Third Contact from Mulligan Highway (now APOD)

[Phil Hart]

I've put up a blog post (http://philhart.com/content/solar-eclipse-queensland-14th-november-2012) with some more words and images, but this might be my favourite image, especially now that it is an APOD (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121115.html)! :D

These high resolution shots were taken with a Takahashi FS-102 and 1.6x extender/flattener, giving 1300mm at f13 with a Canon 5D MarkII, all tracking on an EQ6.

I had a few issues with my Eclipse Orchestrator scripts, which I think is because in a pre-eclipse/lack of sleep daze, I changed the camera from continuous shooting to single shot drive mode, which meant that the camera wouldn't fire if it was still busy and then the USB commands to update settings got lost because they were out-of-sync with mirror lock-up. Why I changed something on the camera between the successful 1am test and the morning eclipse I'll never know! :screwy: :shrug:

But the upside is I now have a long sequence of exposures with constant settings that will make for a nice composite or even animation. And with the high cloud, the corona sequence was not going to look so good (and I have that through scope number two anyway!).

Whole event was a great buzz, my biggest regret is not being there to catch up with IIS folks at the after party (although I was hoping I might catch a few people later in the evening.. but I was falling asleep by then too..)

Phil

[Zubenel]

Nice Shot Phil. Glen Cozens , Judith and I must have been just up the road 10 km from Mt Carbine, Thanks for sharing.:thumbsup::eyepop::D Wes

[erick]

Congrats on APOD Phil! A very worthy image.

[Phil Hart]

thanks Erick!



Hope this map link (https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Mulligan+Hwy%2FState+Rou te+81&daddr=Mt+Carbine+QLD+4871,+Australi a&hl=en&sll=-16.401388,144.747856&sspn=0.002661,0.005284&geocode=Fay9Bf8d8q6gCA%3BFc7LA_8dRo 2mCCmHlTtmAseCaTFAcSB_8e4ABA&t=h&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=18&z=18) works showing where we were.. about 47km further out on the highway past Mt Carbine.. with James (Moon), Dan Hale, Nick and several others who should reveal themselves here..

Phil

[ourkind]

Great detail on the prominences! Well done :thumbsup: Congrats on APOD too :)

[Deeno]

Congratulations!
Very nicely done

[gregbradley]

Best yet Phil. I can see why you got APOD with it. Fabulous.

Greg.

[SkyViking]

That's a wonderful shot Phil, you dedication has paid off again. Congratulations on the APOD :)
The photos on your blog post are great too. Thanks for the view.

[Tamtarn]

Superb bead effect and great prominence detail. Brilliant work Phil!
Barb

[DavidTrap]

Well done Phil!

DT

[Paul Haese]

Significant resolution there Phil and just over half of what I was using. Funnily I considered taking my TSA 102 for this event but through it might be too much to capture the coronal streamers.

The noise is the only thing I can see as being a problem for you. The banding you talked about in my thread seems to be rectangular too which is odd.

Lovely image all the same and nice to see it at full res.

[Phil Hart]

thanks Paul. i assume you mean i was using the double the focal length you were? but yes the noise is something i hope to work on. i processed a few images as quick as i could on wednesday on a really crap laptop monitor. i hope i can improve the noise at home but unfortunately i won't be able to repost it to APOD!

[gregbradley]

The squared noise is pattern noise from the 5D2 sensor. Its is a well known issue. Noel Carboni has an action to reduce it. I think a common action would be to switch to lab mode and blur the colour channels, not the luminance channel.

Its hardly noticeable though. The image has a massive dynamic range
and its pushing the sensor to the limit.

Greg.

[Phil Hart]

Thanks David, SkyViking, Greg, Deeno and ourkind!

The amount of prominence activity on the sun was great and i'm very happy with how much detail the scope picked up. Next task is to work on the sequence of these that I have..

Phil

[strongmanmike]

On ya Phil, yeees, saw that APOD and thought...I...know...that...guy :question:

:D

[h0ughy]

excellent results phil - i too had an epic software failure but at least you got a wonderful result!

[Phil Hart]

Thanks Mike! That's about what I thought when I saw my name on the page too ;)

[Phil Hart]

Oh No! what went wrong?!

[h0ughy]

cameras talking to software for totality - only have two overexposed shots on all 4 cameras, partial phases worked flawlessly. I should have had about 30 odd shots from each camera - :sadeyes:

[colinmlegg]

Congrats Phil! Always nice to see an aussie on APOD :)



I really feel for you houghy. Was very close to an epic failure myself. Luckily I did one final test with 1/2 hour to go.

