Chris, they look great to me. You can adjust color in post-processing on the computer if it doesn't look quite right. Most chips see colors differently than they eye. Some of the extra "sunspots: could be dust specks on or near the camera's chip, or even birds or insects in the line of sight. On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 10:56 PM, Chris Watson <thebigzwatson@yahoo.com>wrote:

I had my camera with me when the sun was nice and red tonight, so I took a few pictures. As anyone who has seen the sun through the smoke knows, the color is not exact here. All I could do was set the white balance to daylight to try to get it. There are all taken within 1 minute of each other - is there a reason the sunspots aren't consistent?

I like the flock of birds picture better

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/dyxum/DSC02639_zpsde14...

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/dyxum/DSC02638-2_zps32...

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/dyxum/DSC02637_zps45e1...

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/dyxum/DSC02636_zpsc257...

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/dyxum/DSC02635_zpsf241...

If anyone is curious, it was taken by the following:

Sony A77 Minolta 75-300 @300 Quantaray 2x teleconverter F64 1/8000 sec 100 ISO. There are a couple at 50 ISO, and one was taken with a Zeiss 16-80 @80 _______________________________________________

The sunspots are a real question to me.  All the thoughts you put out are valid, but not the case. 1) dust - I have had some dust on the sensor and there for sure are some spots on the translucent mirror (Sony's replacement for the normal mirror), but I took some other pictures and none had spots like these sunspots show up.  There are little dust bunnies, but that is it and not in the same place as these.  I guess that I didn't take any others at the same focal length with the teleconverter, so that potentially could be it, but I doubt it. 2) exposure times - all pictures are 1/8000 sec at f64, with small iso adjustments (50/100), so no parts of the picture were getting blown out - I actually had to raise the exposure in a couple of the pictures. I guess that since it was handheld at an effective 900mm, I may have lost some of the smaller ones to camera shake, but I doubt that since the circumference of the sun is still pretty sharp.  My best guess is that parts were being wiped out due to unstable conditions in the smoke (I'd say this is probable) Thanks for thinking about this ________________________________ From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, August 16, 2013 5:59 AM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Pictures of the sun tonight It also occurs to me that they could all be real sunspots, and some are missing in some shots because a longer exposure irradiated adjacent pixels and essentially wiped them out.  Were you binning pixels on any shots? _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".

Nice shots, Chris.  It looks like you may have gotten some crud in the air - like ash or something also.   ________________________________ From: Chris Watson <thebigzwatson@yahoo.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2013 10:56 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Pictures of the sun tonight I had my camera with me when the sun was nice and red tonight, so I took a few pictures.  As anyone who has seen the sun through the smoke knows, the color is not exact here.  All I could do was set the white balance to daylight to try to get it.  There are all taken within 1 minute of each other - is there a reason the sunspots aren't consistent? I like the flock of birds picture better http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/dyxum/DSC02639_zpsde14... http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/dyxum/DSC02638-2_zps32... http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/dyxum/DSC02637_zps45e1... http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/dyxum/DSC02636_zpsc257... http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd65/thebigzwatson/dyxum/DSC02635_zpsf241... If anyone is curious, it was taken by the following: Sony A77 Minolta 75-300 @300 Quantaray 2x teleconverter F64 1/8000 sec 100 ISO.  There are a couple at 50 ISO, and one was taken with a Zeiss 16-80 @80 _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".