Solar Animation 7-19-24

For this animation, rather than just focusing on the prominences I kept the surface features as well. I am getting more familiar with producing these time-lapses but still have a way to go but I am not sure how detailed I can get with the ED80. There are three to four large prominence regions in this cropped view but I also was drawn to the movement of the filament (dark streak) in the right center. I ended up with five versions with other versions having less noise but also less detail before settling on this one. (48 min. Time-Lapse)

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Solar Animation 7-19-24
Date: 7-19-24
Camera: ZWO ASI174MM-Pro
Telescope: Orion ED80
Barlow: DayStar Quark 4.2x
Focal Length: 600mm (2520mm w/Quark)
F/7.5 (F/31.5 w Quark)
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: ZWO AM3
Filter Adaptor: None
Filter: Baader UV-IR, Daystar Quark
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: None
Exposure: 6.97s - 48 min (100 of 500 every 30s)
Gain: 100
Offset 0
FPS: 63

Temp: 22 C
Processing: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, PixInsight, IMPPG, Topaz Denoise, Photoshop

Huge Prominence on 7-17-24

I captured this very large prominence on 7-17-24 while making a video comparing the ASI174 to the ASI178 for solar imaging with my setup - Link. I was stunned when I saw this prominence through the eyepiece after doing my testing and decided to image this. For reference, this is the southeast portion of the sun and the sunspot is designated as 3756. I originally attempted to make a time-lapse, however, in my haste to take advantage of the clear morning sun quickly set up my mount onto the concrete blocks which point to the general direction but you still need to check the polar alignment with a compass, Stellarium, or some other app. I completely forgot 😕 and was wondering why it was veering off after a few minutes - oh well!

Higher Quality:
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Huge Prominence on 7-17-24
Date: 7-17-24
Camera: ZWO ASI174MM-Pro
Telescope: Orion ED80
Barlow: DayStar Quark 4.2x
Focal Length: 600mm (2520mm w/Quark)
F/7.5 (F/31.5 w Quark)
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: ZWO AM3
Filter Adaptor: None
Filter: Baader UV-IR, Daystar Quark
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: None
Exposure: 8.10s (100 of 500)
Gain: 100
Offset 0
FPS: 67
Temp: 18 C
Processing: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, PixInsight, IMPPG, Topaz Denoise, Photoshop

NGC 7129 - A Small Reflection in a Rich Field

Located some 3,300 light-years in the constellation Cepheus is a small reflection nebula, NGC 7129, illuminated by a young star cluster. The interesting shape, often described as a rosebud, was produced when hot young stars blew a bubble in the very large molecular cloud in this region. To make things more interesting, this region also contains lots of hydrogen, enough to produce faint Ha emission nebulae.

I have a love-hate relationship with processing molecular clouds with both reflection and emission nebulae as they have conflicting processing techniques when highlighting them. Because of this the final result depends on the preference of the astrophotographer. In trying to set a balance I went with showing a bit more Ha. Perhaps if I were in a dark site with Bortle 3 or lower skies I would have balanced it differently. The reflection nebula has a blue hue and shows lots of interesting structure caused by the solar winds streaming outward against the molecular cloud.

Lastly, the region is rich in stars of all types. If you have been following me, you know I like stars so I left many of them. However, I did do some reduction using BlurXTerminator on the RGB stars and did not use the Luminosity data for the stars.

High Quality:

https://www.astrobin.com/01awih/?nc=collection&nce=712

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NGC 7129 - A Small Reflection in a Rich Field

Dates: 6-4-24, 6-7, 6-9, 6-10, 6-12, 6-13, 6-15, 6-24, 6-27
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha; ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: L 326 x 90, Ha 174 x 300, R 114 x 90, G 113 x 90, B 107 x 90 (Total 30h 58")
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Color Masks, Bill Blanshan Stretching, Topaz Denoise.

Solar Prom Animation from 7-2-24

This is my second solar animation. Processing went a little smoother as I am getting more familiar with techniques. This time around I darkened the surface since there was nothing noteworthy in the region of the prominences. The roughly 6 second animation represents 1 hour and 4 minutes of real time on the sun. It started off pretty well detail wise, however, the sharpness seemed to get worse halfway through. I think this was due to diminishing seeing conditions, especially since it was very cloudy an hour later.

The large prominence in the right portion is quite impressive, however, I really like how the portion in the lower region floats above the chromosphere accepting particle releases from the large prom and releasing particles to the left.

Higher Quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/intj17/?nc=collection&nce=712

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Solar Prom Animation from 7-2-24
Date: 7-2-24
Camera: ZWO ASI174MM-Pro
Telescope: Orion ED80
Barlow: DayStar Quark 4.2x
Focal Length: 600mm (2520mm w/Quark)
F/7.5 (F/31.5 w Quark)
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: ZWO AM3
Filter Adaptor: None
Filter: Baader UV-IR, Daystar Quark
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: None
Exposure: 7.34s - 64 min (100 of 500 every 30s)
Gain: 100
Offset 0
FPS: 67
Temp: 18 C
Processing: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, PixInsight, IMPPG, Topaz Denoise, Photoshop

Solar Surface and Proms from 6-22-24

So I'm finally caught up as this is the last of my 'old' images. The next solar project will be within the same week as collection which occured today, 😉. These were taken a mere week ago when I was checking out the Quark after cleaning it. I had an oops moment when I forgot to remove the plastic cover during an outreach event. Because the Quark is installed at the eyepiece the full photon force of the sun hits the cap and vaporizes (burns a hole on it) it. Fortunately, it still worked well enough for the outreach event. I did contact DayStar and explained that there was a little film on the diagonal (which I cleaned) and the Quark. She said it happens often and it was safe to use 91% isopropyl alcohol and Q-tips for cleaning which I promptly did.

The first image shows well defined active regions along with a large almost continuous prominence. The second image has less active regions on the surface but a very distinct and well defined prominence. 

Higher Quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/h6hry5/B/?nc=collection&nce=712

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Solar Surface and Proms from 6-22-24
Date: 6-22-24
Camera: ZWO ASI174MM-Pro
Telescope: Orion ED80
Barlow: DayStar Quark 4.2x
Focal Length: 600mm (2520mm w/Quark)
F/7.5 (F/31.5 w Quark)
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: ZWO AM3
Filter Adaptor: None
Filter: Baader UV-IR, Daystar Quark
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: None
Exposure: 100 x 7.34 ms (100 of 500)
Gain: 100
Offset 0
FPS: 64
Temp: 15 C
Processing: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, IMPPG, Photoshop, Gradient XTerminator, TopazDenoise.