22/8/17 1800h

[RichM63]

Second attempt with the Baader filter on the 150-600 +7D

Fully manual but I increased the shutter speed to 1/1000 as I noticed that John F was using faster speeds than I had.

F16, ISO100, 1/1000 MF. Oh and I did use the tripod and Gimbal this time rather than hand held.

Struggling to nail focus through the view finder but can't see anything in Liveview. is there something I'm missing?

Still single frame, tried PIPP +AS11 but ended up with some sort of dead flesh looking blob.

B/W PP of the Raw, I am trying to figure out a methodology of steps.

Cheers, Rich

[johnfosteruk]

Cracking effort Rich. 

If it helps:

• In Pipp, select Lunar/Solar full disc on the first tab
• Select dabayer RAW on the second tab and debayer monochrome, leave the rest alone
• On the next tab click convert colour to monochrome, stretch white point to about 40% (looks good with my subs anyway). 
• Click test options top right to see how it looks, change the width and height in px to suit if it's not right, get rid of unnecessary black space or increase the canvas size as necessary.
• Next tab, click enable quality estimation and reorder
• penultimate tab, click TIFF and include quality value in filename
• last tab, click start processing.

That should give you a folder full of cropped, stretched and quality sorted subs ready to stack. I don't generally stack anything lower than 95% when the seeing's poor and 90% when it's good.

 

• Select your subs for stacking and chuck into AS!2 (or registax)
• In AS!2 ctrl-click on some spots and click analyse (step doesn't exist in RS)
• In AS!2 or RS, click to place about 2-5 alignment points on spots if there are any, if there aren't don't bother.
• Stack

Job done

[RichM63]

I'll most certainly give that a go. Thanks John.

[Ibbo!]

If I cannot get impgg to sharpen them I use PS unsharp mask  10% 1 pix and 0 thresh a few times

also try iterations of smart sharpen with low levels.

sorry if already know this

[RichM63]

No apologies required Steve, I am a total Virgin in this particular field, I really am 'stabbing in the light', so all advice is most gratefully received.

From a capture aspect, my MF is a bit hairy when compared to some of the great Sun Spot shots recently posted, I need to figure that one.

Rich

[Ibbo!]

When I have used a DSLR for WL I attach it to a screen so i can focus it.

Liveview does not hack it for me and the contortions required to see the tiny screen netbook all the way for me .

[Pete Presland]

Very nicely captured. 

[johnfosteruk]

1 hour ago, Ibbo! said:

Liveview does not hack it for me and the contortions required to see the tiny screen netbook all the way for me .

I used to use the lappy to focus but now I have the wedge the camera is at 90° to the telescope which is much more comfortable. I've wedged a cardboard box around it as a shade and focusing is quick and hassle free now. No cables or extra batteries to worry about. I still use the lappy when there's barlows involved. 

[David Smith]

Good shot. I do all my focusing using live view. Only connect to the lappy if there are no / very small spots to focus on.

[RichM63]

Right, I followed John's instructions above and painlessly stacked 33 of the best frames from the RAWs.

No other proccessing as yet, but I do see a marked improvement.

Mono,

Thanks again John,

Rich