Sunnymeade Astro

This Blog Has Moved !!

2011-08-18T12:24:00.000+01:00

Hi Everyone

Just to let you know that Sunnymeade Astro has moved over to a Wordpress blog here http://sunnymeade.wordpress.com/ Please update your favourites/bookmarks with the new page address. I look forward to seeing you all over there.

Best regards

Mark

The Sun 13-6-09 - Large arch prominence in NE

2009-06-14T16:41:00.002+01:00

Only had a short time to image the sun today, but the brief view was worth the effort as there was a large arch prominence on the NE limb. No active regions visible in Ha light but AR11020 is over on the west limb now and extremely small. I am amazed this tiny flux area got an NOAA designation as it was very weak and had no strong spots.

The Sun 4-6-09 - AR11019 Breaking Up

2009-06-04T15:53:00.000+01:00

AR11019 appears to be dispersing with the main spots much smaller today and the group becoming widely dispersed. Seeing was terrible along with transparency and this made processing quite a chore.

The Sun 2-6-09 - AR11019 Sunspots Developing

2009-06-02T15:45:00.001+01:00

AR11019 continues to grow with the main sunspots noticeably larger now and the two polarities dividing and moving apart. There was a nice tall flame prom near the AR in the NE and another fainter group in the SE.

The Sun 1-6-09 - New AR 11019 has Sunspots!

2009-06-01T15:26:00.003+01:00

The new AR in the NE developed fast overnight and now has two large sunspots and numerous pores, it showed up partcularly well with the Herschel Wedge and stacked barlows (2x and 2.5x) and also in CaK. Proms were in the N and SE.

The Sun 31-5-09 - Spectacular tall prominence in NW!

2009-05-31T15:10:00.000+01:00

Set up for imaging at 9.55UT and was amazed to see a tall hook shaped prominence in the NW. It looked like a cloud capped spike to start with then the "cloud" slowly curved over to re-connect with the surface. It had faded rapidly by 11.00UT and was gone by 15.00UT. The new AR in the NE still has only one main spot and about 3-4 pores. Tried the Herschel wedge today for the first time imaging and was very pleased with the results, clear granulation, sunspots and pores.

The Sun 30-5-09 - Small new AR in NE

2009-05-30T18:33:00.001+01:00

The returning AR 11016 has finally decayed along with the small AR seen last on the 24th. Now there is a new SC24 spot in the NE which already shows one spot. Only three very small proms on show.

The Sun 24-5-09 - AR's and Proms

2009-05-24T18:23:00.001+01:00

AR11016 is still present with its AR filament. The small new AR in the east still has no spots. Small proms only in N, S , E, and W.

The Sun 23-5-09 - New small AR in east

2009-05-23T18:03:00.002+01:00

A small new AR has appeared in the east which is currently un-numbered by NOAA but appears to have two fledgling spots forming. The returned AR 11016 is still viisble with its AR filament. Proms are in the west, east and south. The western group has a complex hedgerow of multiple arches.

The Sun 21-5-09 - AR11016 and 11017

2009-05-21T18:15:00.001+01:00

The returning AR11016 is on the central meridian now and sports a nice dark active region filament with obvious barbs connecting to the surface. AR11017 is over on the west limb now and about to vanish over the limb. Two fairly insignificant proms in the west.

The Sun 17-5-08 - 3 Active Regions still visible

2009-05-17T16:19:00.007+01:00

A lucky break in the cloud at midday allowed me to grab a few quick images in CaK and Ha of the active regions. All three are still visible with the new one (11016 returning) in the east now visible in Ha too and showing some flux detail, but no spots so far. There is still a spot in 11017 along with some small pores and the AR to the west of 11017 continues to disperse and decay. There is a tall spike prominence on the west limb. All images with north at top and east to left.

The Sun 16-5-09 - 3 active regions on the sun

2009-05-16T23:07:00.003+01:00

For the first time in around a year there are now three active regions on the sun. The two SC24 regions are now in the north west and include 11017 which still displays a couple of small spots and the decaying companion active region further west which is very dispersed. The new active region which has just appeared in the north east is actually a repeat showing for AR 11016 according to the NOAA - this is an SC23 AR. Prominences are generally small today. The Ha view of 11017 and its companion is still quite impressive with lots of fibrils and small AR filaments.

The Sun 12-5-09 - Last views before the rain and cloud!

2009-05-12T18:53:00.000+01:00

Its forecast for solid rain and cloud over at least the next four days so I was happy to get a final view of the active regions today after work. AR1 continues to decay while AR2 is hanging in there with a single spot on view in CaK. A nice spiky prom close to the AR's on the east limb.

The Sun 11-5-09 - Active Regions and filaments

2009-05-11T18:37:00.001+01:00

Lovely clear blue sky today after work although the seeing was a bit turbulent. The two active regions continue their trek westward across the disk and AR1 is now breaking up quite a bit as it decays. AR2 continues to spread and there is still a definite single sunspot present when viewed in CaK. There is a nice dark filament separating the two AR's and some good proms in the east, west and south. A great day's activity !

