Solar Imaging Tutorial: Data Acquisition, Alignment & Processing in Hydrogen Alpha (V1.0) | May 8th

Hey all,

After a lot of PM's and conversations around both here and on CloudyNights, I wanted to attempt to put together a fairly complete tutorial for how I create solar images in hydrogen alpha. I've never put something like this together so forgive anything amateurish about it. My goal with this tutorial is to help someone starting out in solar imaging take the leap from having and using the equipment to using it to acquire data and process it for a final image akin to a photograph. This tutorial includes how data is acquired in SharpCap (free) (how to determine exposure, read histograms, freeze the seeing, create multiple exposures for the surface of the disc, prominences and flat calibration), how the resulting videos are aligned and stacked in Autostakkert!2 (free) (including how to manually do this with prominences which are notoriously difficult to align & stack sometimes), and a very basic run through of how I process my particular style using very minimal tools in Photoshop CS5 (GiMP would be a free supplement). Again this is hopefully meant to help someone new starting out or someone wanting to become familiar with the software and methods used to create some of the images seen around here and other boards. Yesterday's big prominence was a great example to use as a subject. Also, I made sure to use very humble equipment and a lot of free software to keep it fairly budget friendly.

I'm always looking to improve, so please feel free to give constructive criticism, feedback, corrections, etc. I'm sure I fumbled some terms or misspoke a few times, I've already attempted to correct some of them, but I'm sure there are more! Again this is the first time I've put something like this together so expect some hiccups. If this is truly helpful I intent to do more, with different methods and equipment as often it's simply easier to visualize something than to read about it.

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Solar Imaging Tutorial: Data Acquisition, Alignment & Processing in Hydrogen Alpha (V1.0) | May 8th 2017

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Imaging Equipment:

Orion ST80 (with inner cap off, 42mm aperture | 400mm F9.5)
80mm Extension (to help achieve focus)
2" Baader UV/IR filter (not needed at this aperture, but I use it anyways) serving as an ERF
Quark Chromosphere (blue shifted, fully counter clockwise) as the Hydrogen Alpha filter (internal 4.2x barlow)
ZWO Tilt Adapter (still tweaking this, not needed at all)
ZWO ASI174MM camera
Orion Sirius Mount
Low end Toshiba Laptop with USB3

Software:

SharpCap (free)
AutoStakkert!2 (free)
Registax6 (free)
Photoshop CS5 (or GiMP) (free)

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/UqZz​n8

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/UqZz​aV

Being at work I can't watch all at one sitting so I'll be back and forth until I see the whole video but from what I've seen it looks like a great training video ! Good job and I look forward to finishing up later !

Yep, I'm just halfway through watching it.

It's a very interesting video, and I appreciate you posting it, MalVeauX.

Mal, just watched the whole thing. Wow, very informative and the results are amazing.
Thanks for putting it together.

By the way, love your desktop background!

Fantastic video!

BTW, you missed the step where you explain how you get rid of the cloudy weather. Could you go back and add that in?

I think the secret to having no clouds is when no one is buying astrophotography/astro​nomy equipment and no one actually wants to go outside. Those rare moments, the clouds go some where else!

Very best,

MalVeaux, I am always fascinated by your capabilities and thankful you share as you do. I do not have the equipment to capture the deep space like you do but viewing your posts is entertainment, education and enlightenment all in one. Thank you!

I do have a question, what are your plans for the solar eclipse? Are you going to travel to center line and capture it in any way?

I thought about driving North a bit to get into the eclipse line, but I'm re-thinking it and may just watch a 79% partial from my house. It's so crowded every where it seems already for this. For me to go, I'm going to want a quiet location where me and my family can enjoy peace and quiet during all that. It's hard enough to travel with a 3 year old, but then to be at a huge event with a crowd, nah, not for me. We'll see. I may convince myself to drive up.

Either way, for photographing it, I will of course. But I won't put much effort into totality. That's such a short moment that I'd rather just enjoy looking at it.

Very best,