Stacking artefacts in RG6

[Davey-T]

Tried to do my first mozaic of the Sun today after receiving my 90mm front etalon apapter (thanks to Simon, Robin etal for the recommend)

Just run the vid;s through RG6 and a couple of them have not come out right, not really sure if I'm doing it right in Registax but the others have come out OK.

Here's a sample

Dave

[David Smith]

This is why I use AutoStakkert. Will watch thread with interest though.

[Zakalwe]

Autostakkert all the way. It's easier to use, miles quicker and produces better results.

once you've stacked them in AS2, drag and drop the file into Registax for wavelet sharpening.

[Steve Ward]

Wot they said ... 

[Davey-T]

Well that went well, downloaded Autostakkert, tried to open AVI file and get error message failed to open file frame count 0, any ideas ?

Dave

[Steve Ward]

Might pay to run it through PIPP first , this will reorder the frames by quality and export in a format that AS!2 will take.

[Davey-T]

Downloaded PIPP will try again tomorrow.

Dave

[Davey-T]

Run one AVI through Pipp and Autostakkert and artefacts are gone  that's a step forward, so thanks to all for advice.

Just need to learn how to process the images now.

Gave up on the moziac as it had a couple of bits duplicated and a couple of bits missing lol.

Here's my hamfisted attempt at processing one frame of the "mozaic"

Incidentally how much can the LS60DS be barlowed, I've only got a 2X at the moment.

Dave

[Zakalwe]

What camera are you using?

A x2 Barlow works nicely. You need good seeing to go much higher. I have used an x3 when conditions are good, and also tried stacking my x2 into my TV 2.5 Powermate. That was pushing it for my location.

Mark Townley has some excellent tutorials on his site:

http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/p/imaging-tutorials.html

[sooot]

http://www.thefirmament.nl/astro/main_screen.html?http://www.thefirmament.nl/astro/sun_ha_tutorial.html&2

try that for processing got me started off then just adapted stuff to taste, uses photoshop though but sure will work with other software

[Steve Ward]

Good to hear you're on the way ... 

Try here for some processing tutorials ... http://www.hapb.net/Solar/processing/introduction.html

[Davey-T]

What camera are you using?

A x2 Barlow works nicely. You need good seeing to go much higher. I have used an x3 when conditions are good, and also tried stacking my x2 into my TV 2.5 Powermate. That was pushing it for my location.

Mark Townley has some excellent tutorials on his site:

http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/p/imaging-tutorials.html

Still using Minitron camera at the moment .5 inch 640X480 mono, mosaics Sun with 12 frames using  2X barlow so OK, was just wondering how far it could be pushed.

Thanks for the link, I follow tutorials but my images never end up like there's 

Thanks Sooot & Steve for links.

On the subject of cameras, is it worth waiting for a few more USB3  models to appear ?

Dave

[Zakalwe]

Still using Minitron camera at the moment .5 inch 640X480 mono, mosaics Sun with 12 frames using  2X barlow so OK, was just wondering how far it could be pushed.

Thanks for the link, I follow tutorials but my images never end up like there's 

Dave

The old adage of GIGO applies. Try and make the source data as good as possible, then every step afterwards is easier. High quality data is much easier to manipulate.

I spend ages on getting the focus as good as I can. And I re-focus during imaging runs.

Don't push the wavelets too far in Registax either. Additional sharpening can be done in PS (High pass filtering works well). I only ever use the first two wavelet sliders in R6.  I make sure that Gaussian is selected, the select the Dyadic radio button. Slider one goes to near the max and slider two is about 25% along. All the others are on default. The lower sliders will blow the sharpening.

[Steve Ward]

Fully agree with the above , especially the focus , for my Whitelight I get it absolutely nailed , and then monitor for a minute before hitting the shutter , and I shoot in sets of 100 frames at a time but recheck every 30 or so , nothing worse than seeing perfect subs at the start of a set drifting slightly out of focus towards the end , particularly on very hot days when things get warm and expand a little during a session.

With regard to Wavelets , I always knock the bottom four sliders right back to the far left to start with before touching the top two , really helps reduce the large radius blur and pull out the small fine detail ... 

[Davey-T]

Still planning on motor focuser when I get round to it, still not sure if it's tuned as well as it could be, mainly the front etalon. got TS adapter but not had enough sunny days to get it right,

Tried wavelets in RG but made images worse so was probably doing too much.

How late in the year is it feasible to Solar image ?

Dave 

[Steve Ward]

Put it this way , I've caught 192 days out of 220 so far this year ... if it's shining I'm shooting ... 

[sooot]

Id guess seeing will be better in the cold less thermals to deal with. But ive not imaged during winter to really give an answer. The suns dropping rapidly now soon wont see it for half the day as theres a stupid tree line in the way. Looks like ill test the strength of the flat roof(yeah right)

[Steve Ward]

You need one of these ... 

[Davey-T]

You need one of these ... 

No chance, took six months negotiating to get agreement to move her lounger to fit my obs'y in.

Dave

[Steve Ward]

Guess you'll be imaging Summer only then ... 

[sooot]

Think the mrs would have a fit. Plus it be a perect post for the many birds around here to use as a toilet lol. Id prob drift back to the dark side a tad more

[Steve Ward]

Works well at night too for getting to those low latitude targets ... 

[sooot]

I try to keep my gear a bit hidden were not far off the bronx around here. Only reason i leave gear out all night on its own is because phd has a hissy fit when scopes touched. And the .22 and dog would scare anyone away.