Third Contact from Mulligan Highway (now APOD)

Phil Hart · #1 16-11-2012, 12:11 AM

I've put up a blog post with some more words and images, but this might be my favourite image, especially now that it is an APOD!

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!

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 (Wes) · #2 16-11-2012, 12:48 AM

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

Wes

erick (Eric) · #3 16-11-2012, 12:56 AM

Congrats on APOD Phil! A very worthy image.

Phil Hart · #4 16-11-2012, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erick

Congrats on APOD Phil! A very worthy image.

thanks Erick!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zubenel

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

Wes

Hope this map link 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 (Carlos) · #5 16-11-2012, 02:18 AM

Great detail on the prominences! Well done

Congrats on APOD too

Deeno · #6 16-11-2012, 04:47 AM

Congratulations!
Very nicely done

gregbradley · #7 16-11-2012, 05:12 AM

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

Greg.

SkyViking (Rolf) · #8 16-11-2012, 05:50 AM

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 · #9 16-11-2012, 07:05 AM

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

DavidTrap (David) · #10 16-11-2012, 07:52 AM

Well done Phil!

DT

Paul Haese · #11 16-11-2012, 08:01 AM

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 · #12 16-11-2012, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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 · #13 16-11-2012, 09:11 AM

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 · #14 16-11-2012, 09:20 AM

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 (Michael) · #15 16-11-2012, 09:29 AM

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

h0ughy (David) · #16 16-11-2012, 09:54 AM

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

Phil Hart · #17 16-11-2012, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

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

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

Phil Hart · #18 16-11-2012, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by h0ughy

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

Oh No! what went wrong?!

h0ughy (David) · #19 16-11-2012, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by philiphart

Oh No! what went wrong?!

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 -

colinmlegg (Colin) · #20 16-11-2012, 10:51 AM

Congrats Phil! Always nice to see an aussie on APOD

Quote:

Originally Posted by h0ughy

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

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.