From: "doobisary" <tjp314@pacbell.net>

Date: May 22, 2012 10:54:58 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Annular eclipse, how to process?

Hi all:

I took my wife and some friends to a hillside just about a mile south of Newcastle, Utah, about a mile from the centerline, for the eclipse this past Sunday.

For my video, I used a Coronado Solarmax II 60mm H-Alpha refractor and a Scorpion monochrome 1600x1200 pixel camera, on a Super Polaris mount with iOptron Gotonova goto kit installed, to take a 7000+ frame video of the eclipse from start to finish, at one frame per second.  

We had NO clouds at all.  Good seeing!, and caught the entire eclipse from start to finish.  Sunset started just as fourth contact was occuring, and I stopped the video after the last of the sun had disappeared below the horizon.

I'd love to process this into a distributable video of the entire event, but the raw video is about 34GB.

So, I'm all ears if someone has any suggestions.  Milton, what would you do?

As for the event:  It was beautiful.  The seeing was so good that detail on the sun held throughout, even at sunset (though it was getting dim then, and so I increased the brightness gain and along with it the noise).  3rd contact was especially spectacular, because prominences on that side of the sun persisted for some time after 3rd contact.

While I was imaging, my wife and friends were viewing the eclipse through a Tak FC 76 fluorite refractor that I bought literally on my way out from Los Angeles the day before!  There I was, minding my own business, when someone on Cloudy Nights posted about the scope being advertised on Craigslist in Rialto.  That was sort of on my way, so I stopped by to check it out, and ended up buying it.  That's the second time I've bought a scope on one of my trips to Utah!  

Anyway, I made a solar filter for the Tak the morning before the eclipse.  It was just about a 2" aperture over the hole in the lens cap, but the definition on sunspots was amazing.  My wife, who usually doesn't get interested in viewing through my telescopes, essentially used the Tak throughout the event Sunday.

I'm in Tahoe for a science meeting until Thursday, then it's off to RTMC on Friday.  But if I can figure out how to process a version of the video that isn't too big to post but doesn't compromise it too much, I'd like to do that.

-Tim.