Sol 20Oct24

[Kinch]

Earlier in the year I bought a second hand Solarmax III (90) with double etalons. It really was too hot (here in SE Spain) to get out and try it out (except for 1 quick test after I bought it). This past Saturday & Sunday I got stuck in ....the camera is not the best match and hope to get better resolution when I do get a new ASI678MM soon. Here is one from yesterday.

[Adreneline]

Ah! The Sun - a rare sight around here. As for "too hot" - that's not something we are familiar with either!

Joking aside, that looks like an excellent result to me Brendan. More great things to come, of that I am sure.

Adrian

P.S. Grey skies again here - oh well.

[Kinch]

1 hour ago, Adreneline said:

The Sun - a rare sight around here

Ha Ha.....not so rare around here but luckily solar images do not require much time because the clouds are not so rare around here either. I started a deep sky target on 8th October; perhaps I will have enough data to make an image sometime in November. As it is (looking at the forecast) I may not even achieve that. So - my purchase of a great 2nd hand solar scope may just have been a really good investment 😊.....it has opened up a whole new "hobby" more or less. 

[Rusted]

That's a very nice image! 

The limb still looks double. One might have expected a "cleaner" limb with double etalons.
Perhaps they need to be "clocked" [rotated relative to each other.] If that is easily possible with a Solarmax 90.
Keep at it! That's a very good start. We're all looking forwards to seeing your progress as you gain experience.

[Kinch]

53 minutes ago, Rusted said:

The limb still looks double. One might have expected a "cleaner" limb with double etalons

Thanks for that!   Re the double limb ....all my fault I would say........not spending enough time on the processing. I am pretty sure that spending more time on the histogram adjustment early on would get it sorted. With practice.......and patience. And now it is something I will be very conscious of .........just like many years ago, a comment on my stars in a DSO image changed my stars for life........& for the better. 😉

[Rusted]

Thanks. I had the same moment of revelation from being told I was over-sharpening my H-a images.
Now I'll tell anyone who'll listen that they are over-sharpening. 🤣

Which capture, stacking and sharpening software are you using? I like SharpCap, Autostakkert and ImPPG.
Final touches and/or colouration with whichever image handling software you are familiar with.

 

[Kinch]

20 minutes ago, Rusted said:

Which capture, stacking and sharpening software are you using?

I use exactly the same (SharpCap, Autostakkert and ImPPG) and today also started using Solar Toolbox in PixInsight. This is a very powerful add on for PI. I really like the array of functions in one tool. Of course PixInsight also has all the other tools for adjusting colour colour, sharpness etc. but this one tool covers so much.

[Kinch]

I was playing with the data again tonight - not sure if this is over cooked .....I will have to get some more time under my belt to decide what exactly is pleasing to me in solar images.

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 23:25 by Kinch
Image

[Rusted]

Ok. My work here is done. ☺️ I'll shut up now and you can tell us all how to do it.

Before I go:

Positive image.  Many imagers try to use negative to show off extra detail.
If you must post negatives then a positive alongside shows the real story.
Just my personal taste again. We don't see the H-a sun as a negative image visually.

Huge image scale and image size. Yet very even lighting and level of detail from centre to limb.
The prominences are nice and natural.  Without shouting "look at me I've been sharpened and contrast boosted!"

Just a tad "noisy" overall. With a hint of over-sharpening artifacts in the overall texture.
What I liken to "printed on software canvas." Aim for the most natural and realistic looking image. 
That's just my own personal taste but usually blamed on less than perfect seeing conditions.
I am being deliberately picky here when you deserve accolades for a pretty amazing image!

All you need to do now is sign in at Solarchat! and start collecting your SPODs and rave reviews. 😎
Welcome to the Light Side. 😊

 

[Kinch]

Thank you very much for taking the time to write down all you have in that above post. For me,  very informative and plenty to keep in mind whenever I next process some data. When I looked at the above image last night - I did think to myself that I indeed prefer a positive image. (Perhaps a negative image is OK when viewing the detail in a very small area). I tried to just invert the image again - but it just went blue. It was late and I was tired - I was not going to go try figure out a shortcut to just get it back to a positive. So it is what it is for now I am not going back to this data. Next time around I will stick with positive and only put a negative up (alongside) if it seems worthwhile.

I had hoped to get some fresh image data this morning but alas the cloud prevents it. Whenever I do get something more to work with....I will keep it under wraps until I get some more practice in and feel more comfortable with this whole new venture. Deep Sky remains my favourite but the challenge now of doing Solar has indeed kindled a new interest and am happy to have got right in at the "deep end". When people look at ones image and say nothing it means one is not making any impression - one way or the other. Thank you again for your comments - all very much appreciated.