February 16 2021 Observations

[DeepSolar64]

Session time is Noon to 12:45pm EST local time ( US ). The skies are partly cloudy with below average seeing. The temperature is 37F.


Coronado SolarMax II 60DS. 16x and 22x ( Ha )
I see two easy filaments in the SW quadrant of the disc. With a bit more difficulty I can see four other filaments in the SE quadrant. I can see three prominences on the limb. Two in the NE and a faint one in the SE.

The mottles are visible across the disc but are a bit soft on contrast today.


Orion 70mm Solar Telescope. 25x ( WL )
Blank disc. No detail.


Last night I got a Windows 8.1 machine up and running and loaded SharpCap and Registax 6 on it as well as the ZWO drivers and software for my ZWO ASI178MM monochrome camera. Now to make a shroud for the computer and prepare to start imaging to supplement my visual work. Hopefully now it will be soon. I just need time and warmer sunny weather to start playing with it. It does have a USB3 port so runs the camera smoothly.

Carpe Diem!

James

GONGCerroTololoHa_2-16-21.jpg (577.55 KiB) Viewed 102 times

SDOHMIc_2-16-21.jpg (49.26 KiB) Viewed 103 times

[marktownley]

Thanks for the report James! Glad you got some sun, it is quiet apart from the prominences at the moment. Good to hear you starting to fire up the camera, for years I just used a cardboard box as a light shroud for my laptop

[DeepSolar64]

Thanks for the report James! Glad you got some sun, it is quiet apart from the prominences at the moment. Good to hear you starting to fire up the camera, for years I just used a cardboard box as a light shroud for my laptop

I was thinking of a cardboard box or plastic tote.

[EGRAY_OBSERVATORY]

Thanks for the report James.

Win 8.1 is well-good for the imaging and looking forward to see your results.

Cheers
Terry

[Stardust5858]

Great James, look forward to seeing your images.

[MapleRidge]

Thanks for the update James

Hope the imaging comes together without too many hiccups

Brian

[DeepSolar64]

Thanks for the imaging encouragement everyone. The whole bit seems a bit complex and bewildering to me but I am gonna give it a whirl. I don't intend to stop my visual sessions here but would like to be able to re-enforce my work more with my own images and not relying on GONG and SDO imagery so much, though I will always find those useful. I admire the beautiful work of the fine imagers we have here and I wonder how I will ever fit in with such a skilled crowd.

I did hook the ZWO camera up to the laptop for a short time today at the end of my session and inserted it into the blocking diagonal. It came to focus the best I could tell but the sun had found the trees and high clouds had found the sun so my view wasn't a good one. Next to capture an image. Do a video. Stack images. Whew I have a lot to learn. It is nice to know that I am in good company of a bunch of skilled individuals.

[rsfoto]

Hi James,

Well done. Have not been able to open the roof of my Observatory as all day long we have winds up to 60 km/h ...

[DeepSolar64]

Hi James,

Well done. Have not been able to open the roof of my Observatory as all day long we have winds up to 60 km/h ...

My weather here has been poor over the last couple of weeks too. It's really slowed down my observations. You have high winds and I have ice forecast for tonight.

[Montana]

Well done James

I would recommend loading up FireCapture (for acquisition), Autostakkert 3 for stacking and ImPPG for sharpening. You need to give all the software a try and pick which one you like best

Alexandra

[DeepSolar64]

Well done James

I would recommend loading up FireCapture (for acquisition), Autostakkert 3 for stacking and ImPPG for sharpening. You need to give all the software a try and pick which one you like best

Alexandra

I have Autostakkert3 already loaded but I still need to load/install Firecapture and ImPPG. I also need to install GIMP on my laptop. I still have work to do.

Thanks for the suggestions Alexandra.

James