Solar Sunspot 2738

[Aussie_Dave]

Solar Sunspot 2738 captured midday yesterday using the ZWO ASI174mm and Saxon 8" Maksutov. Out of the 10 videos taken this was far the best. Conditions were poor, hazy sky and difficult to focus, Mandurah area WA.

[Merlin66]

Dave,
Good result notwithstanding the conditions.
Clearly shows the main umbra and penumbra areas, as well as a bit of foculae.
What capture and processing do you use?

[Aussie_Dave]

Thanks Ken. Captured using SharpCap. 2 minutes 45 second video at 320x240 ROI, 76242 total frames captured, 2% stacked (1524 frames). Stacked in AutoStakkert3! wavelets in RegiStax 6 then for the larger image I Resize Image in RegiStax 200% using one of the bottom 2 filters probably Mitchell filter. Lastly edited in PaintDotNet.

Looking at live view while recording I didn't see any nice detail coming through but apparently there were some good frames in it. All the rest of the videos didn't show much detail at all in them, deleted.

I'm surprised I got the detail I did in the umbra and penumbra compared to the others but I do refocus after each video when conditions are poor. I missed out on the possible Light Bridge a couple of days beforehand due to the weather. Granulation is poor, that's what I've been trying to bring out better, just using a White Light solar filter, have dabbled in coloured filters.

[Merlin66]

Dave,
Very good!
I'd try the ImPPG software, might just bring out some of the detail.
A x2 Barlow (x2.5PM?) would give a better plate scale for the ASI 174 for those close ups.

[Aussie_Dave]

Will try that Ken when conditions and results improve :thumbsup: