Hi everyone - I think my H-alpha rig is reaching something close to its "final" state. Thanks so much everyone for your advice and help!
I'm using an ED80 refractor (aperture reduced to 60mm to reach f/30), with a Moonlite focuser with the 2" SCT thread adapter. Directly threaded into that is a Baader 3x telecentric. Directly threaded into the telecentric is a 2" Celestron diagonal. Into the diagonal goes a Quark filter - and then either a 32mm / 40mm TeleVue Plossl (for visual), or a 0.79x reducer with an APS-C color sensor camera (for imaging - more on that later).
For visual usage, the rig managed to wow me today. I see all kinds of things: filaments, prominences, plages, etc. I'm still new to solar astronomy so there's some learning curve ahead for me. I have nothing to compare it with, so I have no idea how well the rig actually works. But I see a bunch of things even when activity is low, so it can't be too bad.
For imaging, I know I'm not doing it right. I used the color APS-C sensor just because this way I could get the whole disk in one frame. Eventually I will get a fast, small, monochrome camera to zoom into details. The heavy reducer and camera put a lot of leverage on the system, but the threaded connections up to the diagonal seem to hold collimation pretty well.
I took my first H-alpha image today. I messed up the flat frames, so the image has ugly gradient and dust bunnies. I'll do it better next time.
This is about 300 frames taken over 30 seconds (at full frame I only get 10 fps). I've removed the G and B channels in SER Player and converted the R channel to mono. Stacked in Autostakkert. Processed mostly in Raw Therapee, with some editing in Gimp.
I was surprised how faint the prominences are in the image - they're fairly visible in the eyepiece, but in the image they kind of vanish. I spent most time in processing trying to make the prominences more visible, and it's still not enough. I guess I will have to take separate exposures for prominences (overexposing the chromosphere), and stitch them together later, or something.
If I try to colorize the image, the prominences almost vanish.
So that's it. If you have any comments or suggestions, I'm all ears. I realize I have a lot to learn, so I'll appreciate your feedback. Cheers!
first image, looking for feedback and suggestions
- Florin Andrei
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Re: first image, looking for feedback and suggestions
That looks pretty good as a first image, nicely done!
The prominences will indeed come out fairly faint (you're exposing for the disk). However, it's fairly easy to bring them out in post-processing (the data is there, just needs to be brought out).
When you have a moment, I recommend having a look at the video below. It was put together by another member of this forum (Marty Wise) and basiclally outlines the entire process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJvJEoV ... iseImaging
Hope it helps. Looking forward to see more.
The prominences will indeed come out fairly faint (you're exposing for the disk). However, it's fairly easy to bring them out in post-processing (the data is there, just needs to be brought out).
When you have a moment, I recommend having a look at the video below. It was put together by another member of this forum (Marty Wise) and basiclally outlines the entire process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJvJEoV ... iseImaging
Hope it helps. Looking forward to see more.
- marktownley
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Re: first image, looking for feedback and suggestions
For a first image that looks pretty good to me, maybe focus slightly soft? Nice setup too.
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
- ffellah
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Re: first image, looking for feedback and suggestions
Very nice first image, Florin. For dust bunnies, if you are using Firecapture, you may benefit from the real time flats feature, that eliminates all bunnies and dust in the optical path. Beautiful set up.
Franco
Franco
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Re: first image, looking for feedback and suggestions
Beautiful first image Florin, much better as mine first shot.