Sun In White Light 12-10-2012. 15:00

[Steve Ward]

Sorry I'm a little late on parade folks , a busy morning meant an afternoon shoot today , worked perfectly as the clouds disappeared just as I got home . . . .

Rattled off a rapid 200 frames and selected 99 of them , needless to say the seeing was pretty good here.

Stacking was an altogether different story though , I could not get all the various AR's to come in together first go or the second for that matter , I think the newer regions are more active than the older ones and may be throwing things off a little . . . ?

Got round it using a trick I tried a couple of times before , I stacked the best 70 frames four times , using a different AR to align things each time.

I then stacked the four "sub-stacks" to get the result I was looking for . . .

1000D + ST120 + ND3.8 + 1.8 x Barlow + UHC + S/L.

1/2000s @ ISO 100 , 70/99/200 , Reg 5.1 , Gimp2.8.

[JamesF]

Right, that's it! I'm not going to post mine now. I'm going to go off and sulk at the weather

Particularly good image, Steve. Well done.

James

[Steve Ward]

Don't be like that James . . . .

Have you tried my stacking trick , I know you've been having difficulties too , it may help.

The large AR at the left was nearly impossible to focus on today and had changed a fair bit between the first and last of the 200 I shot , I think this could well account for some of the stacking issues I had.

Steve.

[Montana]

Still a tremendous image

Alexandra

[sologuitarist61]

Wonderful image Steve, you seem to get the focus spot on every time and as sharp as a tack. What annoys me most is that you use the same scope as me ..... truly frustrating!!!!!

[Steve Ward]

I'm using a USB controlled motor focuser on all my scopes which makes a big difference.

It turns the 11:1 dual-speed to effectively something like 30:1 it has that fine a touch , 2 steps makes the difference between focus or not , I could get nowhere near as close by hand.

Steve.

[Bizibilder]

Well done - lets hope we get some clear spells over the weekend!

Talking of focussers - I use an R/C servo with a variable power supply running via a belt drive to a 10:1 focusser - one "blip" on the switch only moves the belt about 1mm (about 100 or so "blips" for one rev of the fine focus knob) so I get really fine control.

[JamesF]

I'm using a USB controlled motor focuser on all my scopes which makes a big difference.

It turns the 11:1 dual-speed to effectively something like 30:1 it has that fine a touch , 2 steps makes the difference between focus or not , I could get nowhere near as close by hand.

Where imaging is concerned, motorised focusers are the canine's cojones. Once you have a suitable mount I think there's possibly nothing else that will give such an improvement in the quality of the images that it's possible to produce.

James

[sologuitarist61]

Oh well ..... something else for the wish list!!