Sol in H⍺ - 6th May 2022

[Hughsie]

Most of the activity today was located on the southern hemisphere with only a few filaments and a filaprom visible in the north. Here we can see active regions (L-R) AR13006, AR13004 & AR13001 plus some fine filaments.

Solar_Southern_Hemisphere_20220605_100228UT_2.5x_JWH.png (675.78 KiB) Viewed 295 times

Centred in the image is AR13001 with some lovely filaments surrounding this single sun spot. This region of activity is classified Hsx.

AR13001_20220506_103110Z_x3_JWH_DBE.png (592.85 KiB) Viewed 295 times

Here we have AR13006 just coming off the eastern limb. Classified Cao, AR13006 is comprised of 8 sun spots and is actively producing solar flares. A total of 7 flares occurred today the largest being C3.3. As this image was being captured a C1.7 flare erupted peaking at 10:24 UT.

AR13003_20220506_102244Z_x3_JWH.png (567.46 KiB) Viewed 295 times

Moving back west we have AR13004 centred in the image. This consists of 25 sun spots and is classified Dkc. Since emerging, AR13004 has also been active producing 5 flares today and on the 3rd May 2022 a whopping X1.1 class flare. At bin 1x1 I was very much over sampling so I experimented and opted to bin at 2x2. Certainly helped to control the noise.

AR13004_20220506_105506Z_Bin2_x4_JWH.png (387.95 KiB) Viewed 295 times

Here is AR13006. The image is not inverted so we can see the bright region around the sun spots.

AR13006_20220506_105047Z_x4_JWH.png (472.19 KiB) Viewed 295 times

Heading up to the northern hemisphere we have two nice prominences on the north and north west limb plus a filaprom.

Prom_NW_Limb_20220506_104043Z_x3_JWH.png (582.48 KiB) Viewed 295 times

Back south we have some nice prominences on the south east limb and a long filament on the solar disc.

[ffellah]

What a great series ! Love both positive and inverted images.

Franco

[MAURITS]

WOW John, lots of nice details here.

[Taipan]

Realy nice pictures.

I cant understand how you guys make the filaments stand out från the surface like that??
I can't get a result like that. Also use the Lunt 60MT.
What programs to you use for sharpening and preprosessing?
Use IMPPG and PS. Have pixinsight also but neber used it for solar.

Or is it just a matter of catching tha picture at the right moment??

[Montana]

Wow! what a fabulous set and I really enjoyed all the details of all the events too

Alexandra

[Hughsie]

Realy nice pictures.

I cant understand how you guys make the filaments stand out från the surface like that??
I can't get a result like that. Also use the Lunt 60MT.
What programs to you use for sharpening and preprosessing?
Use IMPPG and PS. Have pixinsight also but neber used it for solar.

Or is it just a matter of catching tha picture at the right moment??

I use the unsharp mask tool which looks to enhance areas of contrast to give the effect of sharpening and bring out detail. If you use a low pixel size, say 2 px, it will enhance fine detail, however you can also bring out larger detail as well. Typically in PixInsight I will start with a pixel size of 10-15. At full effect the image looks horrible but you can also control the strength so I will drop this down to get the look I want.

Turning to acquisition and other software, I use a ZWO ASI174MM and set gain at 189 (which is unity gain for this camera). I never adjust the gain unless I am capturing prominences. With a 2.5x, 3x barlow/powermate, I can easily capture 2,000 frames at high FPS. At 4x I will drop to 1,000. I will look to stack 10% of the best frames in AS3!.

Having stacked them I turn to ImPPG. To sharpen I will adjust Sigma to 0.9/1 and keep the iterations at 50. I never use the Unsharp mask lower down as I feel it doesn’t give me enough control and I can better apply it in PixInsight. I will then use the curves tool to invert the image or bring our the contrast if not inverting.

Then I take the image to PixInsight. I crop if necessary, apply DBE to the background. I will create a range mask to protect the solar disc then apply the RestorationFilter for a bit more sharpening to the disc. I will then invert the mask and apply separately to any prominences. Next I will apply UnsharpMask as discussed earlier to the disc and, if needed, I will use LocalHistorgramEqualisation to add contrast and perhaps tweak with the curves tool.

Finally, I Resample the image size to something more sensible, typically 1,200 pixels width, add my border using the Crop tool (not Dynamic Crop) and use the Annotate tool to add in details of the image.

[eroel]

John:
Beautiful images all of them, full of details.
Best regards.
Eric.

[marktownley]

Nice images and details John!

[marios i.]

Very nice images!