Solar prominences.
Captured with DMK21/PST, in a very quick window of opportunity. The clouds clear at 15:30, I was setup captured some AVI’s and packed away before it rained at 15:50 🙂
There was another prom on the rim a little further to the south, but I just didn’t have the time to get another capture…
Stacked in AVIStack which I’m preferring to Registax quite a lot now!
I got a “C” thread extension from the nice man at Firslightoptics, so that I can get my 300D and lodestar par focal.
Today is the first time I’ve managed to get the scope out in months…
Let’s hope that my measuring skills are up to it 🙂
The image itself isn’t new, but what about the presentation? Do you like it better than before?
Found the grid at http://solar-center.stanford.edu – must really ask permission, will do that tomorrow.
You have to tune a PST to show the detail that you want, I’m not really sure what the different tuning positions mean – I think it relates to which part of the sun (surface or above the surface) your seeing. But they definitely do show different things.
These three images show the different ends of the tuning and one in the middle. The left image is close (but not quite) to what you would see in white light, this I believe it close to the surface of the sun. and the one of the right show the boiling atmosphere of the sun which would include the prominences.
Click on image for larger version.
Still having trouble with the brightness of the panes during in the final mosaic.
But I’m quite happy with this, around 20 panes taken between 11:56 and 12:20 BST, today 07/07/2012. Each pane is around 1200 frames stacked from an AVI of around 2200. Standard PST with a DMK21 and a barlow lens cell screwed into the nose peice (giving around a 1.5v magnifying effect). Captured using IC Capture, Y800 codec, gain of 560 and an exposure of 1/1200s. Captured at 60FPS.
Stacked in AVIStack, usually use Registax but it’s been giving me some very strange results lately… wavelets in Registax5, processed in CS5 (including colour), and then merged using IMERGE.
CLICK TO SEE THE FULL SIZE IMAGE.
Managed to get out, with the PST today, took my book with me as I had plenty of time between sun to read 🙂
Taken a huge amount of data and have processed one of the videos. This one was taken with the DMK21/PST with a Televue 2.5x barlow.
The Sun 07-07-2012, DMK21/PST with 2.5x Barlow. 1800 (of 2500) frames at 95% quality. Stacked in AVIStack, wavelets in Registax, processing (incl colour) in CS5.
Only 3 and a half weeks till the evenings start drawing in. Lets hope the autumn will be better than the spring.
It’s too late now for the scope to be setup especially after the week I’ve had. So I thought that I’d have another go at the celestial equator star trails show. Inspired by an awesome APOD image a while back… shame I don;t have something nice in the foreground….
This images is a made up from over 200 x 1 minute exposures. Using the 300D, the standard 50mm lense at 18mm, ISO at 800 and F5.6.
I used a heated dew strap to keep the lens from dewing up.
Images taken from around 23:10 – 02:50, with 10 seconds between each frame to save the data to the card and to let the chip cool a little.
I also looked at one of the frames and did some silly stretching to try and highlight the Milkyay running through Scutum and Sagittarius. It’s a rubbish image but does highlight the Milkyway a little.
Finally I did a little video for youtube.
Pretty much everything rises in the East and sets in the West. The stars in the Northern hemisphere appear to revolve around the North Celestial Pole(NCP) and those in the Southern hemisphere around the the South Celestial Pole(SCP).
Where the Southern hemisphere meets the northern hemisphere you get an odd effect. I’ve still to get a decent image of this, but this’ll give you a good idea of what I’m talking about.
All the stars above the back line revolve around the NCP, all the stars below the line revolve around the SCP.
Might have to try again tonight!
The maximum for this years Lyrids falls at the weekend and also at almost full moon. Fantastic! Shame about the clouds though! This is a 2 minute exposure.
Managed to get some pictures at the beginning of the evening – even got a meteor I think.
And a little video, 10 frames a second.
My spare laptop is all setup an working so the old laptop sit out in the cold while I sit indoors with the new one in the warm :). I managed to get another three panes added to the Makarians Chain area.
These three panes are all 10 x 5minutes through the Vixen 140mm (really must finish writing the review!), with the exception of the final pane (top most image) which is 4 x 5minutes.
Uploading the image to astrometry.net resolves 21 galaxies – but there are many more. I count at least 54 galaxies. Just need to fill in the gaps and get more data.
To give an idea of scale, the mosaic below is 2 degrees 40 minutes high – that about 5 and a half full moons high.
Here is the image 50% it’s original size (once you click on it).
And this is the resolved image from astrometry.net.