The Sun 10-5-09 - New sunspot in second AR

2009-05-10T20:11:00.004+01:00

Just had a single five minute break in the cloud today which let enough sun through to get an image although I was still shooting through thin cloud to capture the footage. This is 300 of 1200 frames stacked. The detail is surprisingly good with very well defined plage and a sunspot can clearly be seen in the plage of the second AR that is just rounding the limb. Flare activity continued today with most in the A Class range and one reaching B0 Class. DMK41 and Lunt CaK 100mm

The Sun 9-5-09 - A Class Flare seen in CaK

2009-05-10T00:27:00.002+01:00

Had to image in two separate sessions today due to intervening cloud and rain. Caught the Ha and CaK disks this morning at 11.30BST then imaged the active regions in more detail between 17.10 and 18.10 BST. The new AR is further round in the NE quarter now and the second can just be seen right on the limb. The first AR (nominally 11017 if it forms a sunspot) consists of two primary S- shaped strands of plage. While watching the active regions at 17.15 BST (16.15 UT) I noticed an area brightening rapidly in the plage. I dashed inside to confirm it was a flare on the GOES X-Ray flux monitor and it was peaking at A-Class, this was a first for me watching a flare brighten live! This second AR has been a hot bed of activity over the last 24 hours with many small eruptive prominences. The A-Class flare was subsequently confirmed by Thomas Ashcraft in Mexico who caught it as a radio burst at 16.14 UT.

Solar Radio Burst Image courtesy of Thomas Ashcraft, Mexico

The Sun 8-5-09 - New Active Region - 11017 ?

2009-05-09T16:35:00.003+01:00

A new active region has rounded the NE limb and its an SC24 cycle region! Actually there will be two on the earth side of the sun soon as we have been following their progress from the far side via the Stereo Behind satellite. The second one looks like it will be brighter and more active. Two linear stripes of plage make up the new AR but no sunspot has been seen so far.

Th Sun 6-5-09 - Disk and Proms

2009-05-09T16:25:00.002+01:00

Just managed to catch these late and low on the horizon at 17.50 UT. Nice set of small wispy proms in the west with some detailed structure plus another set of low arches in the east - west is at bottom of images.

The Sun 3-5-09

2009-05-09T16:20:00.002+01:00

Grabbed some late images after the cloud cleared tonight. Not much to see except the main prom and a couple of faint small filaments.

The Sun 2-5-09 - Impressive Loop Prom!

2009-05-09T15:36:00.004+01:00

Had some better than average seeing this morning at 8.30 UT and I couldn't believe the great view via the PST with very sharp and large proms in each quarter of the disk. There was a perfect double loop in the north west, the best of its type that I have seen so far. I took a series of disk and prom shots between 8.34 - 9.15 UT.

Later on I made a short 25 frame animation of the main loop between 10.34 and 11.10 running at 1/15th sec. This was a slow burning prom with very little change in shape except at the apex of the arch where the plasma curls over. It looks like the prom changed shape and got more active after I was imaging judging by later images and animations posted on the Cloud Nights Solar Forum. Lots of cloud after 10.45 caused some brightness changes in the animation as a few of the frames were shot through a thin cloud layer.

The Sun 29-4-09 - Sunspots!!

2009-04-29T22:46:00.004+01:00

For the first time in a long while a decent set of sunspots (NOAA 11016) appeared this morning on the south west limb. The polarity suggests this is another SC23 sunspot group, so we are not really seeing a rise in SC24 activity yet but rather the last gasps of SC23. The plage was very bright visually in the PST and the active region developed quickly in size and shape. The sunspot group is Zurich Cao class. I was imaging at 16.20UT through high white cloud and the seeing was unbelievably bad with the surface in constant fluid motion and haze crossing at all times. It was very difficult to compensate for the constantly changing brightness levels and most video runs came out over or underexposed. High magnification imaging was basically pointless!

The Sun 26-4-09 - Low activity again!

2009-04-26T23:02:00.002+01:00

Its been a dull week with almost no surface activity and only very small prominences, solar minimum strikes again! Just one fairly fast changing prom in the north and a needle like spike prom in the south which was very short lived. The weak flux in the north east continues to decline and I expect it will have vanished altogether by tomorrow. DMK21/DMK41/PST

The Sun 25-4-09 - Small proms and weak AR

2009-04-26T22:50:00.002+01:00

Cloudy all day today with quite poor seeing. These images were shot through gaps in the cloud between 12.43 and 14.47 BST. The proms were all extremely small as you can see on the full disk shot. The small active flux area in the NE is still there, but I expect it to fade fast now as it is a very weak feature. DMK41/DMK21/PST/Lunt Cak B1200.

The Sun 23-4-09 - First light for the Lunt B1200 CaK

2009-04-24T00:08:00.005+01:00

I had just 15 minutes of sun this afternoon to test the new filter and that was shooting through thin hazy cloud low on the horizon too! I was amazed when the image popped up on the laptop and revealed a relatively sharp and detailed surface. I had always thought large apertures played a big part in letting more light and resolution come through in bad seeing and this test proved my theory immediately. The filter was attached to my Vixen 115s APO stopped down to 100mm. With no activity on the suns surface at the moment I wasn't expecting a lot, but even so two areas of plage are showing up, the one on the right clearly has two tiny pores in it and the one on the left may be a new AR rounding the NE limb. The scale of magnification was large to start with due to the 890mm focal length of the Vixen and I doubt I will be needing a barlow very often when solar maximum arrives.

Lunt CaK B1200 - New addition to the Imaging Family

2009-04-21T16:09:00.002+01:00

As the first part of the general upgrade to my solar imaging equipment I took delivery today of the Lunt CaK B1200 solar diagonal. The Euro price for this unit is currently £977 without shipping while the US price is £603 with shipping - guess where I went shopping! I ordered direct from Lunt in Tucson, Arizona and the unit was in the UK three days later!! The diagonal will be used on my Equinox ED80 and the Vixen 115s (stopped down to 100mm) refractors. Typically, just as the diagonal arrived, the sky clouded over almost immediately so no chance to test it today. There was very little to test it on anyway with just a tiny area of plage in the NW and no proms at all.

