Sun - 2024-05-12 - Sunspot Parade

[Ags]

I captured the Sun in white light with my 90 mm frac today and ASI120MM. 3x drizzled.

Really enjoying imaging the Sun in white light, the results seem to come out really sharp and detailed.

Edited May 12 by Ags

[Ags]

Also did some close-ups.

[Steve Ward]

Lovely capture there , it's certainly woken up again ... 

Just needs a horizontal flip though if I may be so bold ... 😉

[Ags]

Yes, forgot the Herschel Wedge would flip the image! Not too stressed about which way is up in space

[Ags]

Now I'm thinking about putting solar film on my RC6, should give some nice resolution on the sunspots

Edited May 12 by Ags

[Rusted]

Correct orientation of an image helps to confirm unique details without complex image handling software.
Just to match the 99.9999999999999% of all the other correctly oriented images.
Every image is a very brief moment in the history of a highly active body like the sun.
One is very likely to capture interesting features like flares, proms, spot changes, entrances or exits or even transits.
Which NO OTHER IMAGE managed to capture at that very precise moment.

 

[Dave Smith]

If you enjoy white light imaging of the Sun can I recommend an Altair G-band filter. I have bought one recently and it really brings out the details.

To see the difference look at some of my recent images on astrobin. Last month images were with a continuum filter.

Dave

[Ags]

19 hours ago, Dave Smith said:

If you enjoy white light imaging of the Sun can I recommend an Altair G-band filter. I have bought one recently and it really brings out the details.

To see the difference look at some of my recent images on astrobin. Last month images were with a continuum filter.

Dave

That filter looks very impressive, and I see at least some of your pictures are also taken with a 90 mm frac but are a real step up in resolution (I am sure your processing also has something to do with that). I'll add the filter to the todo list, but I am also thinking about upgrading the camera - I am using an ASI120MM and trying to claw back resolution with drizzles, so not ideal.

At the moment I am just using the green filter that came with the TS Herschel Wedge, which is supposed to be 'comparable' to the Baader Continuum.

[Dave Smith]

16 minutes ago, Ags said:

That filter looks very impressive, and I see at least some of your pictures are also taken with a 90 mm frac but are a real step up in resolution (I am sure your processing also has something to do with that). I'll add the filter to the todo list, but I am also thinking about upgrading the camera - I am using an ASI120MM and trying to claw back resolution with drizzles, so not ideal.

At the moment I am just using the green filter that came with the TS Herschel Wedge, which is supposed to be 'comparable' to the Baader Continuum.

All my white light pictures are with the 90mm frac (Megrez 90) The camera I use is the ZWO ASI 178MM which unfortunately doesn't quite cover the whole disc so have to take two and stitch them using Microsoft ICE (free).

I did use the 174 but very much lost out on resolution. I normally take 2000 frames with FireCapture and stack with AS!4. For the processing I mainly use Solar Toolbox in PixInsight.

Good luck.

Dave

[Ags]

I think my Long Perng 90 is descended from the Megrez 90, interestingly enough. My first camera was the 178MM, but I sold it to fund a 485MC...

[LukeTheNuke]

1 hour ago, Dave Smith said:

All my white light pictures are with the 90mm frac (Megrez 90) The camera I use is the ZWO ASI 178MM which unfortunately doesn't quite cover the whole disc so have to take two and stitch them using Microsoft ICE (free).

I did use the 174 but very much lost out on resolution. I normally take 2000 frames with FireCapture and stack with AS!4. For the processing I mainly use Solar Toolbox in PixInsight.

Good luck.

Dave

That's interesting that you use the 178 over the 174. Cracking solar images with a £300 camera? I take it you need a tilt adapter for the 178? What kind of FPS do you get at full resolution? (fast enough, it sounds like, if you are getting 2000 frames...)

Oh actually, doesn't Nigella use one as well? Hmmm.

Edited May 15 by LukeTheNuke

[Dave Smith]

14 minutes ago, LukeTheNuke said:

That's interesting that you use the 178 over the 174. Cracking solar images with a £300 camera? I take it you need a tilt adapter for the 178? What kind of FPS do you get at full resolution? (fast enough, it sounds like, if you are getting 2000 frames...)

Oh actually, doesn't Nigella use one as well? Hmmm.

I did get ~60 frames per sec but lately that has dropped to ~30 😔 . It was Nigella that inspired me to get both the 178 and more recently the G filter.

Dave

[Ags]

23 hours ago, Dave Smith said:

Altair G-band filter

I wonder about the science of this - why would these 2 nm be more contrasy than any other 2nm slice?

[Dave Smith]

48 minutes ago, Ags said:

I wonder about the science of this - why would these 2 nm be more contrasy than any other 2nm slice?

The G-band is in the blue part of the spectrum which has a shorter wavelength and hence greater resolution. The green filters are more suited for visual observation as that is in the middle of eye sensitivity..

Dave

[Ags]

It seems like it would be a great match for my RC6, assuming I can construct a full aperture solar filter for it.

[Steve Ward]

The G-band is very seeing sensitive though being down in the 430nm area  , much more so than the Continuum.

It does help increase contrast and helps accentuate the faculae to an extent but to the detriment of detail unless conditions are very steady , or if you ideally have glass figured at the blue end rather than the generally used green area , something that doesn't come cheap.

The faculae can be enhanced quite easily in standard continuum with careful Levels adjustment in post without losing detail.

I've pondered the G-band route since they appeared but my usual seeing doesn't warrant the outlay only to be frustrated , especially with my set up with a full frame EOS 6D which would require the 2" version.

Edited May 15 by Steve Ward