Monday 29th July Sun

[Montana]

I am slowly getting through the processing.

First off was a full disc in CaK with the Lunt wedge and ASI174. The scale is not great as the pixels are too big (hence why I was trying to get the Grasshopper working). But nice and spotty just like looking through a big version of the PST. I have never achieved this before

2019-07-29 CaK solar full disc a by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

2019-07-29 CaK solar full disc f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Then I took some at 5x which you have seen one, but I haven't processed the rest (they will come later).

It then went patchy cloud so I swapped out for the Solarscope DSF100. Again I tried a full disc but couldn't use a Barlow as clouds didn't allow so had to use it straight with the ASI174 which is horrible (where is my Grasshopper!). I couldn't take flats because of the small scale and so my image looks like Jupiter with a central belt I did my best to patch it up.

2019-07-29 A Halpha solar disc by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Then Brian had a play while I wandered round the garden with Sandy. He took another full disc in between clouds but on a much lower gamma than I would have done. Sadly this accentuated the double stack non-uniformity and gave an even bigger Jupiter belt across the equator

2019-07-29 Brian Halpha solar disc by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

I didn't think there were any prominences that morning when I looked but when I came back Brian had found 2 huge ones on a high gamma, where did they come from? (you can tell I never change off neutral gamma). He took these beauties which I would never have seen. Thanks Brian!

Sun_110856_29_07_2019_lapl4_ap104 c by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_112027_29_07_2019_lapl4_ap310 a by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Just the rest of the 5x CaKs to process, will probably be Thursday night now.

All in all a good solar play time.
Alexandra

[Carbon60]

Looks like you had an excellent session, Alexandra. Teamwork!
It's a shame the weather wasn't like this on Sunday One day out of sync.

Those are beautifully even Calcium disks and excellent proms.

Stu.

[ffellah]

A super set with great detail, Alexandra ! Love the prom shots...

Franco

[Starry Jack]

Alexandra,
Educate me please... I actually love your photos above but why are you unhappy with the ASI174? Is it because this is fast focal low res? My new ASI174 arrives tomorrow but I will be at F30 with my exchanged Quark.

Best,
Jack

[MapleRidge]

Hi Alexandra...

Your CaK images turned out very well, even if the sampling was less than you preferred...with the 174 chip the resolution should have been around 1.2"/pixel. Which model of Grasshopper do you have...the 674 chip would have around 0.96"/pixel, but I don't know which specific chip you have.

The Ha processed out nicely too...I lost track of how many videos I saved but i bet the first lot were rubbish since I did not have my glasses on when I was focusing or adjusting the FireCapture settings Your full disk mosaic still shows the proms, where mine accentuated the filaments more. The proms look great, and could have stood more focal length to boost the image scale but both show a lot of detail in the processing.

Looking forward to the balance once they are processed.

Brian

[xn44]

[marktownley]

A really nice set of images there Alexandra! CaK full disks at large aperture work great don't they. May have to play with some high gamma prom shots myself too.

[Montana]

Thanks guys
You are right Brian, the prom shots were from the second batch when you had your glasses on

Jack, I am not unhappy with the ASI174, I bought it for a specific purpose and that is for hires work. As you can see on the proms, with a 2x Barlow it is great. For the focal length of the Solarscope would have to use at least 2x Barlow with it, so for a full disc it is just wrong. When you zoom in to a picture taken at 1x all you see is large pixels and no solar detail. If I changed to a 2x Barlow I would need to do about 20 captures to cover a full disc. With the Grasshopper 3 the pixel size is much smaller and I have a sweet spot for full disc imaging with a 1.6x barlow which I can do in 8 panels which is fairly good for UK weather and I get great close up detail. Really I could do with another camera with a 3um pixel size for imaging full discs but I never have the guts to ask the hubby for yet another camera, may be I need to get one second hand.

Now which chip do I have on the Grasshopper 3 (I can never remember apart from pixel size). OK found it, it is this one GS3-U3-28S5M-C: 2.8 MP, 26 FPS, SONY ICX674, MONO

Alexandra

[MAURITS]

A great set of images Alexandra.

[Starry Jack]

Thanks Alexandra. I’m eager to try out my new quark and camera.

[MapleRidge]

Hi Alexandra...

I have "off the shelf" glasses in each of the observatories at home so I don't have to run back and forth if I forget to take them out to the scope with me...I leaned that I need them the hard way a few years ago

I would still say the full disk images you assembled are still pretty decent, and a lot less work that assembling a dozen or more sub panels. When the seeing is very stable I'm sure the barlowed shots would be worth the extra effort!

Your Grasshopper 3 has the same chip as my Grasshopper Express (Firewire version)...probably one of the best CCD's I had in camera!

Brian

[Montana]

Here is a raft of CaK images, I processed them all because I loved them so much. I don't usually do that but I have no favourite. So pretty consistant loveliness I think. All 5x Powermate / 100mm Lunt CaK wedge / ASI174

Sun_074734_29_07_2019 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_074734_29_07_2019 f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_074952_29_07_2019 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_074952_29_07_2019 f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_080443_29_07_2019 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_080443_29_07_2019 f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_080534_29_07_2019 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_080534_29_07_2019 f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_080727_29_07_2019 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sun_080727_29_07_2019 f colour by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr

Sorry to bore you to death but this was one of my very very best with the previous wedge (5x powermate /100mm)and took hours to process (the above took one click of ImPPG). A totally different league, I can't wait for a spot.

220516_081515 by Alexandra Hart, on Flickr
Alexandra

[marktownley]

They're all incredible! I will have to try with longer f - ratio, think i've gone up to f30, but you're f50 here.

[MapleRidge]

These CaK with the 5x Powermate are fabulous Alexandra

If you got this with only minimal processing then future AR's will be full of fine details...well done!!!

Brian

[torsinadoc]

Awesome images.

[marktownley]

Out of curiosity what sort of exposure times were the closeup CaK?

[Montana]

No idea I'll have to look at the files when I get home, only an hour and 10 minutes till home time

Alexandra

[marktownley]

Woohoo!

[Montana]

Here you go Mark

FireCapture v2.5 Settings
------------------------------------
Camera=ZWO ASI174MM
Filter=L
Profile=Sun
Filename=Sun_080443_29_07_2019.ser
Date=29_07_2019
Start=080435.940
Mid=080443.459
End=080450.978
Start(UT)=080435.940
Mid(UT)=080443.459
End(UT)=080450.978
Duration=15.038s
Date_format=dd_MM_yyyy
Time_format=HHmmss
LT=UT
Frames captured=1000
File type=SER
Binning=no
Bit depth=16bit
ROI=1936x1216
ROI(Offset)=0x0
FPS (avg.)=66
Shutter=8.183ms
Gain=125 (31%)
Brightness=1
AutoHisto=75 (off)
USBTraffic=80
Gamma=45
HighSpeed=off
AutoExposure=off
SoftwareGain=10 (off)
Histogramm(min)=1300
Histogramm(max)=2506
Histogramm=61%
Noise(avg.deviation)=n/a
Limit=1000 Frames
Sensor temperature=42.4 °C

[MAURITS]

Excellent Alexandra.

[rbenton]

Alexandra,

You said,
"...Really I could do with another camera with a 3um pixel size for imaging full discs but I never have the guts to ask the hubby for yet another camera, may be I need to get one second hand."

Did you mean a second-hand camera, or hubby?

Love the images.

Randall Benton
www.RandallBenton.com

[Montana]

I could do with both

Mark just solved the second hand camera though
Alexandra