The next part of the upgrade will be a Solarscope SF-70 70mm Ha filter unit or the new Lunt 100mm Ha telescope. Not too sure which to go for yet. The Solarscope optical quality is renowned and well tested by the likes of Pete Lawrence, it is clearly a pedigree solar unit. The Lunts have got off to a shaky start with the LS60T and LS50 filters which do not appear to show much more than you can see in a PST and the tuners are certainly far less responsive. They have also failed so far to get rid of the uneven illumination effects unlike the Solarscope filters which have totally even illumination and full-size etalons. Unless the Lunt 100's get rave reviews and I see some stunning images I will be getting a Solarscope SF-70 in September or October.

The Sun 19-4-09 - Emerging Flux Region in NE and a few Proms

2009-04-19T22:29:00.004+01:00

The sky was deceptively blue and cloud free today, but the seeing on the suns surface was a shimmering mess most of the time. Even so, the emerging flux region in the NE was a lot clearer today and appeared to have a very dark core - sunspot forming ? The proms were very faint with the slender spike in the SW being the best to view. There was a persistent small bright plage area at the center of the disk which has lasted two days now, but it has no related flux or filaments forming. Images taken between 13.37 and 15.22 GMT. DMK41/DMK21/PST.

The Sun 18-4-09 - Very poor seeing and minor activity

2009-04-18T22:19:00.001+01:00

Terrible seeing all day today, not what was forecast at all! This made processing the images interesting in a masochistic sort of way. The new emerging flux region in the NE is very weak and probably won't form any sunspots. The proms were quite small and generally very faint. Images taken 14.35-15.02 with DMK41/DMK21/PST. On all shots north is left and east at bottom. New AR is at bottom left on the disks.

The Sun 13-4-09 - Yesterdays Prom Lives On

2009-04-13T17:23:00.002+01:00

Cloudier today and the seeing has deteriorated to its usual average state after the great visibility of the last two days. The exact same area of the limb which produced yesterdays main prom activity is dominated today by what must surely be the same prominence, but now seen more sideways on to the viewer and slightly larger in size too. A high curving arch is crowned by a fringe of plasma while another arch to the right is interacting over the limb. This was the main feature today with no surface activity once more. Images taken 12.15 - 12.30. DMK21/PST

The Sun 12-4-09 - Animated Prom

2009-04-12T22:53:00.003+01:00

After the full disk array of proms around the limb yesterday today was quite disappointing with just one moderately sized flame type prom on the south limb. Having taken a quick set of images I was ready to pack up by 11am, but it was just too tempting to make a short animation of that prom so I carried on taking video runs every 2 minutes for the next hour. The seeing was occasionally very wobbly, but the sun was blazing in a clear blue sky so it was too good an opportunity to miss. In all the animation consists of 42 frames compiled in Animation Shop 3. Each video run was 500 frames in length and each avi was then stacked in Registax 5. I used PSPX to layer and align the 42 frames. All taken on DMK21 via PST between 10.57 and 12.01 GMT.

The Sun 11-4-09 - Good visibility = great proms!

2009-04-11T20:55:00.003+01:00

Looks like my request in the last post was answered! This morning the atmosphere was indeed scrubbed up to around 11.30am with great transparency and above average seeing. These conditions allow the PST to "see" much more detail than normal and the proms generally look more detailed with finer strands of plasma. You can also shoot much faster in great weather with the exposures at max speed on the DMK21 and DMK41. A great day for it too with extended prom groups in SW, NW and NE. The proms in the NW and NE were very faint while the SW proms appeared bright visually. No surface action at all and none predicted by the satellites on the far side of the sun either so it looks like a dry period is ahead in terms of active regions. All images taken with the DMK41 and PST this time. South is to the right and west is up.

The Sun 5-4-09 - Nice prom in NE

2009-04-05T16:53:00.003+01:00

Somebody needs to scrub the atmosphere! Today was almost a repeat of yesterday with a clear blue sky very early (at 7am according to my wife - I was still asleep!) then conditions deteriorated quickly with two cloud layers at different heights crossing from the south and west. All the images were done through a milky haze. The best prom was in the NE - a really nice large flame prom with fine vertical strands. Other proms were present in the SE and SW, but were very faint. The decaying flux area in the NW could just be seen right on the limb and there was a small spot of plage in the SE quarter.

The Sun 4-4-09 - Proms

2009-04-04T19:20:00.003+01:00

Main proms in NE, NW, SE and SW once more. The main area of decaying flux is in the NW. I only managed to image the disk and two main proms at 13.10 before the seeing deteriorated dramatically for the rest of the day.

The Sun 2-4-09 - Proms AR and Filaments

2009-04-02T19:12:00.000+01:00

Not great seeing today but there were some nice clear filaments around for a change. The AR is in the NW quarter now and slowly decaying. Main proms are in the NW, NE and SE.

The Sun 29-03-09 - More fun with animations!

