Sol, 24-03-2017

lazjen (Chris) · #1 23-04-2017, 01:43 PM

I thought I would do some more experimentation today as there were no clouds in the sky this morning. At least for a few hours anyway.

I was using my Coronado Solarmax II 60 BF10 DS. For this I thought I would try using the ZWO ASI1600MM-C via eyepiece projection. Focusing was very painful to do and while it's close I think it should be possible to do better (and work out why the left side is more in focus than the right side). It's just very hard to see when trying to manually adjust the focus and view the screen at the same time.

I took this using SharpCap and I know realise that the filename didn't capture the settings I used - I do know I was at -5C as I was wondering if cooling would make any difference (not really). I was also using FireCapture for other attempts with similar results and I'll probably go back to FireCapture in the future.

Click image for larger version

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batema (Mark) · #2 26-04-2017, 10:27 PM

Lovely photo. Is it possible to tell me how you got that beautiful orange colour?

lazjen (Chris) · #3 27-04-2017, 08:31 AM

Thanks Mark. I got my initial monochrome image processed in AutoStakkert (had to go to the 64 bit version to get it to work). My final processing was in Pixinsight. Once I was happy enough with the image, I converted it from gray to color space, then altered the colour balance until I was happy with the output colour (Curves something tool - can't remember the name offhand).

Derek Klepp · #4 27-04-2017, 07:09 PM

Chris experiment with moving the etalons .Get the First one on band and then try with the second.These DS systems take a bit more work but the extra detail is worth it.

lazjen (Chris) · #5 27-04-2017, 08:53 PM

I was trying to do that, but didn't quite get there this time. I realised later the most likely reason the focus was bad. I've done images in the past and I've had better focus across the disk. However this time I was using a "new" bit of gear to hold the camera above the eyepiece. I think I may have had it on a slight tilt compared to the "plane" of the eyepiece.

I should be able to test this theory next time by rotating the camera if I see the focus/out of focus areas change appropriately.