Solar timelapse 15/04/20

[tooth_dr]

I hadnt realised how hard it would be to get this all organised.

I'm learning as I go, this is 1 hour of images processed.  I will work on improving alignment, and hopefully have a better final video when the 8 hours are processed.

I should say thanks to @SiriusDoggy for his IMPPG tips, and his good video he posted.

I was limited to camera choice, the NRs on the 120MM were impossible to deal with, so I dug out an old Lumenera LU070M board camera, which is 640x480 7.4um pixels and mono, and gives decent FPS 30-60 depending on what else the PC is doing!

Despite the software, I had to align by hand in PS as all the frames were slightly out, and as a result I have some drifting.

 

Anyway after all that, still PDC, comments and tips welcome.

 

TIA

Adam.

 

 

[Davey-T]

Well done Adam, good job 

Dave

[SiriusDoggy]

Fantastic job Adam. Congrats!

[Merlin66]

Adam,

Very good!

How many frames and interval between images??

 

[tooth_dr]

7 minutes ago, Merlin66 said:

Adam,

Very good!

How many frames and interval between images??

 

Hi! Thank you.

I set it to take 400 frames. That was taking 10-13s and then I left a 20s interval. This went on from morning but I had to keep checking it and nudge the position every 10-15 minutes. 

Edited April 16, 2020 by tooth_dr

[MarkAR]

Superb.

[Merlin66]

Adam,

Thanks for that!

 

[tooth_dr]

2 minutes ago, Merlin66 said:

Adam,

Thanks for that!

 

No problem. I’m open to advice so please feel free to recommend anything. I just made up those figures this morning. 

[Craney]

Great sequence.   Just amazing detail..... and to see the plasma moving so clearly.    

Clear days followed by clear nights are exhausting !!!

[Merlin66]

Adam,

Last question....

What software did you use to combine the images into a video?

(I'm looking at FireCapture "Autorun" to make a series of 400+ frames every +/-30 sec)

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Merlin66

[Rusted]

Really excellent! You just raised the bar for awesome!

BTW: NASA say they want their kit back when you've finished with it.

[tooth_dr]

4 hours ago, Merlin66 said:

Adam,

Last question....

What software did you use to combine the images into a video?

(I'm looking at FireCapture "Autorun" to make a series of 400+ frames every +/-30 sec)

 

No problem ask away.  I combined in PS manually adjusting layer position. It’s time consuming but IMPPG didn’t get them quite right. I did 70 layers last night. There is 504 frames in the afternoon and about 400 in the morning.  I’m not sure if PS will cope with that many frames.  I might split it into smaller groups and use PIPP to combine. Unfortunately I think tracking at source is the best option but I don’t have a solar tracker.

I used Firecapture auto run with the 120MM, but switched to Lumenera LU070M when the NRs spoiled the image too much. The Lumenera camera doesn’t work with FC but luckily worked with Sharpcap Pro. I did a capture series in it too.

 

[tooth_dr]

This is my camera. It’s old but seems to still be up to the job. In fact my wife bought it from my for my 30th, and its my 40th this year 😮

This is my camera:

and I made an enclosure for mine:

 

More info:
https://astromart.com/classifieds/astromart-classifieds/ccd-cameras-astro/show/lumenera-lu070m-planetaryguide-camera-reduced

 

[Merlin66]

Thanks....

OK I did a trial run of 400 frames every 30 sec with the ASI 1600 under FireCapture , AS3! To prepare images and then wasted a couple of hours with PS5 and PSP before “refinding” PIPP.

I wasn’t using any tracking only Sidereal rate on the HEQ5.

well surprise surprise, PIPP seemed to do a good job of producing a GIF.

Need to do more experiments but so far so good.

 

[SiriusDoggy]

16 hours ago, Merlin66 said:

Thanks....

OK I did a trial run of 400 frames every 30 sec with the ASI 1600 under FireCapture , AS3! To prepare images and then wasted a couple of hours with PS5 and PSP before “refinding” PIPP.

I wasn’t using any tracking only Sidereal rate on the HEQ5.

well surprise surprise, PIPP seemed to do a good job of producing a GIF.

Need to do more experiments but so far so good.

 

Merlin66, I'd give the alignment feature in ImPPG a try if I were you. It works great.

[Merlin66]

Thanks for that.

I'll certainly add it to my "trial" list.

Appreciated.

Ken