based on how I feel (enough sleep, etc), the weather….It must be clear for several hours, usually best to start shooting shortly after dawn, when Sun is lower in the sky. This is paradoxical if you’ve done night astro, when you want to shoot things as high in…

  • HOW I TAKE SOLAR IMAGES

    Photo of the Sun’s chromosphere in Ha (Hydrogen-Alpha). It’s the best 100 frames stacked from 2000 frames of video (“Lucky Imaging”), each frame of video 5 milliseconds. I’m still learning and new to this, have only shot 5 photos of the Sun. Though a lot of the skills from night astro transfer over. I’m using…

  • Programming suggestion; Be able to hide every feature not in use

    (posted on the SharpCap website, Jan 9, 2026) Feature Request: Customizable Interface Modes I think this should be a feature for every program. If I only use 1/10th of 1 percent of the features in a program, I’d love to be able to hide all the ones I don’t use. Some would say that’s a…

  • Seeing a computer in the Sun for solar astrophotography (computer screen headset)

    I used these computer screen googles to mirror my laptop monitor (put them on 2D not 3D) They didn’t work on my older laptop but they were plug and play (mirroring screen) with this 14 inch dell laptop that cost me 260 bucks renewed with warranty, and it was fast enough to capture solar video…

  • Solar Ruler improved – Photoshop download included

    DOWNLOAD ZIPPED PHOTOSHOP FILE: (updated Dec 3, 2025)  I made an updated version of the old Guy Buhry Solar Ruler design. I put the the concentric lines on Photoshop layers, so you can turn off the measuring lines you don’t need. I also translated from French to English. I never liked that the concentric rings…