SolarChat!

_Zakalwe

63332855-84B2-4BA5-9A74-FA6C602BD4DC.jpeg Thank you for all your great advice! I did stumble on this link and checked my blocking filter and it was covered in gunk. I cleaned the glass per directions from Lunt but have not yet had an opportunity to try to image. I’ll let you know what happens. http...

_Zakalwe

I've used an ASI1600 on my Lunt L60. The slow acquisition speed will be your biggest challenge. An ASI178 makes a far better match and it will give a full disc with your setup. <edit> the 1600 also gave the worst Newton's Rings that I have ever seen too. However, your mileage may vary as NRs tend to...

_Zakalwe

Layer Masking is simple and prevents destructive editing. It's one of the most powerful tools in PS and well worth the time invested in learning it.

_Zakalwe

Switch all the layers on again and move to the top layer. With the eraser tool set the tool to a reasonable size and choose maybe 50% or 60% opacity. Gently brush over the spot area to reveal the brighter layer underneath. Keep brushing in a sensitive way. You can always go backwards and try again ...

_Zakalwe

Hi, I connected my zwo cameras through usb2 port and the PG through a usb3. Not checked the display frame rate but will do That next. I get a message that there are a few drivers out of date, the machine, Laptop Dell 15 5000, is about 1 year old if that. if I click to update the drivers will it cos...

_Zakalwe

Are you trying to replace the objective on an existing Lunt solarscope or trying to mount a Lunt 80mm external etalon to a refractor? You could use a smaller ERF mounted inside the OTA. As long as the light cone is contained within the diameter of the ERF then that could suffice. How to find the cor...

_Zakalwe

rsfoto wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2020 8:01 pm Well done but I guess your orientation is upside down

There's no upside or downside in space....

_Zakalwe

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50104875683_1b6bfed1a3_h.jpg L12_07_20 Lunt DS Full Disc Normal Proms Inverted Disc Mono by Stephen Jennette , on Flickr https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50105685477_2c7751639d_h.jpg 12_07_20 Lunt DS Full Disc Inverted Proms Normal Disc Pseudo Colour by Stephe...

_Zakalwe

That's one of the best that I've seen. Stunning spicule action!

_Zakalwe

That's one of the best that I've seen. Stunning spicule action!

_Zakalwe

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50044298761_089b7b75c8_b.jpg 25_6_20- Full Disc Pseudo Colour by Stephen Jennette , on Flickr https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50043737003_b11b4f7258_b.jpg 25_6_20- Full Disc Pseudo Mono by Stephen Jennette , on Flickr https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50043...

_Zakalwe

It's junk, send it back :( You would hope that Daystar would have gotten a grip on their QC by now. They clearly must do the minimum of quality testing on these devices before they ship them. Bandwidth variance I understand at this price point, but having half of the FoV not working is ridiculous.

_Zakalwe

It is disappointing. I went out this morning to repeat the testing and the result was the same. Changing the dial on the Quark just seems to move the good area from right to left. I can either have it in the middle (-5), which makes most sense as it covers more of the FOV, or to the left (around 0)...

_Zakalwe

I love the solar one...the 3D effect is rally noticeable! I find that the best way to see these is to click on the image, then right-click and select "view image". Hit F11 to make the browser full screen. The cross your eyes and allow your eyes to de-focus. Consciously keep your eyes de-fo...

_Zakalwe · Re: Solar animation - 2020-06-20 Beautiful job!

Beautiful job!

_Zakalwe

A nice palindromic date! Caught this before the clouds inevitably rolled in this morning. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50025417441_e39309a179_h.jpg 20_6_20 Full Disc Inverted Pseudo Colour by Stephen Jennette , on Flickr https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50025675642_f0cffcd6ba_h.jpg 20_6_20...

_Zakalwe

Denanaby: let us not forget Astra Image. It is an absolutely great program that I use all the time and it is moderately priced. I recommend it. Franco I used to use Astra Image...very powerful albeit slow. I haven't touched it since ImPPG came along. The Lucy Richardson deconvolution routines in Im...

_Zakalwe

denababy wrote: ↑Wed Jun 17, 2020 6:22 pm Thank you Zakalwe, I have put them both on my desktop and will try them tomorrow ( Thursday) thanks again.

No worries. Shout out if you need some help.

_Zakalwe

Hello everyone, I have taken your advice and have downloaded two programs, Autostakkert 3 and Reigstax 6 but cannot manage FireCapture or ImPPG, does not matter what I do they will not download, I have tried different servers Google chrome and Explorer, I have also turned off my Mcafee fire wall. I...

_Zakalwe

There really isn't a one-stop shop for solar, to be honest. There's just too many variables. However, it's very easy to build a workflow and the only difference in doing that is that the various stages are done in separate programs rather than in a single program. The steps would be the same even if...

_Zakalwe

Nice set of images

_Zakalwe

Superb set of images Stu!!!
I wish that I had known about this (Im in Morecambe)...it was sunny here most of the afternoon.

_Zakalwe

Superb set of images Stu!!!
I wish that I had known about this (Im in Morecambe)...it was sunny here most of the afternoon.

_Zakalwe

Why is there not a software program that does everything necessary for both Solar and nighttime astronomy instead of having various programs? Even if it had a price tag, but let’s face it Photoshop is not cheap, and we use only a very small part of the program. I have watched Marty Wise videos and ...

_Zakalwe

Hi here I am again hoping you can point me in the right direction as to which you consider to be the best stacking and processing software to make my images better. I have Autostakkert 2 and Photoshop cs2 but having read so many write ups I feel confused. There is a software named AVIstack that is ...

