First process from my day off in the sun

[Montana]

Just processed a few images so far from my day off (purely because it was sunny). It was freezing at -5 degrees but worth it.

Few problems to start with, mount made a terrible grinding noise and stopped. After an initial heart attack I found my Powertank had died so plugged to the mains. Then the Solarscope just kept going off band every 5 minutes annoying me, then I managed to kick over my cup of tea all over the path. After that everything settled. I've got about another 40 to process.

Taken with Solarscope SF-100, 2x Barlow and DMK41.





Regards
Alexandra

[Montana]

Here is the next 2 as they won't all load together!

[solarchat]

Love it Alexandra..

This is todays image on www.solarastronomy.org

[Cschur]

Absolutely world class images Alexandra. I am jealous of your days off to shoot the Sun! Clear here in Arizona but I have to be at work. GRRRRR. So cold there. Im getting down into the 20s at night, but it warms up in the day to mid 40s.

[NandoPG]

Hi Alexandra,
Definitively, world class images. Wow, so fine details and no trace of noise. Your seeing looks to be very good, isn't it ?

Alexandra, if you don't mind to share the information, have you been using AVIS or Registax6 to stack your images ?

Looking forward to see more,

Fernando

[Montana]

Thanks everyone

Thanks Stephen, I'm honoured

I took about 1000 images, processed them in Avistack 2, then took them into Photoshop CS5 and pressed my little action button which is Unsharp Mask (25%, 1 pixel) 14x. I then used a touch of curves and Brightness/Contrast to make the image a little more contrasty.

I put two of them together:


AR11410 & AR11413 by Alexandra's Astronomy, on Flickr

Just Avistacking all the prime focus ones, hopefully it should make a full disc.

Regards
Alexandra

[Pedro]

Great images Alexandra.

The seeing today was not as good as usual but I managed to get some images (WL and H-alpha).

best regards

[oldfrankland]

Awesome imagery.... Very delicate image processing. Well done, Alex, exceeding well done.

I thought you Brits' were suppose to have perpetual dismal seeing conditions?!

Are you, like, slipping off to Barbados without telling us?

[anmalo]

Hi:
Fantastic images!

Angel

[MapleRidge]

Hi Alexandra...

Great images! Looking for ward to seeing them all.

Brian

[Montana]

Thanks again!

Seeing was awful between 10am - 11am with that horrible bubbling that you get, but then I was messing about with broken mounts, power supplies, going off band, spilling the tea, cursing etc. By midday it all seemed to calm down and just be the lovely atmospheric ripples instead and I was able to relax and just enjoy.

Regards
Alexandra

[Merlin66]

Using a large aperture SolarScope I think makes all the difference!! ;-)

[Derek Klepp]

Good to see the Solarscope getting some action.Great mosaic

[Bill E.]

Alexandria, they came out great. Day off with sunshine what more could you ask for. B)

[marktownley]

Fantastic Alexandra! I spotted you on here early yesterday morning and was jealous you were getting a day in the sun - looking at the results it was well and truly worth booking a days holiday! Know what you mean about the powerpack - i've done a couple of lunar imaging sessions this week and the cold temperatures were causing the red LED on the mount to flash away. The grease they use in the gears on the EQ6 is terrible in low temperatures, it increases in viscosity and puts more load on the motors and hence power supply... Anymore pics to post?

[Montana]

Thanks everyone, I only have a couple more to post, I need to get and process them. I have done a full disc and a couple of limp unprocessable prominences again.

Apollo, I really hope you are feeling better and it was only temporary? If it was an infection I give you my most sincere sympathy as I have heard that kidney infections are more painful than childbirth. I hope you recover to full health soon.

Kind regards
Alexandra