Prom - 20200831

[Debo]

Finally got some nice clear skies yesterday and took the opportunity to do a prom time lapse, it covers about 45mins in real time.

I was half hoping that it might have lifted off but no such luck ☹️

 

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by Debo

[Altocumulus]

Holy wotsits.

May I ask your technique - including getting rid of clouds....!

 

[MarkAR]

Superb, love these animations.

[simmo39]

So cool! 

[Debo]

4 hours ago, Altocumulus said:

May I ask your technique

Hi Geoff,

I captured a 10 second avi (circ 500 frames) every 30 seconds for around 45 mins (for this I used the Autorun feature in FireCapture).

Stacked the avis to create 93 individual images, sharpened and added some colour.  Then recombined the images into a GIF using PIPP.

All very tedious, there's gotta be a better way 

Edited September 1, 2020 by Debo

[Altocumulus]

Thanks.

 

That's a lot of activity in 45 minutes!

I often wonder if AS3 could be configured to add colour to the resultant image, or imppg, or ???

I assume you used a standard photo editor for the colour?

 

[Debo]

1 hour ago, Altocumulus said:

you used a standard photo editor for the colour?

Yes, just PS elements.

[vineyard]

That's really cool - and must have taken a lot of effort, thank you!

I know nothing about solar physics - how does those filaments (no idea if that's the right term) just float there instead of moving (since there must be a lot of turbulence)?  Also they seem to be falling down like rain but not being replenished with upward streams, so how does that keep happening (there can't be anything for things to condense around!).

Sorry if these are idiotic Qs - hopefully someone with more knowledge of the Sun can point me the right way pls!

And thanks again for that GIF - v cool!

[Debo]

38 minutes ago, vineyard said:

hopefully someone with more knowledge of the Sun can point me the right way pls!

Sorry but it's not me 🥴, I suspect that the physics of the solar chromosphere is all a bit hazy and difficult to grasp

[Merlin66]

Den,

Well done mate!

As you say, preparing an animation is a labour of love.

(You could use CORONO to suppress the disk http://sweiller.free.fr/Softwares/Corono/corono.html )

The filaments (prominences when viewed at the edge of the Sun)  are driven by the solar magnetic field, the corona rain effect is gravity taking over. Some prominences can be 100-600,000 Km long, and 5,000 to 10,000 thick at heights of 50,000 Km and more above the photosphere. They can have lifetimes of weeks/ months.

 

[Debo]

47 minutes ago, Merlin66 said:

(You could use CORONO to suppress the disk http://sweiller.free.fr/Softwares/Corono/corono.html )

Thanks, I'll have a look 

[George Gearless]

Thanks a bunch. That was pretty awesome. National Geographic material right there.

May I ask how you got such a steady alignment to allow you to do this? Permanent setup, or....?

[Debo]

33 minutes ago, George Gearless said:

Thanks a bunch. That was pretty awesome. National Geographic material right there.

May I ask how you got such a steady alignment to allow you to do this? Permanent setup, or....?

Hi George,

The Firecapture software I use to record the individual vids has a reticle option which helps me keep the image roughly centred. 

Post capture the final individual images are then all aligned using the software ImPPG.

Edited September 4, 2020 by Debo

[George Gearless]

8 minutes ago, Debo said:

Hi George,

The Firecapture software I use to record the individual vids has a reticle option which helps me keep the image roughly centred. 

Post capture the final individual images are then all aligned using the software ImPPG.

 

 

I know this is going to sound ignorant, but I don't know this program.

So are you are using a guidescope or are you just ocasionally adjusting manually?

[Debo]

19 minutes ago, George Gearless said:

So are you are using a guidescope or are you just ocasionally adjusting manually?

No guidescope required, I use a driven SkyWatcher EQ8 equatorial mount that's polar aligned and this keeps the target fairly accurately centred, if I need to make any small manual adjustments I use the SynScan hand controller 

[George Gearless]

2 minutes ago, Debo said:

No guidescope required, I use a driven SkyWatcher EQ8 equatorial mount that's polar aligned and this keeps the target fairly accurately centred, if I need to make any small manual adjustments I use the SynScan hand controller 

 

Ok, so manual adjustments. Gotcha.

I was just in awe at how precise and steady your picture was without 'proper' polar alignment. Just wondered if there was some 'trick' to it. As it happens, there was. Just not as magical and intricate as I'd envisioned :). 

Thanks again.