_Zakalwe

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50005599812_5ec7d94d65_b.jpg AR 2765 Mono by Stephen Jennette , on Flickr https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50005341721_c19c62ac6f_b.jpg AR 2765 Pseudo Colour by Stephen Jennette , on Flickr https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50003007497_0ce9011cec_b.jpg 13th ...

_Zakalwe

How do you do the earth comparison? On full discs I just use the ruler in Photoshop to measure the diameter in pixels. I divide that by 109 to get an equivalent Earth diameter. I then have an Earth image that I scale to get it the correct size. On partial discs I use some simple maths (it has to be...

_Zakalwe

Testing a new ASI 178 camera on the Lunt L60. Seems to be a decent camera.....it'd be nicer to have a faster framerate than 30FPS, though at this image scale it seems OK. Image details: Full disc fits nicely on the chip. Double-stacked Lunt L60 pressure tuned (stacked with 50mm Etalon) ASI178 camera...

_Zakalwe

Looks like its waking up! Are we coming out of minimum?

Great images!

_Zakalwe

Wow!! that's a beauty, the spicule layer is very crisp too for a 10% stack, I wish I had your seeing :) Alexandra Thank you Alexandra! The seeing was probably the worst that I've ever seen to be honest. At times it was nearly impossible to attain or check focus with huge boiling waves rolling acros...

_Zakalwe

30 minutes of activity, with one frame captured every minute.

Thanks for looking!

_Zakalwe

30 minutes of activity, with one frame captured every minute.

Thanks for looking!

_Zakalwe

Hedge Prom 31 May 2020 by Stephen Jennette, on Flickr

Quark Chromosphere on Esprit 120 triplet with ASI174mm

The seeing was dreadful (possibly the worst that I've ever seen it), so only stacked the best 10% of 800.

_Zakalwe

+1 for me. I've been using an ASI174 for a few years and it just works. i've alsways used Firecapture too.

USB3 can be sensitive to cabling issues, do I'd start there. Do you have any hubs in the system?

_Zakalwe

Stephen: I can only echo what others have so eloquently said. Your passion and determination will, I hope, have been rewarded by seeing all of those young minds that you've opened up to the world of science. I'm sure that many future engineers, scientist, astronomers will look back and identify the ...

_Zakalwe

Its not a focus technique, but a post-processing sharpening routine.

_Zakalwe

I've not turned glass to the sky in ages. I sorta lost my mojo to be honest for all sorts of reasons. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1734/42490677652_3c898418a3_o.jpg Normal Filament by Stephen Jennette , on Flickr https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1759/27672045557_56f726e705_o.jpg Inverted Filament by...

_Zakalwe

PDB wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2017 12:33 pm Hi,

think you are mixig gain and gamma here. For the ZWO cameras the neutral (or linear) gamma (not the gain) is 50. Can also be set in Firecacture by setting Gamma to off.

Rgrds,

Paul

Oops....so I am.
My apologies and thanks for the correction

_Zakalwe

HansH wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2017 4:41 pm

Your advice is to use Gain -neutral-, guess in Firecapture that means slider all the way to the left ?

With Firecapture the neutral point for the ZWO 174 camera is 50 on the gain.

_Zakalwe

Superb!

_Zakalwe

I'd also look at the USB3 cables that you are using. I have a 3 metre cable that causes the camera to drop frames and disconnect in FireCapture. Stick a 2 metre in and it works fine. This may suggest a power issue as Rupert (Astrograph) has suggested.

_Zakalwe

Oh man, they are lovely.
I particularly like the processing on the second one - very dramatic!

_Zakalwe

It will be extremely dim for a start. I tried once with a Lunt 60 and it didn't work.

_Zakalwe

The pixel size on the 174 is a bit big for the 60mm. I use a 2.5 Powermate with mine and find that the proms get a bit blocky due to the pixel size. It works great with a Quark though. The 290 has 2.9 micron pixels which will suit the focal length of the Lunt much better. One thing to consider caref...

_Zakalwe

Thanks for looking. :bow2 All taken with a Quark Chromo on a Skywatcher Esprit 120, mounted on a Mesu 200. Stacked in AS!3, sharpened in ImPPG, poked and prodded in Photoshop. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4389/36795134566_d477365971_b.jpg 2 Sep Proms Pseudo Colour https://farm5.staticflickr.com/44...

_Zakalwe

Wonderful images!

_Zakalwe

Taken in really blustery conditions today Imaged with a Quark Chromosphere on a Skywatcher Esprit 120ED. Processed in Autostakkert 3, ImPPG and Photoshop. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/36484118712_d2fddd30bb_c.jpg AR2671 Pseudo Colour by Stephen Jennette , on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr....

_Zakalwe

Taken in really blustery conditions today Imaged with a Quark Chromosphere on a Skywatcher Esprit 120ED. Processed in Autostakkert 3, ImPPG and Photoshop. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/36484118712_d2fddd30bb_c.jpg AR2671 Pseudo Colour by Stephen Jennette , on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr....

_Zakalwe

No, I wouldn't swap my Lunt L60 for a Quark, because they both do different things. The Lunt is brilliant for full disc shots, and can be Barlowed up to get in closer. The Quark is limited to close in shots. The Lunt is better when the conditions are poor as the focal length is a lot shorter. plus y...

_Zakalwe

Thanks all! :bow Excellent Stephen! That new scope seems to be performing well! It's more to do with the newer Quark, to be honest. I'm amazed by the difference in quality. My old Quark needed a far bit of tilt (Rowan Astronomy tilt adapter) with both my ASI 174 and ASI 1600- actually the 1600 neede...

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