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Tried my hand at solar imaging yesterday for the first time.
Nov 20, 2017 11:23:49   #
nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina
 
Prior to yesterday.....the only images I had taken of the sun was with a filter fitted on the OTA. I purchased the Daystar Quark Chromosphere a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to use it yesterday. Once I got some video I had to search hither and yon to find out how to process it. I used Autostakert and Registax for the heavy lifting and PSCC for a few tweaks. Gotta lot to learn with both capturing and processing techniques....but again, the fun is in the learning.

With the first image I exposed for the surface of the sun....and the second I tried to get the prominences. The operative word is tried. I am not too sure how to bring out the detail and whispyness of these jewels but will try some different approaches. I need to find some tutorials on capture and processing techniques.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I used a Vixen Ed81S refractor and took the center piece out of the lens cap boosting my F stop up to F20 which rendered better sampling........a lot of experimenting with this is needed. Also I used the ASI174MM-Cool.


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Nov 20, 2017 14:41:15   #
CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.
 
nikonshooter wrote:
Prior to yesterday.....the only images I had taken of the sun was with a filter fitted on the OTA. I purchased the Daystar Quark Chromosphere a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to use it yesterday. Once I got some video I had to search hither and yon to find out how to process it. I used Autostakert and Registax for the heavy lifting and PSCC for a few tweaks. Gotta lot to learn with both capturing and processing techniques....but again, the fun is in the learning.

With the first image I exposed for the surface of the sun....and the second I tried to get the prominences. The operative word is tried. I am not too sure how to bring out the detail and whispyness of these jewels but will try some different approaches. I need to find some tutorials on capture and processing techniques.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I used a Vixen Ed81S refractor and took the center piece out of the lens cap boosting my F stop up to F20 which rendered better sampling........a lot of experimenting with this is needed. Also I used the ASI174MM-Cool.
Prior to yesterday.....the only images I had taken... (show quote)

Very nice start Ed.
Craig

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Nov 21, 2017 23:32:34   #
Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM
 
I agree. Great start Ed. Your tuning was better on the second shot as it is more evenly exposed.
It takes time but you have a great leg up.
I think you’re gonna like this now that you’ve dipped your toes in the water.
Jim

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Nov 22, 2017 03:44:56   #
CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.
 
nikonshooter wrote:
Prior to yesterday.....the only images I had taken of the sun was with a filter fitted on the OTA. I purchased the Daystar Quark Chromosphere a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to use it yesterday. Once I got some video I had to search hither and yon to find out how to process it. I used Autostakert and Registax for the heavy lifting and PSCC for a few tweaks. Gotta lot to learn with both capturing and processing techniques....but again, the fun is in the learning.

With the first image I exposed for the surface of the sun....and the second I tried to get the prominences. The operative word is tried. I am not too sure how to bring out the detail and whispyness of these jewels but will try some different approaches. I need to find some tutorials on capture and processing techniques.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I used a Vixen Ed81S refractor and took the center piece out of the lens cap boosting my F stop up to F20 which rendered better sampling........a lot of experimenting with this is needed. Also I used the ASI174MM-Cool.
Prior to yesterday.....the only images I had taken... (show quote)

Is this eye piece mounted on a regular scope. Sorry I just saw it in the last paragraph.
Craig

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Nov 22, 2017 04:06:37   #
Ed Greding Loc: Texas
 
You got the prominences, and the look great! I sure wish I could do that.

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Nov 23, 2017 02:42:22   #
JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA
 
nikonshooter wrote:
Prior to yesterday.....the only images I had taken of the sun was with a filter fitted on the OTA. I purchased the Daystar Quark Chromosphere a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to use it yesterday. Once I got some video I had to search hither and yon to find out how to process it. I used Autostakert and Registax for the heavy lifting and PSCC for a few tweaks. Gotta lot to learn with both capturing and processing techniques....but again, the fun is in the learning.

With the first image I exposed for the surface of the sun....and the second I tried to get the prominences. The operative word is tried. I am not too sure how to bring out the detail and whispyness of these jewels but will try some different approaches. I need to find some tutorials on capture and processing techniques.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I used a Vixen Ed81S refractor and took the center piece out of the lens cap boosting my F stop up to F20 which rendered better sampling........a lot of experimenting with this is needed. Also I used the ASI174MM-Cool.
Prior to yesterday.....the only images I had taken... (show quote)


Looks like a great start.

