Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

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dhkaiser
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Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by dhkaiser »

Why do so many imagers not orient their images north up and east left to match all of the satellite images? I understand that it takes a little more effort especially if one uses an alt/az mount, as I do. However it just makes sense to me that everything is oriented the same.

Many of the images I see here are oriented in many different ways, only adds confusion for me.


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Re: Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by DeepSolar64 »

More work I guess. I know I always try to orient mine correctly when I do image. I am glad the pros ( SDO and GONG ) orient theirs right or I would be all confused! :?


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Re: Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by rigel123 »

I typically make a comment when I have rotated an animation so that it is easier to watch in a horizontal mode rather than up and down such as a large image of the East or West Limb that would cause some to have to scroll to see the entire area. Some folks just might not be aware of the orientation that many of us are used to such as on GONG, SpaceWeather, etc.


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Re: Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by dhkaiser »

More work or just not thinking about orientation? It really does not take much time to correct. Most software have flip image options.


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Re: Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by eroel »

Dan:
Many many years ago in a few very old solar forums, most of the solar imagers agreed to use the Gong orientation, and just did not orient an image when it was announced by the loader and was easier and nicer to look at it.
Best regards.
Eric.


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Re: Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Being somewhat experienced in this scenario, true it would be nice if everyone were able to orientate their image as the naked-eye would see,
but then again as the Sun moves across the sky from "rise" to "set", of course those angles apparently change too. ("naked-eye" safely of course).

The use of diagonals of one sort or another change those angles again. So unless one compares their own captures with say SDO where when checking the SDO capture-Date/Time included in each capture and knowing that NASA-SDO usually have at least one new capture within each hour - 24/7/365, then yes the problem could be sorted.

But (and there's has to be a another but), I have on many occasions (when not too much can be seen on the Suns' disk or prominences), found it very difficult to identify and align accordingly.

If it bothered me too-much about trying to work-out the correct orientation of a submitters image, the I would simply download it, open it in PaintShopPro and change the orientation quite easily.

Much depends on the time available for some, to spend doing more than they already do and we should be grateful to be able to see these amateur images of our Sun - for free ??

Terry


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Re: Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by KMH »

If I'm imaging the whole disk, or a significant portion of it, I will try to make sure the orientation is correct. Likewise for an eclipse or transit. But, I was a photographer long before I was an astrophotographer, so for a smaller FOV I admit I tend to be driven mostly by aesthetics. When imaging a smaller area, I will orient the camera so that the AR/prom has the most pleasing (subjective of course!) composition. I think at the hobby level a bit of artistic license is reasonable.

Cheers,
Kevin
Last edited by KMH on Sat Oct 16, 2021 12:55 am, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by MapleRidge »

Hi all...

The orientation of images comes down to personal preference I suppose...much like the amount of processing applied. Some like it light and others push it for maximum contrast.

For me, I orient so that north is up and east to the left but I align the sun to match my Ra/Dec motion controls. It isn't exactly oriented to match the true solar disk cardinal points, but the image capture is much easier when you move the scope and the features don't track across the screen on an angle ;)

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Re: Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by rsfoto »

Hi Dan,

Good question ;) I wondered the same many many times and gave up thinking about that ...

Maybe lazyness :roll:

Maybe just lack of interest :roll:

Etc. ...

Once a Sun imager has found the correlation between his camera orientatión and the correct Sun orientation it is a piece of cake to everytime orient correctly the images but we all are humans with different interests and priorities ...

Do not worry, if I ever get a cloudless Sky again I will keep sending my images correctly oriented as usual.

In order to present the Sun like GONG or whatever professional site you must daily change the rotation angle ... as you can see by yourself opening the Tilting Sun software ...

As usual just MHO and no offense to anybody ...

Cheers


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Re: Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by Carbon60 »

Hi Dan,

I agree it makes sense to ‘flip’ an image to correct for mirror inverting effects, so for me it’s really a question of image rotation. Like Rainer, I orient my camera to align with Earth’s north-south/east-west such that during image capture any point on the Sun tracks ‘perfectly’ along the computer screen vertically or horizontally using my hand controller on my equatorial mount. During processing I flip the image if a diagonal was used in the optical train.

I rarely further correct the image to account for the rotation angle between Earth’s north and that of the Sun, which, as Rainer says, can be found using Tilting Sun. It’s another procedure, but straightforward enough so I might look at doing that for full disk images.

I also agree with Kevin. Sometimes from an aesthetic point of view things just look better presented in one aspect compared with another, whether flipped, or rotated, or not. That’s personal choice, which is fine too.

We could also get into a debate over the ‘correct’ choice of colour (or even the ‘correct’ spelling of the word ;) ), but that’s for another day….

Stu.


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Re: Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by AJamesB »

I freely admit, it's just not that important to me. For full disc I'll ball park it, but like others, be it animations or more close in work, I go with whatever is most visually pleasing to me.

Same goes with coloring images. Our sun is technically white (or white-ish), and yet for me doing intense yellows and oranges results in a more visually appealing result, even if not scientifically correct.

Most of my astro work is like this though. My horse head nebula shot might be mirrored, for example. But hey, someone out there has that view, even if it isn't the view from earth:)


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Re: Why do so many imagers not orient their images?

Post by pedro »

I always orient my FD images and HR images as well (N up). It helps immensely if you do an animation covering several days.


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