Sun & Moon 20th Sept '19

[Carbon60]

A few images of the Sun and Moon captured at various times throughout the day. The lovely large prom remains the main point of interest on an otherwise extremely blank Sun, whilst the waning Gibbous Moon provides wonderful views of the heavily cratered regions in local setting sunlight.

20190920_Moon by Stuart Green, on Flickr

20190920_Moon1_x5 by Stuart Green, on Flickr

20190920_Moon2_x5 by Stuart Green, on Flickr


Sun in CaK

20190920_CaK_FD_Colour by Stuart Green, on Flickr

Solar mosaic in Ha. A real challenge to get on-band on a featureless disk.

20190920_Ha_FD_Mosaic_Colour by Stuart Green, on Flickr

And then the beautiful prom

20190920_prom1 by Stuart Green, on Flickr

20190920_prom1_Inverted by Stuart Green, on Flickr

Finishing off with some solar granulation.

20190920_Solar Granulation by Stuart Green, on Flickr

20190920_Solar Granulation_colour by Stuart Green, on Flickr

Thanks for looking.

Stu.

[MAURITS]

A lot of very nice details Stu.

[gabrieli]

Hi, Stu

The lunar images are great but to me the standout is the finely detailed prom.

Lou

[MalVeauX]

Really great captures Stu, awesome resolution!

Very best,

[ffellah]

A pretty incredible set, Stu.

Franco

[Astrophil]

All keepers, Stu. That prom is still showing off. Glad you got it.

Phil

[DeepSolar64]

Stu,

Excellent!! I especially love the CaK and granulation images.

James

[yltansg]

Beautiful set, Stu. I especially like the proms rising from the grasses.

Alfred

[Starry Jack]

Gorgeous. I'm trying to increase my skills to get that clarity on resolution. Any tips?

[Carbon60]

Many thanks, everyone. I was fortunate that everything came together, including the seeing conditions, which can’t be said for the skies yesterday. The seeing conditions were awful and nothing in hi-res worked.

Stu.

[Carbon60]

Gorgeous. I'm trying to increase my skills to get that clarity on resolution. Any tips?

Hi Jack,

Specifically for the prom shots....

Use as fast a frame rate as possible. I use a Basler acA1920-155um IMX 174 sensor (up to 160 fps) with 6-10ms exposures, but faster is better to really freeze the action. I usually capture 10s SER files.
My scope is a 150mm scope operating at about f35.
I use Genika Astro image capture software, AS!3 stacking (10% of 1600 frames), ImPPG deconvolution and sharpening, but don’t over do things. Too much deconvolution introduces artefacts and it’s a balance between the two functions.
Seeing makes all the difference, of course, and here you’ll need some luck. You can’t create good data from bad.

Then.....
Practice, practice, practice.......

Hope this helps.

Stu.

[MapleRidge]

Hi Stuart...

An incredible set of solar and lunar images...well done

Love the detail in all of them, but the WL granulation and proms details are my fav's!!!

Brian

[Starry Jack]

Stu,
Thank you for the tips! Duly noted.

[marktownley]

Very nice images Stu, I missed these shots.

[Montana]

Wonderful collection Stuart the lunar shots are lovely and crisp and yet soft, perfect! I love the colour of the CaK too and what a cracker of the big prom! I tried to image the Sun and prom on Saturday but the seeing was the worst I have ever seen and yet beautiful blue skies, many days of high pressure and the scintillation counter was between 0.8-1.2, weird!
Alexandra

[Carbon60]

Many thanks, Brian, Mark and Alexandra.

I tried on Saturday too and I agree with you, Alexandra, it was absolutely diabolical seeing. I set up, viewed for a few minutes and packed up knowing it was a lost cause.

Stu.