1st June white light solar

[Joseki]

I finally got a chance to try out my new camera - a ZWO ASI120MM after I managed to yank out the cables of my MS Lifecam.  This was around 10am yesterday using a 90mm short tube frac, Lunt 1.25" wedge, and Baader SC filter (I forgot the UV/IR cut off that is sometimes recommended), using FireCapture2.3.  The main panel is a 2 panel mosaic manually stitched in GIMP, with close ups on the peripheral shot with a GSO 3x ED barlow, all captures were between 1500 and 3000 frames (in AS!2 the closeups keep just the best 20%, the full disc images used 45% just because I was trying different processing as I went along).  To process the data I used AS!2 and GIMP only, I didn't bother with wavelets as they didn't seem to give much.  I should probably have stretched the histograms before GIMP since it's 8-bit but this is the first time I've managed to get the 2 panel mosaic to work in GIMP and I didn't want to have problems with mismatched levels.

I'm pretty happy with the ASI120MM, it seems there's a lot more flexibility for control and using the ROI option the fps was very high.

[JB80]

Very nice John, good to see the ZWO at work on white light. Very good.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice indeed. Great detail in those close-up shots.

[Astrosurf]

Excellent job. Beautifully focused. How did you manage that? I always struggle with focusing.

Alexxx

[Joseki]

Hi Alexxx, thanks for your kind words.  For focusing I didn't do anything special, I just spent a while going in and out of focus until I was happy with it, using the edge of the sun helped.  In the future I'm planning on modding the focuser with a servo motor - I've got all the bits to do it and none of the time.  I also recently checked that the focuser was square with the lens using a laser collimator (it wasn't but it is now).

John

[Astrosurf]

You must have good eyesight!