Sun in H-a from Bank Holiday Monday

[Luke]

I'm a bit late to the party with these images from Monday. I attempted some prom close-ups, but struggled I think with focus and exposure/gamma setting. It was such a fun day and for the observant among you, I have left some of the images mirrored and have not flipped them back, as I wanted to remember them how they looked at the eyepiece on that fab day!

At the eyepiece, the prom in the second piccy looked like a big bird to me, and it still looks like that to me in the image. For the third piccy, at the time I thought the prom looked like a character walking up a hill, with hair flowing behind. I must admit, I struggle to see it, now. The Sun must have got to me

It feels like the focus for the proms needs to be slightly different to the focus for the main disc? But I find it hard to latch onto it. I think the same tuning I use for the disc might be okay, based on that when I look with the eyepiece afterwards with the same tuning, I get a nice view of the little spicules

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21st April, 2014

SolarMax 60 SS, Grasshopper 3 video camera

[JB80]

Nice shots, I am with you on the bird but yeah, not too sure about the other one.

Top pics though all of them.

[Montana]

Fabulous images, it certainly was a day to remember :)

On the second prom picture, the line is caused by excessive use of gamma, it will disappear if you use a lot less and up the exposure instead (been there and done it myself).

Alexandra

[Steve Ward]

Nice set ... 

Too much Vitamin D all round , in number two I see a Dragon ... ! and number three I see the Grim Reaper approaching a fluffy shark ... 

[DrRobin]

Ah a dragon breathing fire, that was why Monday was so nice.  I bet it had gone by St George's day?

Very nice set Luke.

Robin

[Luke]

Thanks, all

Steve, those are great!

Alexandra, thanks for the tip with the gamma. I did try a lower gamma yesterday and I think I could see the spicules a bit better in the capture, it will be interesting to see if I can get something of the camera-shy spicules when I catch up to stacking them! I'd love to get an image where they show through nicely, they look so nice at the eyepiece. I'm still struggling with my bag flats as well, even if I did get some top of the range bags from Waitrose   What kind of exposure length do you use? I seemed to have to go to one second exposures to get a decent amount of light coming through, and it still looked pretty dark

[Psychobilly]

I'm using what is essentially a clear sandwich bag - double thickness.. with the 618 I increase the gain to achieve a similar brightness level as I had without it in place - typically I am using a gain of 268 and 1/2000s exposure  on the disc and the gain needs to increase to about 340 with the bag in place... If possible  try and find a pretty "featureless" portion of the disc but make sure that I am well away from the discs edge If I cant I "dither" the mount during the relatively long flat capture sequence - I'm using 5000 frames at 60 fps...

Peter...

[Montana]

Luke, yes, I am getting about 1 and half frames per second (whatever that is in exposure rate). I rack up the gain to a very high level, then start racking up the exposure to get a decent histogram. It takes a while but you only need 200 frames for a good flat and all the noise from the gain is abolished in the final flat. 

Alexandra