[Peter Ward]

Nailed it

Well deserved APOD. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[StephenM]

Very nice Phil! Congrats on the APOD!!!

Cheers,
Stephen

[iceman]

Beautiful result! love the proms!

[CapturingTheNight]

Great shot Phil :thumbsup: Congrats on another APOD

[Phil Hart]

Thanks Colin, Peter, Stephen, Mike, Greg.. high praise from a group of highly talented photographers yourselves.. means a lot!

Phil

[Adelastro1]

Yes excellent photo Phil! The prominences are nice and clear and sharp! Congrats on the APOD.

I need to process mine too still. Any tips or suggestions on how? Will have to do some reading up I reckon.

[naskies]

Well done and congrats!!

[Phil Hart]

All I've realised so far Wayne is that I have a lot to learn about processing corona images! Mine are compromised by high cloud but there is some data in there that I've just got to learn how to get out.

Russell Brown from Adobe has made the attached composite from my images. It's a Smart Image stack in Photoshop with 'mean' blending mode. Haven't tried that myself yet but he's going to be demonstrating the technique in some Adobe seminars this week..

Phil

[shahgazer]

Stunning! Loved the corona details! A worthy APOD photo! :thumbsup:

[spacezebra]

Congrats Phil well deserved.

Cheers Petra d.

[Moon]

I agree 100%. I was lucky enough to see first hand the effort and dedication required to get this image.
Attached is a snap of Phil (on the left) hard at work on the morning of the eclipse....
It was a great spot and an unbelievable experience.
James

[Paul Haese]

Your outer corona is very well defined. I have to go through all my images and see how much outer I can get. I have several that I thought were over blown but in fact contain data that I did not include in the original compilation. Might I suggest using selective sharpening for your inner coroner?

[multiweb]

Great work Phil and congrats on the APOD. Didn't take long at all. :)

[Zubenel]

Hindsight is a stern teacher,a few more km's would have paid off and eliminated the few clouds we had .However I was talking to the bloke on the plane who stayed in Cairns and saw zilch!!Your shot is epic and I would be proud to hang it on my wall !!:thumbsup:

[sheeny]

Excellent! Both 3rd contact and the corona!

Al.

[jjjnettie]

:) Awesome shot. Congrats on the APOD. :D

[RickS]

Congrats on the APOD, Phil, and the images too! We must have driven past you. My wife and I were with a bunch of people in a paddock about 20km further on.

Cheers,
Rick.

[AstroTourist]

Fabulous images of the Proms, Phil.
A really well deserved APOD.
Congratulations.
Terry

[geoffsims]

That's an incredibly sharp image Phil, congratulations!

The composite you posted is also very cool. I'm always amazed at how awesome corona composites look, even with just a couple of exposures.

Another step you can try, is to radially blur the corona, subtract it from the original composite, stretch/sharpen the result, and then "overlay/multiply" it on the original (try varying the opacities etc for optimum results). That will exaggerate the fine structure of the corona.

Geoff

[Phil Hart]

Thanks Dave, Shah, Petra, Marc, Zubenel, Al, jjjnettie and more..

Sorry I was processing images rather than at the IIS after party to meet some of you. That is one of my regrets! Two minutes and one afternoon is too short!

Phil

[Phil Hart]

Kind words James, but I can't think of anything I did that you didn't so you can claim just as much dedication! Without you and the Adobe scouting crew I might not have ended up in that location either! :thumbsup:

Phil

[Phil Hart]

Thanks Geoff and Paul for the processing tips. I'm looking forward to trying them out at home soon.

Subtracting a blurred layer is something I've done in the past for my comet shots in twilight. Was actually giving it a quick test yesterday too.. shows promise but still isn't going to be easy!

[Phil Hart]

Thanks Terry, but even more so for everything you did for the astronomy and broader community in the leadup to this eclipse. The location we ended up in was very close to one you had identified in your trip and it helped get us in the right zone. Then there's all the public outreach and government liaison you did as well. So I look forward to hearing the back story on that sometime too!

Phil

[geoffsims]

No - it's certainly not as trivial as it sounds.

A lot of people have had success using this technique:

http://www.gva-hamburg.de/sofi2006/fitswork/sofi_fitswork_uk.htm

You may be interested in trying that out, too.

[Phil Hart]

You bet I am!

thanks
Phil

[RobF]

Stunning shot Phil. Congrats on your APOD!