2009-03-29T18:52:00.001+01:00

Main proms today lie in the NE, NW, SE and SW. The NW group caught my eye in particular as it was fairly dynamic and complex so I decided to try another animation over a few hours with video runs taken roughly every 5 miniutes when cloud and seeing allowed. The animations below are running at 1/20th sec and consist of 34 frames with footage spanning 12.36-14.54. Shooting with cnsistent gamma, gain and exposure settings gave a definite improvement in the overall smoothness of the animations an is certainly the way to go. The processing has also been perfected in Animation Shop and PSPX now so that I can get consistent results. All I need now is a wider aperture and some quality optics for some stunning animations !

The Sun 28-3-09 - AR and Proms

2009-03-28T18:22:00.005Z

A nice collection of small proms fringing most of the NE limb today with the other main proms in the SE and SW. There is an emerging flux region on the NE limb but it looks quite weak and may not produce any sunspots. Over in the NW are the 2-3 small dost of plage from the last EFR which has not developed and will disappear off the limb in the next day.

The Sun 26-3-09 - Possible New AR Rounding the NE Limb

2009-03-26T22:21:00.003Z

Loads of prominence activity on the NE limb today and the GOES X Ray Flux Monitor indicated a B Class Flare at around 2.30am. The small proto AR that has survived as two dots of plage in the northern hemisphere is still there in the NW quarter now, but doesn't look as though it will develop spots. Hopefully we should see what is causing all the activity on the NE tomorrow!!

The Sun 22-3-09

2009-03-22T22:16:00.001Z

Not as much activity today with just one main group of proms in the west (top of disk image), all the others being quite small, faint and impossible to image in the awful seeing. The disk shows a tiny area of flux developing in the NE quarter (bottom left).

The Sun 21-3-09 - Plasmoid Sphere and Prom Animation

2009-03-21T21:58:00.000Z

Some nice sizeable prom groups in the west today. The largest in the NW consisted of a high curtain of plasma and I put together a longer animation of the activity. I have the frame alignment procedure sorted now and just need to grab a consistent set of images next time using the same gamma/gain settings so that I don't get the flickering brightness changes. This animation suffers from poor seeing but I thought I would post it up so you can see the amazing leaping tadpole! Watch the upper left surface. The tadpole seems to be triggered by the foot of the uppermost prom re-connecting with the surface - not sure what this activity represents in real terms, but on reading up I discovered that this is probably what is called a plasmoid - ie. a globule of hot plasma. It travels faster than the plasma in the main loops and has a self contained magnetic field. 13 Frames between 10.52 and 12.20 UT - processed in Jasc Animation Shop 3.

The Sun 20-3-09 - Fun with Animations!

2009-03-20T21:42:00.003Z

Once again there are proms in each quarter. The main multiple arch prom in the south was quiescent but changing form quite rapidly so I made a montage and short animation of the activity which can be seen at the link below. The prom animation is just 8 frames combined in Animation Shop 3. The sequence represents three and a half hours of activity in the prom.

The Sun 19-3-09 - Deja Vu

2009-03-19T21:35:00.000Z

Almost a repeat of yesterdays activity with proms in each quarter of the disk, but much smaller examples today.

The Sun 18-3-09

2009-03-18T21:25:00.000Z

Nice to see a good spread of proiminences all around the limb again today with a group in each quarter.

The Sun 15-3-09 Two small active regions through the murk

2009-03-15T21:24:00.002Z

Although certainly sunny the weather wasn't great for imaging with no real blue sky on view, just a spread of milky white thin cloud and haze. I thought imaging would be hopeless today but I had a look on the laptop via the DMK41 camera and was surprised to see some detail on the surface in the form of two very small bright patches of plage marking two emerging flux regions in the north and north-west. The main prominences were on the SW limb, a long fringe of low complex arches and hedgerow types which all appeared very faint. Exposure times were very low to compensate for the poor visibilty and gamma/gain adjustment was tricky. Even so I was quite pleased to pull some decent shots out of the murk with the two flux areas showing clearly and the proms looking very detailed for just 700 frames with 230 stacked. All pictures taken with PST and DMK41.

St. David's Day Sun 1/3/09

2009-03-01T21:28:00.002Z

Lots of prominence activity all round the solar disk today. Two main complex groups can be seen on the east and west limbs with quite faint arches, spikes and plasma curtain proms. Also in the east, close to the limb, can be seen two small spots of plage which have some very light flux when magnified and these could possibly be the precursor to a new active region. There was another area like this close to the west limb which is probably the fading AR from last week. Good to see activity picking up again! Images taken between 10.43 and 11.35 UT with PST and DMK41/DMK21.

The Sun 21/2/09 - Still Quiet!

2009-02-21T21:53:00.001Z

Managed to image the sun this morning. It is still very quiet up there with only a couple of small prominences and a very short filament. There was a hint of a new active region on the eastern limb, but it looks like it will be small and very short lived again.

Comet 2007/N3 Lulin - 20/2/09

2009-02-20T21:27:00.003Z

Unexpected clear night tonight! Comet Lulin makes its closest approach to Earth on the evening of 24/2/09 and with the weather prospects looking cloudy for the next week I figured it was now or never if I wanted to observe and image the comet. Looking east into the light pollution from Shrewsbury at 11pm I could make out the faint grey smudge that was Lulin via the 8x50 binoculars just to the left of Leo's hind leg. I had work the next day but had to take the chance offered so I set the alarm for 2.30am. Never managed to really fall asleep and got up at 2.30am to set up the EQ6 plus Canon 350d and 70-300mm Tamron zoom. By 3am Leo was high in the south and Lulin could clearly be seen naked eye using averted vision. I had all sorts of disasters setting up including knocking the mount after I had perfectly polar aligned it !! The headtorch decided it would pick tonight to run out of battery life too. Took ages to achieve satisfactory focus and then the zoom lens misted over and I had to waste time heating it with the dew heater. I eventually got a few short sequences run off at 1 min and 2 min exposure duration for 13 and 16 mins, but by 5.30am the sky was noticeably brightening in the east and the exposures were washed out.

