August 1st H-alpha hemisphere

[Peter Ward]

Seeing was quite good in my neck of the woods this morning.

The link is here (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery177.html)

[Miaplacidus]

You really take some pearlers with that set up, Peter. Beautiful.

[gbeal]

My goodness, even your mum would exclaim, "that's nice dear".
Wonderful shot(s). Exquisite detail.
Gary

[Peter Ward]

:lol: Most mum's say that to their kids....even if the kids now have grey hair.

Glad you like it anyway. :)

[Peter Ward]

I've long suspected many shy away from high-res H-alpha imaging as there is a perception you need $20k of gear. You don't.

Daytime seeing can easily limit a 60mm aperture Ha scope..which can deliver excellent results on a modest mount with an inexpensive but high frame rate planetcam.

Don't get me wrong, your feedback is appreciated, but an AP155 with a solar filter is a bit like cracking nuts with a steamroller :)

[sheeny]

Superb, Peter... as usual...

Al.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Al. I must admit to warming to Paul's "3D" look and have taken in on-board by changing my processing flow to a cross between my earlier "Gestalt" look to a more blended appearance.

I think I works...:question:

[h0ughy]

How good is that detail - any more 3d any you would be cooking. Fantastic Peter.

If you were to give away the trade secrets how did you process this? you can tell me - no one is watching;)

[Peter Ward]

Optimize twin h-alpha etalons for exposure (ie whatever central band looks good for the day)

Optimize Lucam camera settings to get peaks at about 97% and adjust gamma to show good contrast with shadow detail.

15x fields of 600 frames, 12 bit frames @ FL of 2200mm with 0.5A Filter

Use .AVI stack to align, stack and pre-process frames.

Assemble mosaic in PS 6.0

Mask and Layer disk and prom details.

Convert prom layer to pure red, saturation 50%. Same with disk layer, but orange red.

Flatten layers.... and garnish with PS 6.0

[h0ughy]

thank you Peter I do appreciate the crash course:thanx: -I will say i will try to understand the majority of that but how do you "camera settings to get peaks at about 97% and adjust gamma to show good contrast with shadow detail":question:

[Paul Haese]

Whaaattt :eyepop:

Well your images are always improving and always stunning to look at. That said take a look at Alan Friedmans latest solar disk with a PGR 8mp imager. No mosaic and lets say simply stunning. I have a long way to go yet.

I imaged too but am still processing (other things got in the way today and I am trying imaging with the 60mm and no double stack. Just testing some ideas handed to me on the solar chat.

[Peter Ward]

Well...don't feel confused, as this would make absolutely no sense unless you use a Lumenera camera with Lucam Recorder (third party) software...

I don't like to pedal equipment I'm personally using due the "Terms of Service" on IIS (and they are fair enough).

I've found Lumenera cameras not to be inexpensive, but they have also worked very well...actally, exceedingly well, for me.

Suffice to say, others may have had different experiences.

[Paul Haese]

I found their gear was extremely reliable and performed really well. I have Lucam and am considering maybe going over to the 2-2 simply for size of frame over the DMK41.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Paul.

I've been following Alan's excellent images for some time..but I'm comfortable with the fact my 2x barlow shots (about 4000 pixels square) have more intrinsic-res than Alan's (differences are basically seeing)

While I've been tempted to go down the *6* mp PGR path (Alan uses a 1" 6Mp Sony sensor...about 2700 by 2200 pixels) for a while, as the one shot process is so much easier.... it seems a new 8Mp, 16 bit product (3400 x 2600 pixels) might surface soon ;)

[Paul Haese]

Yes followed Alan and watched his meteoritic rise myself. His technique is very good and yes your images are superb too. Either way you are making it hard to win anything with your solar images. ;)

[leon]

Another excellent image Peter, one can just about feel the heat, well done indeed.:thumbsup:
Well Paul that is easy, just tell him he is not allowed to enter any Comps. :P :lol:

Leon :thumbsup:

[iceman]

Lovely active Sun, well captured and processed Peter.