Active Solar Disc from impressive Daystar SS60 (Saturday 11th Sept)

[chops]

I remain impressed with the Daystar Scout SS60. I've also finally tried to bring out some detail from the images.

Daystar Solar Scout SS60, ASI183MC.
Sharpcap - 1000 frames at 4ms with 350 gain. (.ser format, RGB24 colourspace).

Probably overprocessed in Photoshop - because I don't know what I'm doing: HDR toning, levels, unsharp mask and increase brightness and contrast.

Many not be technically good, but I'm happy wioth the results so far.

Any pointers gratefully accepted.

 

[Kitsunegari]

you want to be 10x as impressed, ditch the color camera and grab the monochrome version.   It does indeed look like a great performing scope, but you are only using 1/3rd of its potential with that color chip

 

the 174mm or 290mm  seems like the preferred choice amongst very active imagers for frame rate and large file size.

[chops]

Many thanks Kitsunegari, I’ll read a little more about those cameras - I’ve been so impressed with the 183MC for general imaging (planetary, solar, dso) when compared with a digital SLR, I’ve no doubt I’ll pretty soon want something more specialised and it sounds as though a monochrome like the 290 and 174 is the way forward. I’ve some way to go to improve results including increasing frame rate further - I took some poor lunar video this weekend and a faster monochrome capture would be far superior too, presumably easier to stack fewer of the better captures. 

[Rusted]

You're doing great! The detail is excellent!

So I don't want to sound the least bit critical. Gentle advice is what I offer.
I have been very grateful for those who helped to shorten my learning curve by several years.

I'd use longer exposures to get your Gain right down.
Around 10ms should avoid needing so much gain without harming your results.
I usually capture at 10ms and only reduce the exposure if the Gain is well below 100.
Captured as AVI 8bit mono in SharpCap.

I routinely select 75 frames out of 500 in Autostakkert AS!3.14.
This was recommended to me here and I found it works well for me.
I have tried up to 3000 frames but it doesn't add anything.
Others will disagree.

I then move on to the truly magical ImPPG for finding the amazing detail hidden in the still image after stacking.
ImPPG needs a very gentle touch. It can cause hair loss and sleepless nights.

Ease off on the post processing. Less is more.
Avoid over-sharpening. This is easily recognizable as an all over, granular effect.
Zooming in slightly will show this more clearly. Try to keep it natural looking and "real."

The ZWOASI174MM camera is popular. As are other cameras with the same sensor.
Camera choice depends on the pixel size suiting your telescope's focal length.
Under-sampling and oversampling are the terms for tonight's homework.
Then you can tell us what it all means.

 

[chops]

Rusted, thank you so much for your input. I’ll take everything on board and give that a bash - plus try running my previous results through ImPPG to see what’s there too. Fingers crossed for some autumn sunshine.

clesr skies to you.