I processed the images with Deepskystacker (DSS) and Photoshop CS2. It was my first time using DSS but it is very easy to learn. I stacked the comet shots to trail the stars and to leave the stars as normal . Not really expecting much from such short overall exposure times I was pleasantly surprised to see the comet and its tail quite clearly. Here are the results...........

The Sun - 7th February - Almost Too Quiet!

2009-02-07T17:45:00.002Z

Almost didn't bother today as a quick visual through the PST showed that there was very little activity, but curiosity got the better of me so I hauled out the imaging stuff and took a few shots. Seeing was very unstable and watery, but there was a nice short filament on the north limb with an arching prom in the NE and another small group of proms in the SE. I could see one small dot of plage in the SE quarter. Its been quiet like this for two months now and it still feels like the sun is stuck firmly in the trough of solar minimum....... PST/DMK21/DMK41

The Sun 18-1-09 First imaging session since Boxing Day!

2009-01-18T14:57:00.002Z

The weather has been appalling for solar observation over the last three weeks and although I managed to sketch some details on a couple of days, imaging has been impossible. This morning was clear and cold though with no clouds so I set up early. The seeing was below average but despite this there was some decent detail in the small prominences on show and there was also a small active region in the north east which appears to be unnumbered even though it clearly had spots visible yesterday.

The Sun 26-12-08 - Boxing Day Sun is Active!

2008-12-27T15:47:00.005Z

This was the first clear day of the Christmas holiday. It started cloudy and unpromising, but got progressively clearer from the east during late morning. After a walk along the canal to exercise the dog and shift some of the Christmas dinner excess I set up at 12.30 just as the sun was clearing the neighbours conservatory roof. At this time of the year with the sun so low in the south I have just an hour and a half window where I can image the sun before it dips into trees after clearing the neighbours buildings.

The wide arc of closely spaced arch prominences in the north east was still putting on a fine show with some amazing fine detail. There was another sizeable but faint complex of prominences in the SE and NW. A small active region could be seen right on the SE limb, this is possibly AR1009 forming. North to right and East at top in the following images....

The Sun 7-12-08

2008-12-07T19:39:00.001Z

Pretty much a repeat of yesterdays activity with the main prominence arches still visible in the NE together with the dark surface filament. Much better visibility today and the detail in the proms is sharper.

The Sun 6-12-08

2008-12-06T18:24:00.003Z

Frequently terrible seeing today meant that close up images of the prominences turned out less sharp. The sun struggles to clear the low altitude murk in our atmosphere at this time of year and this has a great impact on the quality of the final image. There was an impressive arch in the NE today with a fine dark filament on the limb immediately north of it. Lesser prominences elsewhere and most of those in the east.

Lunar Occultation of Venus and Conjunction too!

2008-12-01T22:38:00.003Z

At 15.48UT Venus was occulted by the moon low in the south. I missed the start of the occultation while I was at work, but the weather was cloudy at the time so it was not visible. I left work 16.45, looked up and was amazed to see the thin crescent moon and Jupiter clearly on display with Venus hidden by the moons disk. I raced home to try and catch Venus appearing on the western side of the moon at 17.17UT. I was very lucky to catch Venus appearing again right on the edge of the moon, a beautiful sight! The trio of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon were all very close in conjunction and made a superb image. You can see two of Jupiter's moons top right either side of Jupiter. Canon 350D, Tamron 70-300 zoom, Canon 18-55 zoom. ISO 200, 4 secs.

Comet C/2006 W3/Christensen 21.13UT

2008-11-30T22:19:00.005Z

This comet and C/2006 OF2/Broughton are the two brightest comets available for imaging at the moment at magnitude 10. I decided to try Christensen as it was well placed directly above the house near the constellation Cepheus. The evening looked good to start with, cold and clear skies all around. I was set up by 8.10UT with the Canon 350D and Equinox ED80 setup. I had intended on taking an hours worth of images, but had forgotten the intricacies of setting up the dastardly piece of Chinese gadgetry that is the timer remote release. Having failed to remember NOT to use the numbering sequence, but instead set the number of exposures to infinity I happily left the whole setup whirring away and returned to find it had only taken 12x 1 minute exposures - AAAAARRGH !!! Fortunately cloud had rolled in anyway so I would have been foiled by the atmosphere in any case. Thinking it was a waste of time I ran the 12 images through DeepSky Stacker to see what showed up and to my amazement there was a tiny fuzzy green blob sitting amongst a rich starfield!!! Green fuzzy visible just to the left of centre........

Cropped version - comet at centre

Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter

2008-11-28T21:07:00.003Z

This was a trial run in advance of the highly anticipated conjunction of the moon, Venus and Jupiter in the early evening sky on Monday 1st December at around 5pm. I wanted to try and capture the planets reflected in the canal water and just about managed it before the canal was plunged into darkness. Jupiter at top and Venus below. Canon 350D, ISO 400, 8 seconds.

