The Sun 29-6-08 13.33 UT

Pretty cloudy and windy here today with showery rain, but occasionally a clear window is passing over now. Pretty low activity on the disk with a thin curving filament near the south east limb and perhaps the last traces of the filaproms on the south west limb. Proms are generally small and quiescent with two main groups opposite each other on the north and south limbs.

The Sun 26-6-08 7.27 UT

I was lucky to catch a half hour of good clear weather early this morning before heavy rain rolled in for the rest of the day (and its still pouring down now at 20.10 pm!!) . Plenty of nice proms scattered around the limb with the main one from yesterday still active on the west limb with 2-3 small filaments nearby.

The Sun 25-6-08 8.38 UT and 16.37 UT

I literally had a two minute slot in the cloud to take a quick look at 8.38 UT today before rain and cloud closed in. Got eight afocals and hoped for the best as there was no time for a visual or written record. Late in the afternoon at 16.37 I had much better seeing and grabbed a few images of the disk, proms and filaments. Good to see some increased activity today with some larger proms on the east, west and south limbs with two clear filaments near the SW limb along with AR 999 putting on a final show with some plage and two thin curving AR filaments.

8.38UT

16.37 UT

The Sun 24-6-08

Very little time to get a good look at the sun today and poor conditions with lots of cloud. Counted 7 proms in total all quite small, no surface detail could be seen.

The Sun 23-6-08

No pictures today as there is nothing of any great consequence to report. You could in fact look at yesterdays image and carry that forward to today! Just two very small proms on the south limb and one on the north. AR999 is fading fast and no longer represented as a spot.

The Sun 22-6-08 15.36 UT

Tricky trying to photograph the sun in 61+ mph winds today! Its been blowing a gale all day and very cloudy too. I had to remove the PST sun shield to prevent the whole scope and mount from taking off! Managed a half hour bouncing view in a brief clear-sky window and recorded a very quiet sun. Only very low prominences on the south, west and north limbs today with no clear surface activity. AR999 is still there as faint plage according to Pete Lawrence's images on the CN solar forum, but the main spot has faded.

The Sun 20-6-08 17.45 UT

Not great conditions for imaging with a PST due to the wispy cloud crossing the disk all the time today which created some odd colour cast effects in the processing. Some really nice prom activity on the south and north east limbs though with a large hedgerow prominence group on the north east limb. AR999 seemed to have vanished or at least the PST could not resolve it now that it is so small and insignificant. Happy Solstice to all!

Ths Sun 19-6-08 14.10 and 16.27 UT

AR999 is still visible as a clear sunspot today. Caught it at 16.27 UT with a small AR filament passing close to it. Only small proms visible today on the south, east and north limbs.

The Sun 16-6-08 6.54 UT and 19.04 UT

Up early before work and the sky was clear blue, but the seeing was quite poor. There was a very large prom on the SSE limb with another growing on exactly the opposite side of the disk. Two faint and very short filaments were recorded along with the extremely faint remains of 998. A new active region (999) was announced on Spaceweather.com and this can just be seen faintly on the east limb. At 19.04 UT I took some more photos through wispy cloud. The large prom has grown and is putting on quite a display with fine strands of plasma in the curtain. Two distinctive long filaments have appeared to the west of the large prom.

6.54UT

19.54UT

The Sun 15-6-08 15.08 UT

Weather just cleared up nicely here for the evening so I dashed out to get a record. The big prom is still towering over the east limb and there is quite a collection of filaments close to the east limb too. Experimenting with black and white afocals I can pretty much get decent focus and detail each session now and it really helps to bring out the filament detail. Even the very faint remains of 998 are showing up just up from the centre of the coloured mono shot. A big thanks to Nick Howes for letting me use his Levels settings in CS2 to colour the mono shots.

The Sun 14-6-08 10.32 UT

Tricky looking for a hole in the clouds to image through today, but in between them there are moments of really good clarity. Lovely flame prom on the south east limb. One fairly clear but short filament close to this prom. The filament train from yesterday has faded. AR998 is dissolving into nothingness but could just be picked up in a high contrast monochrome view along with some filaments on the east limb at 17.02 UT

17.02UT AR998 and filaments to east

A crop of the above showing more detail in 998

The Sun 13-6-08 15.46UT

Another day of contrasts with overcast cloud this morning which dissipated into a nice sunny evening with a fresh wind. On the sun there is a long but faint chain of filaments heading out over the east limb where some small prominences can be seen. The filament is visible as a disjointed filaprom. Active region 998 is still visible as small areas of plage, but the sunspots have vanished. A small arch prom can be seen on the north limb. I experimeted again today with 1/30 sec. black and white photos to capture the proms and was very pleased to pick up the faint filament chain and the AR in the same shot.

Black and white 1/30 sec - filaments and AR 998

The Sun 12-6-08 8.34 and 17.05 UT

A windy day with clouds scudding past for most of the morning and afternoon, but it all cleared up by 5pm and the seeing got much better. Two disks are included below to show how the proms rotate with the limb over an eight and a half hour period. Only very small proms are visible and active region 998. AR998 still showed one large clear spot in the morning, but this seemed to have faded by 5pm.

Also included below is the result of some tweaking in Paint Shop Pro of a black and white image. I wanted to see if I could bring out more surface detail in the monochrome image and this certainly seems to be the case. Whereas my colour disk shots are taken at 1/4 or 1/6 sec the black and white was at 1/30 sec. Two faint filaments have become very clear in monochrome at the left and right extremes of the disk. These were confirmed with images from the Big Bear Observatory as real and not products of my processing. Looks like I am going to have to take colour and monochrome shots from now on to catch all the detail!

8.34UT 17.05UT
Monochrome - note the darker filaments to left and right edges

The Sun 11-6-08

Cloudier today and not so warm. I was lucky to catch a hole in the building greyness to capture a couple of images of the disk and main proms. The active region now has a designation - 998 - and is still very bright with clear spots. The main proms were on the east limb once more and the largest prom resembled a hovering bird of prey.

The Sun 10-6-08 17.04 UT

Another warm and sunny day with clear blue skies and no haze. Good to see some surface activity again with the new active region near the NE limb showing two clear spots today and some plage brightening with a small A class flare early in the morning. Proms are on the east and south limbs. The southernmost prom in the east appears as a filaprom crossing the limb.

The Sun 9-6-08 16.14 UT

Managed to pick up the new active region that has appeared as an area of plage brightness on the NE limb together with todays proms to the east and north. Had some strange moire banding effects appearing on the close ups which may be due to some thin cloud crossing, dirt on the eyepiece, or a poorly aligned camera against the eyepiece - not sure what causes it!

You can clearly see the new active region brightening at the bottom of the limb in this shot. Very clear prom detail too! Also the faint banding on the suns surface from the moire effect.

A nice spike prom on the north limb..................

The two main proms and small, very faint active region..........

The Sun 8-6-08 7.50UT and 14.18UT

Really hot and clear this morning. The same general prom groups that were visible yesterday are still there on the south and east limbs. The east prom, although large, seems to be fading now and may not last the day out. No surface activity.

An update at 14.18 UT. This is the prom that was at the top (south) in my first disk shot above, now on the east limb it has changed quite a bit and grown in size.

The big prom from this morning has now decreased in size but is still quite active...........

A wider shot of the above area taking in the short filament on the NW limb........................