Saturday Sunshine 11th May

[marktownley]

HI All

Well Saturday was the day after the night before, and after staying up till about 2.30pm watching the aurora, a few hours sleep, and I was up again about 5am ready for a day of sunshine to get setup and imaging early with the better seeing.

I had a total disaster with my aurora photography, settings on both my phone and camera were way off, and spent most of my time calling people and getting them outside and looking. Got my brothers get their kids out of bed and viewing which was nice, for lots of people it was their first aurora whereas one of many for me.

Anyway to the sunshine of the morning, and there was a lot more haze than I would have liked, however the seeing was better than what was forecast, so you take the smooth with the rough!

First off overview disks, the Ha taken with the DS50, the CaK taken 40mm f15, zwo183 camera used.

Ha FD DS50 2x cemax zw0183mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

CaK FD 40mm f15 zwo183mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

For Ha I was running 120mm f30 with the Solar Spectrum 0.3a and the FLIR imx174 camera. CaK was 66mm f15, a 2x barlow and zwo290mm camera. I did try 80mm at CaK, but the seeing wasn't allowing it...

Starting off with our monster grouping responsible for the night before fun and games!

ar13364 Ha 120mm f30 ss03a imx174 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ar13364 CaK 66mm f15 2x cemax zwo290mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Despite taking alot of images, I just couldn't get a sharp image of the monster AR in CaK, hey ho! Anyway, moving around the sun...

ar13367 Ha 120mm f30 ss03a imx174 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ar13667 CaK 66mm f15 2x cemax zwo290mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ar13671 Ha 120mm f30 ss03a imx174 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ar13671 CaK 66mm f15 2x cemax zwo290mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ar13672 Ha 120mm f30ss03a imx174 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ar13672 CaK 66mm f15 2x cemax zwo290mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

New AR Ha 120mm f30 ss03a imx174 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

New AR CaK 66mm f15 2x cemax zwo290mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Next up the proms, and question for the wise... First disk is the Ha, second is the CaK, same setup as above. Why are more and different proms visible in CaK than Ha? Same technique used in both, 30ms exposure and then gain until proms max out without washout...

Ha Proms DS50 2x cemax zwo183mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Cak Proms 40mm f15 zw0183mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

This morning is looking very hazy again, and we have a thinderstorm warning for this afternoon, so I will pop out in the next half an hour and see what is about, see if I can get the big active region before it rounds the limb.

Hope you like

Mark

[Carbon60]

You've captured an excellent set of images, Mark. Glad you got to see the aurora too.
My FD images from yesterday morning were a bust...too much haze knocking off the details.

Stu.

[marktownley]

Thanks Stu!

[MAURITS]

Wonderfull session Mark.

[marktownley]

Thanks Maurits!

[Petrus]

Excellent set Mark!

[pupak]

A very nice collection of photos, Mark. The comparison of H-a and CaK is very impressive.
Petr

[Dennis]

A very good set of images Mark.

[Ivan]

Excellent images, Mark! I think you hardly process them, they look pristine and beautiful. In general, I began to believe that the less processing the better.

Ivan

[KMH]

That's a terrific collection, Mark! I really like the look you get with your Ca images.

Kevin

[pdmphoton]

A really excellent set of images Mark. I agree with Ivan that the images are pristine and processed to deliver a very natural result.
Paulm

[vineyard]

Lovely images - I particularly like the CaK closeups.

As far as the aurora, sometimes there's more joy in just observing. Eventually I just put down the cameras and just sat and experienced it!

[DeepSolar64]

As far as the aurora, sometimes there's more joy in just observing. Eventually I just put down the cameras and just sat and experienced it!_Vinyard

I so much agree. I feel this is true of solar imaging as well. Sometimes it is better just to look...And experience it!!

James

[DeepSolar64]

Mark,
That is an excellent run of images! I noticed that big prominence on the Slooh live feed that day and captured an image from it. It is brighter than yours but yours captures it much better since it is sharper and not overexposed.

James

Teide5-2024-05-10T155223UTC_Slooh_Lunt60_Ha_JP.jpg (177.19 KiB) Viewed 1385 times

[rsfoto]

Excellent images

[Peterm]

Wow you have been productively busy Mark. Excellent presentation!

[ffellah]

Brilliant images, Mark. I really like your Ha processing, the images are just right.

Franco

[Montana]

These are simply delightful Mark
I managed a solar view on Sunday afternoon but the seeing was quite poor.

Alexandra

[marktownley]

Thanks everyone for the comments!

[DeepSolar64]

You are welcome, Mark.

[nicspenceryork]

Such a wonderful set there Mark. The processing is exquisite.
Nic

[arnedanielsen]

Wonderful images, Mark!