H-alpha and CaK activity 4 Dec

[sheri_barri]

The high pressure system across Scotland this week has been fantastic for solar imaging. There is only a 30min window for imaging between the neighbours trees but it is time well spent. This week all the gear was set up on frost covered ground which was rather interesting. The activity on the surface continues to be dotted by various active regions. The filaments are still my favourite to image as they snake across the solar surface.

In Calcium K the sunspots truly pop into view. Amazing areas of activity practically merge across the northern hemisphere.

Thank you for looking.

Sheri

[RobH]

Excellent as always Sheri

What focusing technique do you use?....Your images are always crisper than a crisp thing.....in DSO/lunar/planetary work, it's easy....just focus on a star....in the daytime that's not so simple!!

Cheers

Rob

[sheri_barri]

Thanks Rob. Focusing is tricky with the sun. It really is simply using the imaging software in live preview to zoom in to an area with good contrast e.g. filament or active region. Filaments I find easiest. I then fine focus to what I think is sharp then over and under focus a bit to be sure and bring it back to the sweet spot. It is very hard on days of poor seeing so patience is required to let the image show that it is focussed sharp despite all the boiling of the atmosphere. Some days are simply a case of sizzling atmosphere and the granulation is all but lost. Focusing as best as possible makes the amount of sharpening in processing minimal which I think allows the image to retain its natural appearance better. Saying that, it is very tempting to over sharpen an image so as a wise solar image processor told me once, sharpen then step the level back just a bit to prevent over sharpening and perhaps introducing artifacts. Best advice I have had for these.

Well done on your deep sky image of the Catherine Wheel galaxy!!! Now that type of imaging is a black art to me.

Cheers,

Sheri

[markt]

Great shots Sheri! It is difficult to get decent images of our star at this time of year, i'm hoping to get my hour window in on saturday morning if i'm lucky with the clouds

[Photosbykev]

Very nice images Sheri, I have to go out on the hills to even see the sun at the moment lol. Roll on Spring

[RobH]

Thanks for the explanation Sheri.

I agree re. sharpening....it's very easy to go too far.

In general, most of what I do in photoshop ends up being faded 50% in order to keep a natural look.

Glad you like NGC7217.....M1 on its way, probably later today :-)

Rob.

[Montana]

Wonderful pictures Sheri!

The CaK really shows up the 2 active region belts well.

You had better batten down the hatches up in Scotland today, it looks bad, I hope nothing gets damaged and the telescopes are safely in the house!

Alexandra

[smerral]

Great work as usual Sheri.

Yep, no observing up here tonight in these winds....

[Montana]

I hope you haven't been blown away Smerral, it's pretty rough here at the moment so I pity those in Scotland, I really hope you don't suffer any damage.

Alexandra

[praesepe]

Those are stunning, nice job.

[sheri_barri]

Thank you all for your very kind comments. We survived here in Aberdeen although there were several areas nearby with a lot of damage. Scopes were safely housed so all is well.......