19 August 2009: PST h-alpha images of today's prominences

Hi,

A blue sky this afternoon in Coleshill, Central UK, and an opportunity to image with my Coronado PST and SPC900NC webcam.

Several small bright prominences on the North-West solar limb -



And on the opposite side a bright single eruptive prom -



Hopefully the weather will remain clear tonight for some deep sky photography with my 8" Meade.

Kindest regards,

Dave

Dave - is that an image of that bright orange thingy that's now a distant memory for us over here?

Nice images - very clear.

How do you get the colour and what are the details of the "SPC900SC" - never heard of it...

Cheers
Dave

Hi Dave,

Details of the Philips SPC900NC webcam can be found here -

www.robertreeves.com/900NC.htm

The h-alpha images are made from two separate AVI movies; each of 200 frames duration.

The first movie is exposed in monochrome for the prominences and the second movie (again in monochrome) is exposed for the disk detail. I'm using HandyAVI as my video capture program.

The frames of the AVI's are then processed in Registax5 to produce a stacked image of the proms and another for the disk. In each case wavelets are then applied to bring out the fullness of detail.

Using the prominence image as the base layer in Photoshop Elements, I then colourise it and also adjust the brightness and contrast of the prominences to give a nice red glow. I then add a second layer and paste into this the image of the disk. I like colourise the disk yellow (this is simply a personal preference) and then adjust brightness and contrast. The layers are then flattened to produce the final composite image.

All in all the process from video imaging with my PST and SPC900NC to final image takes no more than about 15 minutes.

I'm a new member of the forum and hope to post some more photo's soon...

Kindest regards,


Dave

Very good images DAVID.

You use IR-CUT filter.......?????????????????


PST CORONADO is a big gun if you want to work it.


Y.G ..... Yeeeeesssss another solar observer.

Hello Theo,

No I do not use an IR filter. The IR filter is built into the lens of the webcam. When imaging the sun the lens has to be removed first.

Kindest regards,

Dave

Hey Dave - that looks like an interesting imager alright. And you describe how to adapt it very well.


Astronomer_Dave wrote:

I'm a new member of the forum and hope to post some more photo's soon...

Welcome aboard and we'll all look forward to more images of the sun - by God we need 'em! Lashin rain here at the mo

Cheers
Dave