Featured Stargazing Solar imaging and techniques

well, it's been a productive summer holiday in a number of ways.
Got a few things done around the place that had been outstanding for a while. One of them was to finally put my HEQ5 PRO GOTO
telescope mount to use ... it's only taken one and a half years
Below a couple of images of the mount with the Lunt LS60 THA solar scope mounted to it






Dave

 

A couple of images from today 05 Jan 2018

one very large prominence and several smallish filaments







Dave

 

The Sun in Ha for 7 Jan 2018

some nice large prominences and a long filament






Dave

 

The Sun in Ha for 15 Jan 2018
some nice large prominences and a couple of filament near an active region









Dave

 

cheers mate

and I have just spent another AU$1400 today on a better camera
all the guys on various astro forums are telling me I should be using a monochrome camera for getting much better resolution
so I have purchased the ZWO ASI1600MM
https://www.bintel.com.au/product/zwo-asi1600mm-monochrome/

will be interesting to see the results

Dave

 

Hi guys

well the ZWO ASI 1600MM finally arrived ( after the postal system sat on it for 3 days )
I did some comparisons between it and my ZWO ASI 178MC that had been the main solar cam up till today
The ASI 1600 is a 16MPix Monochrome camera

these first two are unprocessed ( SOOC ) , just resized for the forum
and ALL images are single frame only ( no stacking)

firstly ... the ASI 178MC using mono mode in SharpCap




Now the ASI 1600MM




NOTE:, tho the image from the 178MC looks more detailed. Strong brightness variation can be seen across the image compared to the 1600MM
What I discovered in processing was that the 1600MM image processed so much better and resulted in a significant increase in finer details

ASI178 processed ...



ASI1600 processed ....



There isn't really any comparison between the two ..... the ASI1600 shows much better detail. Specially seen around the Active Region

Next post .... prominences

Dave

 

now some limb/prominences
Ohhh golly gosh !!!
again, these first two are unprocessed ( SOOC ) , just resized for the forum

ASI178MC




ASI 1600MM




The limb and prominences are just so much sharper for the 1600MM

The 1600MM with a little processing



Dave

 

The ASI 1600MM seems to have a better dynamic range ( well I would expect it to )
it is easier to pull out prominences and still have a non- overexposed surface
please excuse the poor editing blotchiness in the dark area around the outside of the sun ( I don't claim to be the world's best editor )




Dave

 

Thanks buddy

So true it looks like the AU$1400 for this latest camera was worth the expense

cheers
buddy

and these pix here have been compressed in physical and kb size by the forum software

here's a link to the larger ( but not full size) rendition that I posted on other forums that don't have the restrictions

https://s10.postimg.org/eamdzbxex/180120_ASI1600_Cap001sm.jpg

the finer detail around that active region ( right area centre right, just to the left of that dark filament ) really starts to stand out


Dave

 

A closer up view of the active region .....

 

The Sun in Ha, 28/01/2018
Finally some clear(ish) skies at a time of the day that I could do some observing and imaging
Some really nice prominences today ...but the surface was pretty much devoid of interesting features











Cheers
Dave

 

yes, very much so
a nice collection

 

The Sun in Ha -- 4 Feb, 2018

Haven't seen much of the sun for the last week ( since last Sunday's images) Lunt LS60THa, ASI 1600MM camera and SharpCap software.
These are single frame images (no stacking)

A couple of cropped to zoom in on the prominences and a couple of full disk .... varying the exposure allows different features to be more easily seen














cheers
Dave