6th July 2014 Sun white light, full disc, close-ups

[NadrejN]

Hello All

Had some luck with the weather this Sunday. It was quite hot, but to my surprise it did not affect imagining too much.

It was also first session with my computer controlled focuser, solar continuum and IR-cut filter and I could not be more pleased with them. Focuser worked really well and in my enthusiasm I completely forgot to do some comparison shots with the filters . It is no wonder my previous attempts at F16 were unsuccessful, there is so little difference between good focus and disaster.

Equipment used: OO 12" F4, Powermate x4, Baader UV/IR cut filter, Solar continuum filter, Grasshopper3 (ICX687), FireCapture, Autostakkert 2, Registax

Full disc (without Powermate, 6 panel mosaic)

Close-ups (withPowermate, had to bin 2x2 to get reasonable framerates)

(left sunspot reminds me of a dog)

Overall quite pleased with the results - wondering what the results would be if close-ups were not binned. 

Thanks for watching, comments, suggestions welcomed.

Best regards

Andrej 

[David Smith]

Great close-ups! Well done.

[Montana]

Andrej these are fabulous!!! what WL filter are you using? as it seems you are getting very slow shutter speeds. If you have the Baader foil make sure you have the photographic version (not visual). If you have a Herschel wedge change the neutral density filters to a lower one, this will stop you from having to bin.

If you process in Autostakert 2 only stack the best 10% at the most. Then take straight to Photoshop and sharpen only using the Smart Sharpen tool, tick advanced, lens blur and set the top slider to around 400, then use the bottom slider to very carefully sharpen. I mean carefully, it is a big mistake to make your granulation look like round blobs, if you see round blobs go backwards and you will find less is more :)

Alexandra

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Superb!

[Luke]

Great shots, Andrej! I see the dog!

[NadrejN]

Thanks for comments everyone.

Alexandra: Much appreciate the detailed answer  , I do not have Photoshop, so I used GIMP. Will invest a little bit more time playing with different settings and see what can be improved.

The problem with long exposure times is because of aperture mask used. Really need to invest some time, to prepare some with bigger openings and test them out. Scope is surely capable of providing enough light.  

[NadrejN]

Almost forgot that I was imaging for 45 minutes and collected 9 images of the same group . Got to love the flaming edges.