The Sun 28-11-08 - Large Filament in NE

2008-11-28T20:57:00.002Z

Bright clear and sunny up to midday today then a milky cloud layer appeared from the south and ruined the seeing by the time I was imaging. Still managed to catch some decent images though just before the cloud rolled in for the rest of the day. Only one decent flame type prom on show in the NE with all the others being quite faint. The large filament first seen yesterday is still on show and a bit longer now in the NE close to the flame prom. No other surface detail was evident.

The Sun 25-11-2008 - Fine Feathery Proms

2008-11-25T17:36:00.005Z

Gorgeous crisp, clear and cold sunny day today. First chance I have had to image the sun since the 7th November! Quite tricky to image now as the sun is low in the south all afetrnoon and reaches its max height just as it goes behind the neighbours tree. I also have our own trees to contend with so there was a lot of mount moving going on. All worth it though as there was a fine display of proms in the north west which showed very delicate detail in the DMK21 at high magnification. A small filament in the NE close to the only other main prom on display today. Great to be imaging/observing again !!

The Sun 7-11-08

2008-11-08T17:12:00.002Z

Managed to get some images in between the fast moving clouds today. AR 11007 has just gone over the limb but a small remnant can still be seen in Ha and CaK on the SW limb. On the NE limb in CaK an area of plage brightening was showing up which may be a proto active region forming although there are no sunspots so far. Another possible area of plage lay to the north, but was very faint. There was a lovely tall flame prom in the east at 10.30 but by the time I was imaging it had reduced in size to a small bright claw (bottom right in image below). There was no surface detail in the Ha view.

The Sun 1-11-08 - AR11007 starting to decay

2008-11-01T14:58:00.006Z

Got a brief window for observing this morning before 11am then cloud rolled in. AR11007 is still visible but the main spots and pores are much smaller and difficult to resolve. The same filaments from yesterday are still visible and there was a nice flame prom on the NW limb with other smaller groups of proms scattered around in the north and south.

The Sun 31-10-08 - AR11007 Appears!

2008-10-31T00:09:00.007Z

AR11007 has appeared out of nowhere on the north limb today and is another SC24 sunspot group, the fourth this month! Looks like SC24 is well under way. The bipolar sunspots were easily visible in Ha and CaK light. There was also a small proto-AR close to the east limb which may develop in the next 24 hours. Proms were every small but there were some nice dark filaments in the north and south polar regions.

The Sun 18-10-08 - Surprise! Massive Prom

2008-10-18T22:46:00.002+01:00

A lovely sunny morning today although cold and windy with swirls of falling leaves gusting past. Having set up the imaging kit I slowly focused the PST Ha while watching the image on the laptop. The IC Capture software had been set up to expose for proms and the edge of the sun came into sharp focus. I scanned the round the limb looking for detail when WOWZAAAAA !!! a truly monster prominence appeared which filled the screen so much I had to zoom out! A huge complex arc of plasma was heading over the NW limb. I put up an early alert on the CN solar forum and before long pictures from other UK solar imagers were rolling in. Managed a brief 10 minute Live broadcast before the clouds and drizzle rolled in for the rest of the day.

The Sun 16-10-08 - AR11005 and all the others!

2008-10-16T22:37:00.003+01:00

I have lost track of which active region is 11005 now there are so many visible! I think its still the large one on the central meridian as it is the most developed - no sunpsot now though. Small proms on the limb with the tallest prom shown below. For the whole disk shots east is at top and south to left.

The Sun 12-10-08 - Active Region 11005 !

2008-10-12T19:54:00.002+01:00

Superb and unexpected day of clear skies and sun practically all day. A new active region (11005) which appeared yesterday is putting on a real show with large sunspots and small pores plus plenty of plage detail in the CaK views. Ha shows a nice sprawling set of fibrils and flux around the sunpsot group. I also managed a first light with the Intes solar wedge today mounted on the Vixen FL 115s refractor. Filters used on the wedge included the ND3, Solar Continuum and UV/IR block. This gave a pleasant apple green tone to the view (largely courtesy of the continuum filter) but the detail in the sunspot group really popped out and granulation was very clear - cannot wait to image in white light with this setup!

The Sun 9-10-08

2008-10-09T22:31:00.002+01:00

Fairly quiet today with just 3 main proms on show including two arches in the south and east and one larger complex arch in the west. There was a very small patch of brightness in the SE which may turn into a new active region if it develops further in the next 24 hours.

The Sun 5-10-08 - AR11003 still visible

2008-10-05T23:39:00.002+01:00

After an unpromising morning of cloud and rain the skies cleared from the north west during the afternoon and I was able to get some images of active region 11003 and the nearby prominences between 17.01 and 17.22 BST. The AR still seems to be growing at the moment and reports of visible sunspots were reported this morning.

The Sun 3-10-08 - New SC24 active region in SE

2008-10-03T19:40:00.005+01:00

A new, potentially Solar Cycle 24, active region has formed in the south east today. It is extremely small and there is no sunspot at the moment, just a few short fibrils. This AR will either fade quickly or produce a sunspot group and grow over the next week. The proms were extremely small also with just one short spike in the east with a nearby low arch and some short spicules in the north.

The Sun 2-10-08 - Proms in the East

2008-10-02T23:35:00.002+01:00

Windy, showers and fast moving cloud today made the imaging tricky, but a clear gap passed over at 2pm. I just used the DMK41 this time to save on time swapping over cameras plus the main proms all formed a nice tight group in the east and the DMK41 is good at capturing pleasant wide views of closely spaced features on the sun with the 2x barlow and 1.6x imagemate combination. Stephen Ames on the CN Solar Forum was also sketching at the same time and made the comparison montage below.

