Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

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marktownley
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Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by marktownley »

I've been really fortunate and been able to get some solar in today - despite the odds being stacked against me: Normally fridays are work days, however today is different and staff at our school are having a 'work at home training day' - the weather forecast for this morning was good so I made sure all my 'training tasks' were completed earlier in the week to free me up for today. Sun is really low for me - my southern horizon is looking uphill from my house so (the horizon) is higher in the sky than it should be, as such the sun appears closer to the ground and poorer seeing... I do however have a window of about an hour around 10.30am when the sun passes in the gap between 2 houses so I was set up ready for this opportunity...

Several of the neighbours in my street came out to see why I was at home, so found myself repeating the same conversation a number of times to explain. Whilst doing this I was getting everything in place, in the end I had to just shut our gate to get a bit of privacy and to enable me to get on with what I had came out to do. I maanged to get the frames I needed to make my full disk but conditions were far from perfect: even through the eyepeice the sun was boiling away and this was more noticeable on the laptop screen. I had my concerns about the quality of data I was getting but kept telling myself something was better than nothing. As quick as my solar window had opened it rapidly closed, putting the garden back in shadow which meant it was time for me to head inside to see what I had got...

Things have been interesting for me computerwise recently; the desktop pc had died a while ago and so is out of service, last month fiona tripped over the cable to our netbook well and truly killing the hardrive in it, then a couple of days after that my laptop had a proper tizzy and and went to the pc graveyard. 2 new laptops later things are running smoothly again on the Townley home network and despite downloading all my standard software - avaistack, registax, imerge, fitsliberater etc I rapidly realised I had to set all these things up. Sooooo, despite my turbo charged laptop chewing through files in avistack about 4 times quicker than the old one I had to have several goes at everything to get it all tweaked the way I wanted...

Anyway, despite my long pre-amble I proudly present my first image of the sun on this great forum! Taken with the DS40 @ f21 DMK31.


Ha Full Disk by Mark Townley, on Flickr

I think it's a bit soft, but given conditions i'm surprised anything came out of it at all... I was gobsmacked how many filaments are visible, and the bright crown on the eastern limb was a beauty to behold! I also checked back in my files and this is the latest in the year i've got a solar image in, so i guess the more I do this hobby the more determined I get!

Hope you like it, go out and see our star if you can!

Mark :)


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http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
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Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by solarchat »

Wow, I just love computer failures...

The full disk actually has a very realistic quality about it that I appreciate. The image in the eyepiece is almost identical in sharpness to this one, to my eyes. Maybe you should intentionally fuzz up your new shots. :)

The filament activity is really amazing right now.

Thank you for gracing the forum with your shots Mark.


Stephen W. Ramsden
Atlanta, GA USA
Founder/Director Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project
http://www.solarastronomy.org
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Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by marktownley »

Thanks Stephen! :)

I've just tried to post this on CN, and despite it being no where near their size limits it won't let me post as it says it's oversize... Frustratingly annoying...


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Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by Montana »

Superb! those filaments are amazing and the active regions are producing a peculiar swirling as they are so close together.

Thanks Mark for a nice bit of solar today.

Alexandra


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Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by solarchat »

Well, I dont know what to say to that except Cloudy Nights really helped propel me to popularity but it seems that everything I do these days I get a message from the mods saying it is against the terms of service.
When my signature line and avatar were deleted last week because I was supposedly "mining members" I just figured, like I do with everything, that instead of complaining about the mods or the forum I would just try and get my own forum going even stronger. Im pretty sure I am personally responsible for about 1/3rd of the members they currently have in the solar forum. I get emails daily from people all over the world about what should I do for solar, etc.. and I always recommend that they go join cloudy nights. I still do but I am real hesitant to spend all my time over there anymore due to the constant mod messages. I wish them well but Im doing my thing here now. If people want to join up then they are welcome...


By the way, your full disk is more beautiful the more I look at it so it is the pic of the day on my site www.solarastronomy.org

Im perfectly satisfied with the dozen or so posters we have now and am not worried about getting quanity over quality. "I aint sellin' nuthin'" :)


Stephen W. Ramsden
Atlanta, GA USA
Founder/Director Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project
http://www.solarastronomy.org
Solar129

Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by Solar129 »

Cool shot. I had no chance of a full disk shot today.


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Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by swisswalter »

Hi Mark

a very fine full disk. You have deserved some sunshine.

We still have persistent high altitude fog. Leave the swimming trunks at home, take two sweater instead for your trip


Only stardust in the wind, some fine and some less fine scopes, filters and adapters as well. Switzerland 47 N, 9 E, in the heart of EUROPE :)

from 7 am - 7 pm http://www.nanosys.ch

from 7.01 pm - 6.59 am http://www.wastronomiko.com some times vice versa ;)
Gary Palmer

Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by Gary Palmer »

Hi swisswalter, love the full disk shot! it's great to get the most current solar activity posted here in this forum.


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Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by marktownley »

Thanks everyone for your kind words! :)


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Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by swisswalter »

Hi swisswalter, love the full disk shot! it's great to get the most current solar activity posted here in this forum.

Hi Gary

that was for Mark


Only stardust in the wind, some fine and some less fine scopes, filters and adapters as well. Switzerland 47 N, 9 E, in the heart of EUROPE :)

from 7 am - 7 pm http://www.nanosys.ch

from 7.01 pm - 6.59 am http://www.wastronomiko.com some times vice versa ;)
Gary Palmer

Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by Gary Palmer »

Thanks swisswalter, funny how i never have time to do it right. . . but always find time to do it over. . . here goes

Hi Mark! love the full disk shot! it's great to get the most current solar activity posted here in this forum.


Pedro

Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by Pedro »

Great image Mark. I am looking foward to image the sun tomorrow

best


Bill E.

Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by Bill E. »

Mark ,Your pic it looks good.I enjoy a picture that shows what you would see through eyepiece.Cloudy here in NJ


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Re: Fridays Fuzzy Full Disk

Post by marktownley »

Thank you all again for your kind words. I've spent some time this evening getting my head around the 'smart sharpen' tool in CS4 as opposed to my regular 'unsharp mask'. I think in this instance smart sharpen works best...


full disk 3 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

More obvious in the larger views...

Mark :)


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Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
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