I agree- there's nothing like the experience of seeing/imaging the Sun, Moon, or planets yourself compared to images produced by spacecraft. SDO is great, but the beauty of owning your own solar scope is you can watch changes occur on the Sun in real time. A good, small solar hydrogen-alpha scope is very affordable nowadays.
I use an old Coronado PST and a webcam to record prominences, filaments, and active regions on the Sun every day it's clear (and something interesting is visible). Here's a mosaic I took last week using this combination. BTW, the scope, camera, and tracking mount I use cost a total of just under $1000 US.
Click to view attachment
Full Version: SDO
QUOTE (S_Walker @ Jun 11 2010, 07:30 AM) 
I agree- there's nothing like the experience of seeing/imaging the Sun, Moon, or planets yourself compared to images produced by spacecraft. SDO is great, but the beauty of owning your own solar scope is you can watch changes occur on the Sun in real time. A good, small solar hydrogen-alpha scope is very affordable nowadays.
I use an old Coronado PST and a webcam to record prominences, filaments, and active regions on the Sun every day it's clear (and something interesting is visible). Here's a mosaic I took last week using this combination. BTW, the scope, camera, and tracking mount I use cost a total of just under $1000 US.
Click to view attachment
I use an old Coronado PST and a webcam to record prominences, filaments, and active regions on the Sun every day it's clear (and something interesting is visible). Here's a mosaic I took last week using this combination. BTW, the scope, camera, and tracking mount I use cost a total of just under $1000 US.
Click to view attachment
Could you share more on how you made this mosaic? Other than an adapter for the webcam, did you need anything very special? What software did you use, and were there any non-transparent steps (e.g., removal of aberrations due to vignetting, etc.)?
We have a PST, and I would love to be able to use it for this kind of thing.
Many thanks!
Jeff
Sure Jeff-
first, I used a very short 2x barlow to increase the image scale. Had to be very short because the PST doesn't have much back focus.
I shot 9 short videos with the DMK; each were about 600 frames long. These had generous overlap between each because the PST has very uneven illumination across the field; it's not vignetting, the problem is the narrowest region of bandpass is pretty small on the PST, so I tune the "sweet spot" to be at about the middle of the image, and simply use large overlap and crop out the areas that I don't use. Also, choose an exposure that doesn't overexpose bright regions on the solar sisk and use the same setting for all your videos; this avoids problems with overlap between frames.
After taking the videos, I bring them into the freeware RegiStax and stack the best 150-200 frames per video, and sharpen them gently using wavelets.
Next, I bring the stacked images into Photoshop (or Gimp, if you prefer) and align each frame, then cut off the areas of each I don't want to keep.
Finally, because I use a monochrome camera, I colorize the sun for aesthetics. I like a yellow sun with orange/red prominences and filaments. This last step is completely arbitrary; remember the PST looks at a narrow slice of the red spectrum (656.4 nm, less than 1 angstrom). Visually, the sun appears dark red, but the eye doesn't see contrasts well in red, so thus I colorize the image to improve visual contrast.
first, I used a very short 2x barlow to increase the image scale. Had to be very short because the PST doesn't have much back focus.
I shot 9 short videos with the DMK; each were about 600 frames long. These had generous overlap between each because the PST has very uneven illumination across the field; it's not vignetting, the problem is the narrowest region of bandpass is pretty small on the PST, so I tune the "sweet spot" to be at about the middle of the image, and simply use large overlap and crop out the areas that I don't use. Also, choose an exposure that doesn't overexpose bright regions on the solar sisk and use the same setting for all your videos; this avoids problems with overlap between frames.
After taking the videos, I bring them into the freeware RegiStax and stack the best 150-200 frames per video, and sharpen them gently using wavelets.
Next, I bring the stacked images into Photoshop (or Gimp, if you prefer) and align each frame, then cut off the areas of each I don't want to keep.
Finally, because I use a monochrome camera, I colorize the sun for aesthetics. I like a yellow sun with orange/red prominences and filaments. This last step is completely arbitrary; remember the PST looks at a narrow slice of the red spectrum (656.4 nm, less than 1 angstrom). Visually, the sun appears dark red, but the eye doesn't see contrasts well in red, so thus I colorize the image to improve visual contrast.
Sunspot region 1087 looks stunning in the latest SDO images
I really hope NASA starts porting their iphone apps to the Android platform! I would love to have something like 3D Sun on my Samsung showing SDO data!
This is neat:
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/hotshots....v=item&id=2
Prominence overlaid on magnetic polarity.
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/hotshots....v=item&id=2
Prominence overlaid on magnetic polarity.