The Sun 1-10-08 - Low activity

2008-10-01T14:21:00.002+01:00

Windy and cold today, but there is plenty of blue sky between the light showers. Pretty low activity at the moment with some brighter CaK regions in the east (top of CaK photo) which probably relate to the spots mentioned on Spaceweather yesterday. Only small proms appear around the limb and there is no significant Ha surface activity.

The Sun 29-9-08 - Two Large Proms

2008-09-29T15:09:00.002+01:00

Woke up to unexpected clear blue skies with no cloud today which makes up for missing all the fun with that big prom yesterday. The same two proms were still visible in the SE and NW and seem to be very quiescent now with minor changes in structure over a number of hours. No surface activity visible.

The Sun 27-9-08 - Two fine proms

2008-09-28T15:38:00.002+01:00

Quiet on the surface today, but there are still two fine proms in the north and south. The prom to the south (upper left on disk shot below) developed markedly by the end of the day and grew in size. During the 28th this one enlarged even more, erupted and then reconnected to the surface with quite a few superb images and sketches of it appearing on the Cloudy Nights forum, sadly I missed the whole show as we were clouded out the whole day.

The Sun 26-9-08 - Nice proms plus last of AR11002

2008-09-26T23:33:00.002+01:00

After a foggy morning the murk lifted to reveal a cloudless sky this afternoon. The small active area that produced the eruptive event this morning could clearly be seen in the east. AR11002 is right on the west limb now and could hardly be seen in Ha, but was quite clear in CaK light. The proms in the north west formed a fine parade of hedgerows, small arches and flames. Normally I wouldn't recommend using a 5X powermate on the PST as the results are usually pretty ugly, but I had another go today and the proms, while bloated, are not too bad considering the high magnification (see last two images below) - this is pretty much at the limit of what the PST can resolve.

The Sun 24-9-08 - AR11002 Fades

2008-09-25T00:47:00.002+01:00

Managed to get some images between 14.50 and 17.06 BST today after an alert on the CN solar forum that a big prom had been seen. Seeing was poor despite occasional patches of clear blue sky with much turbulence crossing in front of the sun which greatly reduced the resolution of fine features in the proms and AR. AR11002 is fading fast now and only tiny pores were visible today in CaK compared to the obvious spot seen yesterday. The large prom was a multiple arched affair.

The Sun 23-9-08 - A New sunspot AR11002

2008-09-24T00:36:00.003+01:00

Just arrived back from a short holiday in Cornwall to find that a new active region has rounded the east limb and is putting on a fine display. This one is a solar cycle 24 region too! Cleaning the DMK 41 with 100% cotton buds seems to have removed the persistent dust, but the DMK21 still has dust motes which will need more work to shift. Great to be able to see something other than background noise in the PST CaK today and it stood up well to high magnification of the spot group. Some fine arch proms on the north limb and smaller stuff in the south. The active region is still growing at the moment so this one should be interesting over the next few days.

The Sun 18-9-08 - Proms and quiet disk

2008-09-24T00:30:00.002+01:00

A glorious sunny day today for a change. Only two main proms in the north and no surface activity.

The Sun 13-9-08 - Various views of a quiet disk

2008-09-13T17:00:00.004+01:00

Amazing blue-sky blazing sun sort of a day for the most part although it did cloud up from the south by 4pm. Although visually clear the atmosphere had other ideas and was causing the familiar jelly dance on the suns surface, so prominence images in particular were not processing out as sharp as they could.

The CaK image also proved tricky to process as the surface is easy to burn out if the gain is set too high and again after stacking if too much wavelet processing is applied.

It was a quiet sun again today with the largest prom in the west and no real surface interest to view.

The Sun 12-9-08 - First Light for the PST CaK !

2008-09-12T23:17:00.002+01:00

Well the weather forecast was supremely optimistic again today with sun symbols all over the place at the Met Office. Up to 9am it was indeed clear and sunny, but the seeing was abysmal so I decided to wait and see if it improved. Of course it just went downhill from there with complete cloud cover till 4.30pm. A brief hole in the cloud between 4.30-5.30pm allowed me to setup the mount and try out the CaK for the first time. Getting the exposure just right is quite tricky in CaK light! I needed more gain than is usual for Ha, but when you get it right the detail just pops out on the screen. Lots of tiny bright plage spots and a much grainier surface than in Ha which resembles the white light views of the granular surface. Not much to see today of course but it will be great fun to image with when the activity levels rise. The quality of the image is superb, no astigmatism whatsoever. I took 1700 frames and had 243 to stack after aligning at a 90% quality threshold.

Also did a Ha disk. Fairly small proms around ths disk and no sign of the spots making up AR1001 which apparently appeared yesterday.

10-9-08 - A PST CaK joins my solar imaging setup

2008-09-10T19:00:00.002+01:00

Just bought this used PST CaK from Ben Ritchie. It is a replacement unit for his first PST CaK which was very astigmatic and had to be returned. This one has perfect focus judging by the images Ben has posted on the CN Solar forum and on his own website. I was hoping to be able to give a first light report on its imaging potential today, but the cloud never parted long enough to set everything up.

The CaK scopes allow imaging of a layer of the chromosphere which is cooler and lower than the view via a Ha filter. The Calcium K wavelength is at 393.4 nanometres and allows views of super granulation cells. Emerging flux regions can sometimes be seen forming in this layer before they become visible in Ha light and active region detail can persist in the Calcium view long after detail has been lost in Ha.

