Solar with barlow

[deadsimple]

An attempt at higher magnification with a small aperture, with better processing than previous sessions. The clouds rolled in by the time I realised I should have centred the sunspots better, so oh well.


LS60THa/PT/BT1200
ASI174mm
Televue 3x barlow
Stack: best 20% of 90 secs @ ~100fps, 1.5x drizzle
Gain: 292
Exposure: 1ms
Software: Firecapture + Autostakkert!2 + AstraImage
Post-processing (in order):

Wavelet: small details @ 100
Remove focus blur: kernel_size=2.4, HQ method, VH sharp
Histogram stretch/shift



Small histogram bump for dim pixels (bring out some prominence)
Crop, downsample by ~1.5x, flip vertically



I had significant trouble with focuser/draw-tube slippage with the weight of the barlow added, so the focus was not perfect. I can't figure out how to resolve this, as there's only a screw to play with - and that only locks the focuser.

[5ash]

Nice image . you should be able to tighten the focuser by tweaking the Allan key screw which is near the locking screw.
Regards philip
Ps are there 3 faint horizontal bands across the image?

[Merlin66]

I also use an ASI 174 for Solar, but find I also need a tilter to remove those newton rings......

[deadsimple]

I didn't even realise those were screws. All good now, thanks!

You're right. I didn't see them until I stood away from the screen / shrunk the image.

[Prickly]

Wow.This is an extraordinarily good image. Very smooth and detailed. Great work. Thanks for adding the processing summary.

Cheers
David