Tutorial - How to Capture & Process Solar Images - Autostakkert IMPPG

In this tutorial, we will be looking at processing images of our very own star. The video is packed with information from capturing to stacking and all the way to image processing and coloring.
The programs needed to follow along with this tutorial are as follows:
SharpCap - sharpcap.co.uk
SER Player - sites.google.com/site/astropi...
AutoStakkert - www.autostakkert.com/
ImPPG - greatattractor.github.io/imppg/
Photoshop - www.adobe.com/Photoshop/FreeT...
For all you Level 3 members, you will have access to the data that was capture on Sept 30th 2019 plus bonus content so you can practice your newly acquired skills.
Equipment used:
Skywatcher Esprit 100 - www.skywatcherusa.com/
Daystar Filters Quark Gemini (Chromosphere view) - www.daystarfilters.com/
Celestron VX Mount - www.celestron.com/

[@craiglowery4427]

Awesome tutorial A go to video for me. I didn't realize that flats can remove Newton rings

[@scottinspaceofficialchanne839]

Simon, you are a great instructor!

[@BanditAU01]

Thanks for this - it enabled me to get better details from my solar images!

[@Pletharoe]

What a fantastic tutorial - my solar filter is on its way thanks to this video! Subbed.

[@miladkhosravany4223]

What a fantastic tutorial man. So many information and useful data. Nice job and thanks for the tutorial.

[@tchallalemou5307]

Awesome tutorial! Gonna go try it out now.

[@sjpp71]

Fantastic tutorial. Many thanks for posting this.

[@theinterstellarfeller]

Brilliant tutorial. Thanks so much!

[@astroEnthusiast1]

Enjoyed your tutorial, taught me a great deal about creating my ultimate solar images! Thank you!!!

[@mickpot7831]

Excellent !!! And wonderful picture on the end...

[@doubleastudios.official]

Fantastic tutorial! I tried for the first time today and I wouldn't have been this happy if it wasn't for your help! Thank you a mil!

[@chrisstrobel3439]

Simon was always great, will miss him at the store.

[@astronomynotebook]

This is a terrific tutorial ....you made my images a lot better ....thank you😊❤️

[@bobpilz1021]

Truly helpful! Well done!

[@AstroPinoy]

The best tutorial!!

[@alesizzz1]

Excellent presentation !!

[@grantgeorgebuffett]

Thanks for a great thorough tutorial. I have a Coronado PST with a double stack and a monochrome camera. So, I need to get busy trying this this summer and follow your tutorial again.

[@prakashsubbanna]

Very nice and informative tutorial. Thank you.

[@AstroSoundscape]

Thanks Simon just getting into this with the Daystar Quark and this was extremely useful.

[@NickCookOnTheNet]

Great work thank you, I just tried using IMPPG for the first time today using some data I already had after watching this, absolute game changer for hydrogen alpha stuff. I'll try with some flat frames next time. Thank you very much!

[@TheArjanb]

nice! super helpful! just got myself a quark too and ordered a 174mm from you guys to get rid of newton rings hopefully once and for all. hope to get it soon

great tutorial, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@Astro6Sons]

OMG thanks a lot for this tutorial ! :D

[@Mark_Bloom]

Excellent! I just processed some images yesterday "my way" (which is similar but not as detailed as yours) so now will try "your way"... I bet they will look a lot better! :) Thank you very much for this tutorial!

[@philippefossier7178]

Very good tutorial. Thanks

[@gwzapo]

Outstanding tutorial!!! Some of the steps for masking in PS, is way over my head, but you have provided a great tutorial for this type of imaging.

[@philipnewman3916]

I want to thank you for this video. It realy opened my eyes and was a great help. Several times when I have posted my HA solar images and people have asked for a tutorial on how I process. I always send a link to this video. Thanks.

[@jean-danielayer4899]

Thank you so much for that tutorial. For my first experience of imaging our Sun, I didn't expected a so great result (I thought before viewing your video that I would have to compose two different images of the Sun to obtain such a result; one of the surface, normally exposed and one of the prominences, overexposed). It's amazing to have both (surface details and prominences) in one picture. Thank's again it was a great help for me.

[@whatmattersmost6725]

AWESOME THANK YOU!!

[@technocore1591]

That was great, thank you.

[@ianmdgs]

very useful, many thanks

[@Astrobiscuit]

many thx very useful 😀

[@Thunder_Dome45]

Very good video. I especially like the focus routine. The button was right there and I didn't know enough about sharpcap to know what to do. Visually looking at an image on the screen focus could be way off without that trick.

[@stardustastro]

DUDE, I love you

[@TheBKsounds]

Thank You!

[@miroslavk.5049]

Excellent tutorial on solar imaging, one of the best if not The best one I ever saw.I'm wondering if there is other, more effective way to rid off that white border, it is only annoying feature remaining on otherwise great, fast and relatively simple procession. Many thanks for sharing it with us.

[@cryptojihadi265]

Really looking forward to this. Just got a Lunt 100MT Double Stack and the Solar views are insane. However my image capturing is horrendous. Lol.

[@carbine781]

Great tutorial that I have used numerous times. But I do think its funny how the thumbnail is just a random image on the nasa website with the URL showing 😂

[@LawrenceYoung1118]

Excellent tutorial ! Thank you ! Just had my first look at the sun yesterday, cant wait to try your workflow.. I do have one question, did you use any filters (other than the wedge or white filter to prevent destroying your eyes) ? I have an H alpha filter, but used for deep sky and wondered if that would be of benefit.

[@alainprevost4358]

Fine Tutorial. Thank you. Question: what kind of mount are you using? I have a Lunt 502/350 mounted on a Skywatcher SolarQuest mount and the solar alignment gets off every time I try to focus. Wonder if I shouldn't just use a more rigid mount to solve that issue...

