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CapturingTheNight — The Sun 28th of November '11
Published: 2011-11-28 01:09:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 892; Favourites: 27; Downloads: 0
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© Greg Gibbs. You may not use, replicate, manipulate, or modify this image without my permission. All Rights Reserved.WARNING: NEVER OBSERVE THE SUN WITH THE NAKED EYE OR THROUGH A TELESCOPE, CAMERA OR OTHER OPTICAL DEVICE UNLESS YOU HAVE A PROPER SOLAR FILTER AND KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
This is an experimental solar shot. The best way to capture the sun is using a mono webcam/ccd video camera. Without owning one of those I thought I would try using the video mode of my 60D in monochrome. There are both good points and bad to this method. The video allows for a lot more captured detail due to the hundreds/thousands of individual frames it takes. When these frames are stacked together and the bad ones rejected you can get a lot more detail. The negatives with this method are that the video is lower resolution than a straight picture and I can not set a low enough exposure to really capture the solar prominences without bumping up the ISO too much. So I don't think I will be trying this method again. I think I will just stick with stacks of still frames, but I would love to hear what you think of this shot. Is it better or worse than a shot like this one ?
Canon 60D
Baader Mark III Hyperion 8-24mm Zoom EP @ 16mm
Coronado PST
NEQ6 Pro Goto Telescope Mount
105 second video converted to AVI
Stacked and processed in Registax6
Final processing and false colour added in PS Elements 8.0
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Comments: 18
I'm glad you like it Roman 
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The sun itself looks clearer in this one, but the solar prominences are much more detailed and larger (as you say) in the other shot. This does not help, but I am 50/50 on this one with a slight leaning to the other picture.
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Thank you very much for your thoughts Don
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Thank you
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You're welcome!
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I was going to say this one, then I read what Corvidae65 said and I had a rethink and another look. I think I still prefer this one, but then I'm no expert. My reasons for this are that this is slightly brighter and the detail seems to be more defined or has more contrast, but I think that's just the regular photographer in me wanting to see sharpness and detail. Like Corvidae65 said, you're the expert in all of this.
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Thank you very much for your thoughts on this Margaret
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I thought that was what you meant by prominences. Wouldn't it be good if you could combine the two. The best of both worlds.
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I'm just amazed that you can get such shots of the sun like this!
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I'm glad you like them. Thanks
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...expensive too! You're welcome!
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Just a thought about it--I really don't know the techniques for shooting the sun, stacking, etc...I think I prefer the stacked still images rather than this but it doesn't look like the sun was terribly active that day for prominences--I do like to see those gazillion mile high eruptions. I like the clarity and detail of the other one better too. You *can* see some prominences in the stacked video image but it might be the lower resolution doesn't allow all the prominence to show? (??)
You're way more knowledgeable than I am about this stuff, Gregg
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I really appreciate your thoughts John
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