Solar gone bad, registax 6 issue

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

here is the setup , target was solar imaging with DSLR

canon 350D with T-mount

revelation astro t-mount extender/eyepiece projection adapter

25mm sw eyepiece.

114 @ f1000 (bird jones) telescope on a RA tracking Eq-1 mount

badder solar film ND5 

65 images taken ,all images converted from Canon raw to 8 bit Tiff's

run into registax and stacked/aligned  the final output is very bad ( like registax never stacked images)

5 of the above images taken and placed into registax , the best 5 without much movement 

this time output is good some fringe halo but ok. 

Wavelet settings.

denoise 0.30 

sharpen0.200

do all produces this image i am left with red banding lines.

what is happening and how can i stop it. also how can i get better clarity, my viewfinder shows perfect sharp images

yet the saved raw files are blurred and dirty.

[DrRobin]

I have found Reg6 only likes nice clear videos, then it really works well. Try Reg5.1 or better still Autostakkert (AS!2) and select surface rather than planet. Use all the spots as alignment points and then fill the disc with alignment points on a grid of 50 and auto place, that should do it.

Robin

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

does AS!2 allow you to import none avi. i can just sellect all images i have out of camera convert to tiff then run them in

as!2 ? 

i had a thought that AS!2 was only for video , not stills photos

[DrRobin]

I have only ever used AVI, so not sure. You could create a video with PIPP and then load it in, but it might be easier just to use Registax 5.1, that usually works for me when Reg6 fails.

Robin

[cgarry]

I would suggest running your raw images through PIPP to do the following:

* Centre the sun in each image

* Crop each image to remove all the black background

* Convert to monochrome (possibly only using the red channel)

* Convert to TIFFs (16-bit)

This should give you TIFFs that Reg6 will be happier to handle, but will also work well with Reg5 if you need to take that route.  The image you posted in you original post looks somewhat blurred to me, possibly a focus issue, so Reg6 may still have problems with those images.

Cheers,

Chris

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

i had a try with Auto stackert 2 , it went as far as map something and stopped.

took 44 mins to get to 1% ( running quad core 2.4ghz  2gb ram 500+gb hdd.

so i converted the tiffs to jpg ran it again, same thing happened this time it left me with 689mb of memory

and stalled. file size went from just shy 5mb down to 2.2mb in jpg form.

i get the same problem in registax 6 , i removed registax5 as it never worked and kept crashing on my machine.

deepskystacker will not stack my solar images either, i even tried faking stars in the images to fool Dss.

yes Cgarry 

the scope and optical system shows clear crisp sunspots , the image saved is nothing like seen via the viewfinder.

i spent the first 30 mins of the sunshine going back an fourth focuser wise to get that bang on sweet spot 

where everything looks diamond. hit the shutter ( have mirror lock running to help with wobbles ) and hammer the shots out.

i then recheck the focus right after last shot in session. everything is crisp clear and focused.

here is where i think the problem lays, the scope itself mainly the spherical mirror ?

my scope is one of those bird jones things. could this be the problem you think.

eye wise the views look ok, but digital is showing the poor mirror to its maximum ?

[cgarry]

Are you centring and cropping your images with PIPP?  With only 2GB of RAM I don't think you have much hope throwing DSLR sized images at RegiStax or even at AS!2.  With the cropped images you might have a chance, though 2GB is not a lot of RAM!

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

physical ram i have 2gb buts its dualband so i get 4gb ( 2gb as virtual ram)

PIPP ? i do not know what this means,

i could batch crop the images in GIMP 

and export as a jpg but each time i loose data. have gone from 6.5mb raw down to 2.2mb jpg

i am just worried i loose everything the camera captured and then struggle with the final compressed images more.

[JamesF]

PIPP: https://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/

I'd use it to crop, recentre and convert your images to monochrome, saving as TIFF.  Use your original RAW files as input to PIPP. Then see how big they are.

James

[Steve Ward]

For sets of Single DSLR frames stick with Reg 5 ... 

It just does what it's supposed to without all the niggling time-wasting issues of the temperamental Reg 6.

[Steve Ward]

And as nobody has offered it , try Roger's tutorial here .... It's a fine starting point .... http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/153712-simple-white-light-solar-imaging/page-2#entry2117604

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

i threw away the sessions images. 

i tried R6 , AS!2

file conversions. 

raw : 6.5mb

tiff 8-16 : 4.5mb

jpg : 2.2mb 

reason for dumping the sessions images.

eq-1 mount was Not polar aligned  or true north aligned. ( off by about 10 degree, metal n compasses dont work well together)

the cheap telescope design and its not very good spherical mirror, add to that the silly barlow used to extend the focal range to 1000mm.

so not only am i having to track using a dc motor with pot to adjust speed of rotation, but contend with mount not tracking correct.

and the need to always be tweeking the Dec/RA, while shooting and checking focus

camera: having no liveview and counting on the focuser mask in cameras viewfinder is not ideal, so your in a constant

battle with yourself for that sweet spot focus point, I also noticed a problem with BADDER FILM.

my film is no longer that shiney reflective foil that you get in the nice packet, mine has gone a cloudy

tainted color, the solar filter has been stored in a large box kept in a draw out of sunlight.

but my filter has gone a dull color on the external face that has the sun beating down on it.

the internal side is stlll  shiney reflective foil the external has clouded over a white'ish like color/hue.

IS IT SAFE ? to use still, in what time frame should one be replacing these solar film filtering systems

I gave up in the end, sent the images to the big internet bin in the sky, and packed away the scope.

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

Better result, but worse off. 

same setup, i swapped out camera systems. 

i installed the lifecam HD 5000 ( astro modded) into focuser.

now my first problem, i can only fit around under a quarter of the suns disc in my view.

focus in as good as i can, ( sunspots are more a blurred hue of contrast) the disc is crisp clear circle

the surface not so much and sunspots described above. i run two short AVI files via sharpcap. 

shove these into AS!2 and it flys through them , i mean super quick like it should be running quad core and all four threads.

now the images, there is no way i will post them here, they could cause more damage to your eyes than the sun.

very blotchy like someone has rubbed my Cmos with acetic acid , blotchy etc etc.

running the files into R6 they will skip right to wavelets.

Adjusting wavelets did something ........... 

It made my dust bunnys into sunspots and the sunspots into dusty bunnys lol so something is working and i just have to

get my head around this software.

Second note, the modded webcam is being hammered, its still trying to focus IR light for some reason.

i have a UV/IR cut filter installed ( skopenskys job cost me 20 plus uk pounds) but still i am seeing this unfocused IR band.

can you double stack IR/UV cut filtering to cut out even more IR.

scope is the same a 4.5" reflecting jones birdy @ 1000mm @  F8.9 

[tingting44]

you had any more time solar imaging mate?