Solar filament/ proms in Ha 28 Aug 2018

[Merlin66]

Fighting clouds this morning....trying to catch AR 719/720 before they disappear. Couple of nice proms and the persistent filament.
Usual SM60/ ED80/ ASI 1600.
Enjoy.

[astronobob]

Very cool, Ken, good to see activity, even tho Sol is still in minimum :thumbsup:
I see you are using an ED80 for this, if so, can I ask what the SM60 is, maybe a filter with the ed80, or on second thoughts a 60mm solar scope of sorts ?
Cheers :thumbsup:

[Merlin66]

Bob,
The SM60 is an external Ha etalon filter, usually used with the Coronado SM60 solar scope to provide double stacking (for narrower bandwidth).

I used to have two of these filters stacked on the ED80 but stupidly sold one!! (which I'm now trying to replace)

[astronobob]

That is a very cool Rig, Ken, Does the job really well.
I am guessing, with your Sol Image above, that you used two different technique's, One for the disc & another for the Limb & Proms ?
Quite interesting actually, I used to do basic Sol captures with the Thousand-oaks type 3+ Filter, nothing compared to dedicated Sol Filters as you know.
I was looking at the 'Baader Solar Continuum 1.25" Filter' recently, do you have any experience with this one ?
Cheers ,,,,

[Merlin66]

Bob,
Yeah, I expose for the best surface histogram then another exposure to pick up the fainter proms (without washing out the brighter prom portions).
Run the SER files through AS3! and tweak a bit in Registax6.

I then bring the surface image into Corono (http://sweiller.free.fr/Softwares/Corono/) to crop the exact surface edge. (You can do the same with the proms if needed)\

Finally in PaintShopPro open both images (the surface and the proms) -select the surface and copy as a new selection onto the prom image - centring as best you can. At this stage you can use PSP to flood fill the surface to give some colour.
Save the final image - job done!

I regularly use the Continuum filter on my white light set-up - definitely improves contrast. I've also tried the OIII filter, which actually works very well.
The Ha DSO filters can also be tried (when you have a full aperture solar filer or Herschel wedge) they see to give a steadier image in the red seeing conditions.

My seeing down here at the coast is marginal at the best of times (OK for spectroscopy but a PITA for imaging). Full disk solar imaging is all right, but zooming it with the PST Mod gives below average results.....such is life.

[astronobob]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: