1st March disk

[robert]

Another clear day with a bitter wind. UK covered in cloud except for NW, extremely unusual, the opposite way round is the norm.
Robert

0301 01_Mar_18_112043_g4_ap541 by robertarnold, on Flickr

0301 sat24.jpg (180.83 KiB) Viewed 1768 times

[Ewan]

Very nice FD Robert, my solar season has been sporadic but always looking forwards.

[robert]

Thanks Ewan, yes I agree. Take any chances if possible!

[Ibbo]

Nicely done.

[Christopher]

The weekend weather here looks promising and so does that disk. Nice shot Robert.

[eroel]

Robert:
Nice and clean FD.
Best wishes,
Eric.

[ffellah]

Another fine disk, Robert !

Franco

[rsfoto]

Nice nice nice and I have no chance to image at the moment

[MapleRidge]

Superb shot Robert

Nice to see some return to activity in your image.

Brian

[Montana]

That's a lovely AR developing very unusual to see a gap in the cloud up there
Alexandra

[marktownley]

You were lucky with the weather there Robert! A great disk as a result.

[rbenton]

I love the quality of your FD images. So evenly exposed, with just enough limb darkening to look spherical. It also looks like you are not combining two images (surface/proms) but I still see detail in both. Could you share how you get this look?
Still learning.

Randall Benton
www.randallbenton.com

[robert]

I love the quality of your FD images. So evenly exposed, with just enough limb darkening to look spherical. It also looks like you are not combining two images (surface/proms) but I still see detail in both. Could you share how you get this look?
Still learning.

Randall Benton
www.randallbenton.com

Thanks Randall,
I guess I like a simple process.

1. Double stacked Pressure tuned scope. Pressure tuner gives an even start. I was lucky with the second etalon being onband with nearly no tilt so the image stays even when it is added. PGR Ch3 3.2Mpx gives a full disk with no mosaic with LS60, UV/IR cut filter and tilt adapter to remove Newton's rings.
First tune the scope PT very carefully with an overexposed image to get the filter effect central, then add the non adjusted second etalon with no tilt.

2. Firecapture using gamma to around 1000 to just see the prominences and not overexpose things, histogram 70% ish. 500 frames 37fps.

3. AS2 stack about 10%-20% then PS2 (Photoshop), iterative unsharp mask 30%, 1px, 0 threshold, until it becomes overdone then undo one or two iterations. Convert to RGB, add colour and boost brightness and contrast for the disk and cut red in levels to make the background less hazy red. Check, done.

Whole image processed the same way and only one exposure, which is what I prefer to do just now.

Robert

P5075583s.jpg (80.94 KiB) Viewed 1687 times

[rbenton]

Thank you very much Robert. I'll give it a try.

Randall Benton
www.randallbenton.com

[marios i.]

Very nice!

Marios