While you are aiming at the sun, a group of astronomers, not to be outdone by anyone here, is aiming at Antares and here is the image of the surface of a star. They are doing this with an Interferometer. This is not something to measure the amount of ferrous material in the star. But instead, a technique to combine multiple telescopes together in order to produce an image as if it had come from a much larger scope, in this case, up to 200 meters. And they mean resolution, not light gathering ability. What's of interest here is that Antares is 620 light years away! But it is an incredibly large red giant near the end of its life.

https://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso1726/

But this is not the only star that has been imaged. Here is a partial list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_with_resolved_images


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Nov 23, 2017 06:31:33   #
nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina
 
JimH123 wrote:
Looks like a great start.

While you are aiming at the sun, a group of astronomers, not to be outdone by anyone here, is aiming at Antares and here is the image of the surface of a star. They are doing this with an Interferometer. This is not something to measure the amount of ferrous material in the star. But instead, a technique to combine multiple telescopes together in order to produce an image as if it had come from a much larger scope, in this case, up to 200 meters. And they mean resolution, not light gathering ability. What's of interest here is that Antares is 620 light years away! But it is an incredibly large red giant near the end of its life.

https://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso1726/

But this is not the only star that has been imaged. Here is a partial list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_with_resolved_images
Looks like a great start. br br While you are a... (show quote)


That is interesting.....knowing what little I know about solar imaging. It seems that these solar designed scopes and filters (like the one I am using) that image the sun during the day .....should be able to resolve the brighter stars at night. Hummm - the science is interesting.

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Nov 23, 2017 06:44:55   #
nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina
 
This is the link to the Chromosphere filter that I am using. Daystar sells two types....one, the Chromosphere, is fitted to expose the sun's surface and it does a good job so far.. But it is not designed for prominences. The other filter leaves the surface out but is designed to get detail with prominences. I went with the Chromosphere and to expose for the prominences I have to take two images - one pic properly exposes for the surface. The other (gain is pushed to the limit) overexposes the image - revealing the proms. Then in photoshop, I blend the two together getting both. So the second image actually is the first one - but with the overexposed image blended in. It is this part of the solar imaging processing that I need to improve. I have already figured out a different blending technique (was using DIFFERENCE in PS but renders an inverted look that I don't like) that uses masks before converted to RGB that is better but not perfect. After Thanksgiving sports are over - I will return to the PS drawing board and figure this processing part out.

I agree on the uneven field - I think this is due to the filter not being square with the sensor. They sell at tilt adapter that allows for a correction to this issue but I think I will use PS to straighten that out too.

https://www.daystarfilters.com/Quark.shtml

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Nov 30, 2017 00:20:38   #
Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM
 
nikonshooter wrote:
This is the link to the Chromosphere filter that I am using. Daystar sells two types....one, the Chromosphere, is fitted to expose the sun's surface and it does a good job so far.. But it is not designed for prominences. The other filter leaves the surface out but is designed to get detail with prominences. I went with the Chromosphere and to expose for the prominences I have to take two images - one pic properly exposes for the surface. The other (gain is pushed to the limit) overexposes the image - revealing the proms. Then in photoshop, I blend the two together getting both. So the second image actually is the first one - but with the overexposed image blended in. It is this part of the solar imaging processing that I need to improve. I have already figured out a different blending technique (was using DIFFERENCE in PS but renders an inverted look that I don't like) that uses masks before converted to RGB that is better but not perfect. After Thanksgiving sports are over - I will return to the PS drawing board and figure this processing part out.

I agree on the uneven field - I think this is due to the filter not being square with the sensor. They sell at tilt adapter that allows for a correction to this issue but I think I will use PS to straighten that out too.

https://www.daystarfilters.com/Quark.shtml
This is the link to the Chromosphere filter that I... (show quote)


Ed, you might like this article from one of the groups I frequent for information and to get feedback on my images.

http://solarchatforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13884

The group address is as follows.

http://solarchatforum.com/

The people in this group have helped me a lot.
In particular Alexandra Hart (Montana)
Jim

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Dec 9, 2017 10:15:26   #
nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina
 
Albuqshutterbug wrote:
Ed, you might like this article from one of the groups I frequent for information and to get feedback on my images.

http://solarchatforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13884

The group address is as follows.

http://solarchatforum.com/

The people in this group have helped me a lot.
In particular Alexandra Hart (Montana)
Jim


Tks...will check out!

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