[@MichaelLevAstro]

Awesome Video! Learned a lot from this! Do you think a quark would work on an Esprit 120 without using a ERF infront? Would that aperture be to large and wouldn't be safe for the scopes internals? Or maybe just a cardboard with a hole making the aperture smaller is good enough?

[@WoodlandHillsCameraTelescopes]

You can use a 2" UV/IR filter. I highly suggest the ones from Daystar Filters as they do not have an IR leak. telescopes.net/store/daystar-filters-2-uv-ir-filter.html

[@colinrobb2384]

Great tutorial. However I do not understand using "high contrast" to focus. What did you adjust after defocussing to get the high contrast image? Thanks in advance.

[@Seafox0011]

Look at the lower righthand side of the screen to the histogram in SharpCap, Simon was tweaking the luminance curve on that. Its non-destructive so you just reset it to go back to the standard contrast view.

Hey :) Great Vid! Is it possible to get flat calibration frames when I have the whole sun at my sensor and not only a part?

[@fjbsolutions2446]

I have the solar max iii 70mm. I want to start capturing. I will be using the zwo174mm. Which scope were you using?

[@vk2np]

Very interesting Simon but still trying to work out how to do Flats on a Coronado PST as it shows whole disk I don't think defocussing will be enough . Also using a 174MM non mini

[@Seafox0011]

Worth trying the 'white teeshirt method' as Trevor Jones shows in his video :- kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWTddaFjbdhglc0

[@stadtchronistjennersdorf6351]

Greetings...thx for that video - TWO questions: 1) Looks simple doing/making flats - but how can they fit? You said yourself due to backlash you have to use your handcontroller to hold the sun or the part of the sun you want to image in your frame. 2) If I take those flat-images - using the SER-video player as you, into PS CS6, I can open them, make them all into layers, turn them into a smartobject, BUT THEN - I can't use a specific layer method as it is still GRAYED out in PS, can't access it. ???

[@wolfman83778]

How do you calculate the sigma to use in the Lucy-Richardson deconvolution from your pixel size?

[@craiglowery4427]

Simon: how do you align your scope? One star alignment?

[@philipnewman3916]

Thanks for this video it is very helpful. I just picked up a 174mm . I have a solarmax ii 60mm and like your work flow. I have the same question Robb asked. How do you get the Dark contrast for focus? Is it a function of 100mm scope or are there other settings you take forgranted from repetition and did not pônt out? Thank for any help.

[@Thunder_Dome45]

On the sharpcap histogram there is a lightning bolt button. You hit that button and it makes the extreme dark and light areas for focusing.

[@vivid9394]

Thanks! This is great. I may have missed it but what camera are you using? I saw someone selling the wedge and debating about buying it.

[@astrokev99]

ASI 174MM. A herschel wedge is really only for white light viewing/imaging, not for h-alpha

[@NeilW210]

Great video. But what do you mean in the notes referring to Level 3 Members can get access to the avi data? Membership of what? I've gone on to your website and can't see anything. Are you on Patreon?

[@theastrophotographerjudah9421]

I've come across a problem. I filmed a part of the Sun in H-Alpha, I tracked the video in PIPP, and my next step was to stack the video in AutoStakkert. I hit Analyse, and wait for that to finish. Then, I hit "Place AP Grid," but the squares would not appear on the Sun. I tried every option to make them appear, the only thing that would work was to put the Min Bright to 0, but that would put all the squares on the entire image, and not only the Sun. I've been at this for about 2 hours, and I don't know what to do

[@astrokev99]

That sounds strange . I've never seen that. You could try adding the APs manually, just by clicking on the image. In my experience you do not need to add hundreds of APs, just cover the main areas of interest. Hope that helps

[@AndrewMurphy8383]

what is a level three member

[@bobmurphy9380]

Hi, where did you adjust the high contrast. You stretched the image and then your mouse stayed on quick pics while you said you were adjusting the high contrast to focus.

[@Seafox0011]

8:27 he says and uses the (histogram) 'curves' to adjust 'to the highest contrast possible'. And then at 9:30 he does and 'auto-stretch' (histogram button) on the defocused live capture.

[@beatletoons6645]

in case you had not noticed , but there are structures on the surface of the sun . The sun is not a giant ball of fire , it is an electromagnetic sphere , the surface is not hot and there is a race of beings that reside there , i cant tell you if they are human or not . Another thing you may have noticed the sun is not 92 million miles away it is less than 100 miles as the moon is they are ( along with the stars ) are under the dome . This is all fact , , if you have nice close ups of the sun , take a look at them with a webcam and zoom in on the surface if you can , you should see some amazing details . There is a giant alien looking structure that is made from what appears to be a giant white patch of terrain which can only be seen clearly from a certain distance above . If you cant manage to find the structures , down load some images of the sun from the net and observe those or find the book titled , observing the sun using corona telescopes , inside that book there are many close ups of these structures although they dont tell you what you are seeing but these structures are the same in every photo found of the sun no matter who takes the photos meaning the sun is not a ball of fire and is not spinning , its the same surface all the time , if you still cant find them , i have a video on youtube i will post a link below . thanks kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGbFdn6QnJ15f5o

[@AD-dv3sw]

What is the advantage of using PS over AS3 for making the master flat frame?

[@WoodlandHillsCameraTelescopes]

AS3 has nothing to track off and ends up creating a misaligned frame that does not match the original file that its calibrating against.

[@astrokev99]

Thank you I was wondering the same. I'm not sure I understood the answer though! I've always used AS3 and results seem fine

[@jasondain8713]

Is this data still available?

[@CIA_Is_aTerrorist_Orginization]

kind of disappointed to find out the sun isn't actually red/yellow