Incredible magnetic structures in sunspot 1092 from SDO
A veritable Sunday treat...! Imagery is surreal
Aurora Tonight (Aug 3/4) ... well maybe!
The CMEs of August 1st are heading for the Earth
See:
http://spaceweather.com/
The CMEs of August 1st are heading for the Earth
See:
http://spaceweather.com/
This appears to be rather more cool than some of the lower-resolution videos out there:
http://www.lmsal.com/~schryver/Public/AIA/...000029_305s.mov
http://www.lmsal.com/~schryver/Public/AIA/...000029_305s.mov
Stunning prominence visible to SDO right now !!!!!! 18.30UT/19.30BST
Liftoff
18.58UT
18.58UT
I see the SDO sight have been tinkering with the AIA304 images, much better now, showing all the fine limb detail that was completely invisible in the previous version of these images. Hopefully its permanent and not some technical blip
Does this mean the Aurora Lights may be on the way on the 15th
...or do only CME's do the trick?
Click to view attachment
...from spaceweather.com
...or do only CME's do the trick?
Click to view attachment
...from spaceweather.com
QUOTE (Sunspot @ Aug 13 2010, 02:49 AM)
Hopefully its permanent and not some technical blip
Oh well, it was just a technical blip after all.
Drop them a line, ask them what's going on. They're good people, VERY into Twitter for keeping Sun-watchers updated, so they'll be happy to answer your question I'm sure.
Another very nice prominence visible right now.
A coronal mass ejection is visible in the LASCO images.
Another prominence about to erupt.
Huh. Looks more like the "Sydney Opera House of Pain" to me... 
Another major prominence eruption in progress.
Moving VERY fast 
A full disk IMage at 1.30 with some contrast adjustment
Last view.... gone now.
..and the last few weeks of CMEs and sunspots wind down again...
This solar minimum is continuing; We just had a day with no sunspots
This cycle is like one we have not seen before.
Here is a latest representative SDO image
Click to view attachment
This solar minimum is continuing; We just had a day with no sunspots
This cycle is like one we have not seen before.
Here is a latest representative SDO image
Click to view attachment
Looks like there is an active region about to come into view.
A bit of drama at last
Bright comet is just entering the LASCO C2 field of view now.
Been watching it erupt, amazing sight.
keep an eye on the SOHO LASCO images now.
keep an eye on the SOHO LASCO images now.
Wow, it's like chinese dragon over surface of Sun or fire whip from Lord of the Rings monster (in first movie).
What about STEREO images?
What about STEREO images?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if this beast collapses & produces a major flare the Earth is not in the strike zone, right? Looks like it's already rotated too far around the limb for that.
Animation from Spaceweather.com here.
QUOTE (machi @ Dec 6 2010, 08:18 PM)
Wow, it's like chinese dragon over surface of Sun or fire whip from Lord of the Rings monster (in first movie).
Great minds think alike...
http://twitpic.com/3d9lsh
... or this.
(nods approvingly) 
The SDO site has a new report called Global Eruption Rocks Sun. It is about the 'Great Eruption of August 1, 2010'
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/scien...globaleruption/
UMSF posts from that day start here
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=162839
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/scien...globaleruption/
UMSF posts from that day start here
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=162839
SDO site is back up and running now
7 months of the sun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMfylSkJX08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMfylSkJX08
This is very cool
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pr...ew_images_show/
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pr...ew_images_show/
QUOTE
Physicists, led by a researcher at the University of Warwick, studying new images of clouds of material exploding from the Sun have spotted instabilities forming in that exploding cloud that are similar to those seen in clouds in Earth’s atmosphere.
Sun is looking very active today with some interesting flaring.
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/browse...57_512_0304.jpg
and one just a few mins ago:
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/browse...21_512_0304.jpg
Keep on eye on the SOHO LASCO images for a CME.
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/browse...57_512_0304.jpg
and one just a few mins ago:
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/browse...21_512_0304.jpg
Keep on eye on the SOHO LASCO images for a CME.
CME appearing
Sun is looking stunning right now, especially in the 211/193/171 combination images.
I see Hayabusa has visited the sun, eh? 
(Hayabusa meaning "Falcon")
(Hayabusa meaning "Falcon")
A brontosaurus now
Another spectacular flare this morning
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/browse...5_2048_0304.jpg
CME too, although SOHO seems to have missed it.
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/browse...5_2048_0304.jpg
CME too, although SOHO seems to have missed it.
Yikes..check out the latest SDO image now.
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/browse...7_2048_0304.jpg
And LASCO http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov//data/REPRO...2048_c2_512.jpg
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/browse...7_2048_0304.jpg
And LASCO http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov//data/REPRO...2048_c2_512.jpg
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