Shot with the PST while looking through sucker holes in the cloudy sky. This is really a test of the QHY 678 Monochrome camera and the SolarQuest mount. It works well. Monochrome image stacked in Autostakkert and shaperned and colorized in Photoshop. There's an obvious "hot spot" that I have to figure out. This is probably one of the reasons why people go with Lunt pressure tuned solar scopes. But overall, I like the detail and it's better that I'm using a camera instead of burning my eyes.
Why have I taken so long to post this? Because I was seriously disappointed by some banding that appeared in the image after I stretched it just a little bit. But I mitigated it somewhat in Photoshop but I'm calling it pretty much done. To invoke a cliche: It is what it is.
Taken through the Orion 100ED and the Canon 6D. Even with its faults, I really like the image. I prefer the "cooler" coronal vibe instead of the bright white that is typically depicted.
One of my better RGB attempts, meaning I shot through red, green and blue filters to get this result. Used my C11. But most of my attempts were inferior due to poor seeing and probably questionable collimation.
Attaching a photography mount on a tripod used to be always an annoying proposition because sometimes it gets stuck to the tripod. It's usually a 3/8 inch screw head. I always keep a Pennzoil Oil Filter Wrench in case I need a little help. But when I attached the Sky-Watcher Solar Quest head to my tripod, it became stuck as I couldn't unloosen it from the tripod. And the part that is attached to the tripod screw is very small, almost recessed. When I turn the Solar Quest head, it just rotates and the part that is attached stays fixed. It's that little round ring in the photo below that stays attached but freely rotates without any effect on the tripod screw head. The part that is fixed to the tripod can't really be grasped by anything. I did a little searching and read that you're supposed barely attach the accessory (tripod head, etc) to the tripod (just enough that it "almost" begins to tighten) and use the little setscrews to tighten the tripod head or whatever. This was a revelation. Have I been doing this wrong for the last 40+ years? It didn't really help me as I unloosened the setscrews but it was still stuck to the tripod. I started pulling on the head at maybe 30 degree angles whilst turning to release it and after a few minutes it unscrewed! I then reattached it like I describe above and used the setscrews to tighten everything. When I was done doing my solar viewing (just a test really), I unloosened the setscrews and the head easily came off.
Yay, I guess.
But sometimes, it's just hard to do... I'm not looking for it, but it just keep rearing its ugly head on Cloudy Nights which makes sense as a bunch of white old men talking about the world means that they just can't help themselves...
ps Yes, I'm alive. Who knows how much I'll post with a bunch of physical challenges.
Working with Sharpcap 4 instead of SGP... it's been so long that I wondered if Sharpcap 4 with its imaging sequencer would be easier...
I had this "problem" where Sharpcap's autosequencer thingy wanted to wait like 15-17 minutes before starting each time while connecting to the autoguiding software, PHD2. So, I just bypassed that part of the sequence and let it start immediately. I went about 10 frames, then moved the target (sometimes by way too much) to accomplish something like dithering...
Having been out of it for some time, I was literally getting a headache trying to get everything working.
