robertkjr3d Loc: Ann Arbor, MI

I have recently shot the moon.
I have recently shot the Sun. But my Sun shots I was not as happy with.
I guess I expected to see Proms and all, and I didn't learn till later that you can't do that unless you have much more expensive equipment.

I have a Tamron 150-600mm with 1.4ex. So 840mm. Then I have a MrStarGuy Adjustable Solar Filter that I slip on the front of the lens hood. This is for ease to take off during the 'Solar Eclipse' in 2024.

I have read that I might be able to add something else to the setup to sharpen at least the surface? The above sun-shot is a stack of 30images. I'm not about to buy an expensive H-Alpha. I've spent enough already.

Note: The moon was simply a hand-held shot, it was sub-zero wind factor that night, and I wasn't about to grab my tripod. I had the camera on bracketing, but only one image actually came through super sharp. I was just testing, but that was still an amazing shot!

What's the goal? Of course I'm testing the setup to be better at shooting the solar items for April. And maybe what I've done is already enough.

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Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

What's a Prom?

robertkjr3d Loc: Ann Arbor, MI

short for 'Prominence'. A Solar Prom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_prominence
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/661785-prom-types/

Orphoto Loc: Oregon

Youve done well already. You are expecting prominences all the time and they are just occassional.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Thanks.
I guess everyone but me knows that.....

badapple Loc: Twin Lake, Michigan

No you were not alone. I thought it was the dance at the end of high school..

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

First thing that popped into my mind too.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

It's a prominence off the side of the solar disk and only visible in the hydrogen alpha spectrum; requires a Ha Solar scope. A couple of examples of 'proms' below.

bwa

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Cool. "prominence" wrks fr me..........

User ID

You coulda PMed me rather than publicly embarrassing yourselves. You know that I know everything. Reeeeeally, just *what* were you thinking ??!?!?

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

A very decent solar disk. I would, however, suggest you analyze your 30 images and simply select the best one, per below. Stacking all 30 images incorporates the best and worst in the final result.

A dedicated lunar/solar imager would normally shoot 4K or 8K video of the moon or sun (or a very large number of images) and extract the best single frame or maybe stack the best 1% of the frames. This approach helps get rid of atmospheric distortions and motion; known as 'lucky imaging' since, with luck, you'll get a couple frames/images when the atmosphere is stable.

AutoStakkert (v.4) is the freeware software I use to determine the best frames or images in lunar/solar video/imaging sessions. The software does require jpg, png or tiff image format or uncompressed video as the starting point. If shooting video with a DSLR/mirrorless camera this will require preprocessing the video to SER or uncompressed AVI format. I use PIPP for this process (also freeware).

Once the proper format is available simply load it to AutoStakkert and press the Analyse button. When processing is done the best video frame or image will be displayed and you can save it for postprocessing using the Export Current button. Of course, you can also select a number of frames or percentage of frames for stacking if you wish. I normally only use this functionality for planetary imaging.

As for "I have read that I might be able to add something else to the setup to sharpen at least the surface?" I think you're essentially there. A rule of thumb for astro-imaging is 'the final result is 25% data collection, 50% processing and 25% simply luck!'.

Hope this helps.

bwa

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Thinking? What's that?

JBRIII

To me your image of the sun is in focus as you do see details around the sunspots.
On second point, you are correct, without spending at least $1000-1200? you won't see more except during a total eclipse. The problem is basically the same as trying to see a candle lit on the edge of a 50,000 watt spot light, the sun is so bright that you just can't see the proms which are always there. The cheapest h-alpha units are small 40mm solar scopes or Quark units sold for your camera by Daystar. The first sells around $800? new, the Quarks are I believe $1200 or $1300. The h-alpha filters for the sun are not the cheaper ones for night photography. The solar ones have bandwidths of 1 angstrom or less compared to several nm for night imaging. Dedicated solar scopes go up from the 40 mm one to 8" costing over $100,000.

badapple Loc: Twin Lake, Michigan

Hey, liked the pictures. Reminded me of how hot my date looked on prom night 😁.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States