Shattering Sunspots! - 15th May, 2014

[Luke]

I was a bit bored and thought I'd try three different attempts with these sunspot images taken in white light using my ED120, mono video camera and Herschel Wedge some days back on the 15th. The thing I liked most about this session was that some of the spots looked like they were breaking up, especially the first one, which reminds me of a dinner plate falling to the floor when I do the washing up

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15th May, 2014
Equinox 120mm, Grasshopper 3 (ICX687), Baader Herschel Wedge, Solar Continuum filter, 2x Barlow

[Johan L]

Woow those are some really good images! Lovely granulation! I have noticed some benefit from dropping down the gamma setting about 30-40% from "default". What gamma setting do you use?

//Johan

[Johan L]

Although I have now noticed that I can do this in processing and get the the same effect. I think white light imaging in some ways is more difficult than Ha. But I am pretty new to it. Is there any other tricks to help the granulation show up more clearly?

//Johan

[Montana]

These are super crisp and detailed, lovely work Luke :)  

Alexandra

[Luke]

Thanks, Johan and Alexandra

Johan, I use a gamma of 997 in FireCapture. I would just as well use 1000, but the slider seems to stick at 997 when dragging from the default setting. 997 makes it sound like I know what I am doing (!), but I am more of a 1,000 person, if only it would stick there     

I am still learning but I think the most tricky part for me with white light seems to be the sharpening. I'm still experimenting but for these images I think I did two lots of smart sharpen in Photoshop - a larger radius first, then a second radius. But you seemed to have really good crispness in your white light images anyway?

[Johan L]

Thanks, Johan and Alexandra

Johan, I use a gamma of 997 in FireCapture. I would just as well use 1000, but the slider seems to stick at 997 when dragging from the default setting. 997 makes it sound like I know what I am doing (!), but I am more of a 1,000 person, if only it would stick there   

I am still learning but I think the most tricky part for me with white light seems to be the sharpening. I'm still experimenting but for these images I think I did two lots of smart sharpen in Photoshop - a larger radius first, then a second radius. But you seemed to have really good crispness in your white light images anyway?

Thanks I think the sharpening in these images is perfect. Very crisp detail and no noise. 

[David Smith]

Fantastic detail Luke