The Sun 9-9-08 - Two Proms

2008-09-09T23:56:00.002+01:00

Got back home after work to find to find an unexpected blue patch in the sky - and some sun! And so the mad rush to get the EQ6 mount out and the laptop fired up plus camera connected ensued. I just had enough time to capture the two main proms before the sun dipped below the hedge at the back of the garden. Atmospheric conditions due to the low altitude sun were pretty awful and thin cloud kept passing too. Managed two 2000 frame runs though so I was more than happy. After processing the proms are not as sharp as I would have liked, but given the awful weather lately I am thankful for any brief views that are available.

The Sun 6-9-08 - Nice Arch Proms

2008-09-07T14:38:00.002+01:00

I did not really expect to be seeing any sun today as the forecast was for cloud and heavy showers. Then just before 1pm I saw a distant patch of blue sky heading our way. After what must have been the fastest setup ever I managed to capture four whole disk surface and prom videos with the DMK41AU02.AS between 12.53 and 12.59 BST before the sun was blanked out again for the rest of the day - phew that was close! A nice array of fine arch prominences was on display all around the limb and some faint filaments - well worth the effort!

Sunnymeade Astro appears on the Imaging Source Blog

2008-09-06T12:09:00.003+01:00

It was a pleasant surprise to find that Jonathan Maron of IS had picked up my 'First Light' report on the DMK 41AU02.AS from 23/8/08 and included it on the Imaging Source Blog along with the images http://www.astronomycamerasblog.com/ - thanks for the kind comments Jonathan!

The Sun 4-9-08 - Huge Proms on the East Limb!

2008-09-04T22:26:00.003+01:00

After an unpromising start with thick grey cloud (how I hate nimbostratus clouds) and persistent rain the day slowly brightened and then by 2.30pm the clouds were breaking up revealing some blue sky and the hope of a decent imaging session. I slid the DMK 41AU02.AS in the PST focusser, chose the configuration for whole disk prom shots, slowly turned the focus knob to get focus and WOWZA !!!! There were two huge proms on the east limb staring back at me on the laptop! These are the largest proms I have seen for a few months by far. A very bright curving spike on the right leans in toward a much fainter, but delicately braided, hedgerow prominence on the left. The hedgerow prom was quite dynamic with significant changes in shape every 5 minutes or so while the spike prom just blazed away. After taking the whole disk shots I switched to the DMK21AU04.AS along with a Celestron 2x Barlow and AE 1.6x magni-max lens to get the detail on the proms. The latter combination of lenses gives a lovely scale to the prominences and just the right amount of magnification without causing bloating in the fine detail. A nice arch prom in the west and some small filaments rounded off a very satisfying imaging session.

The Sun 30-8-08 At last, some Sun!

2008-08-31T14:31:00.002+01:00

Five days of constant depressing grey cloud cover is not good for the solar observer, we tend to show withdrawal symptoms pretty quick! Missed out on two great prominences that put a show on over the last week in the south and north, but plenty of images of them on the CN solar forum to drool over. Forecast didn't look good for today, but between 2.30 and 6pm it really brightened up and the gaps between clouds got ever larger so I decided to set the scope up and see what was happening up there on our star. The active region we were all tracking over a week back has completeley faded now on the west limb, but another smaller one can be seen at the centre of the disk appearing as two minuscule dots of plage. This will fade quickly and not produce any spots, it was already difficult to find today. There was one obvious filament visible in the north east. The prom in the north had some really nice fine detail and a long arch extending over the limb. DMK41 for whole disk shot and DMK21 for prom/filament/AR detail. PST.

The Sun 24-8-08 - Looks quiet, but isn't !

2008-08-24T23:31:00.002+01:00

Solved the problem with files over 1GB being rejected by Registax! Turns out all I need to do is chop the video up into two parts with Virtualdub. First part is 869mb and the second part is 1131mb. Even though the second half is 1.3GB Registax seems to accept it fine!? I then load both parts into Registax for aligning - works a treat!

Anyway, the Sun today.....well it appears quiet with just a few small prominences. When I took the full disk images this morning at 11.05 BST I could not see the active region or any other surface detail. Later on between 4.50 - 5.35 pm BST we had an unexpected clear window and I had a leisurely scan of the surface with the DMK21 and the 2x barlow. The sun was far from quiet! I found the active region nearing the centre of the Sun, some filaments, some nice small proms and a curious black spot in the 'white light' area of the PST tuning that isn't a sunspot, but may be associated with the 'dark mottle' background of spicules, fibrils and filaments. So even a fairly dull day on the sun is full of activity !

The active region

Filaments

The curious black spot

The Sun 23-8-08 - First light for the DMK41AU02 Camera

2008-08-23T21:22:00.002+01:00

The DMK 41AU02 USB camera arrived yesterday. At 1280x960 resolution this should theoretically be able to display the whole disk in IC Capture and allow single videos of the surface and proms to be taken which can be combined without having to laboriously stitch panes together. First light today proved that this is indeed the case. It was great being able to see the whole disk on the screen. Until I zoomed out I was scrolling a lot to see which edge was passing out of frame view first, but zooming out made this easy to judge so that the disk could be centred on the chip for best overall focus.

Having found the optimum settings for prom and surface capture I saved these configurations specifically for the DMK41 as the DMK21 configurations cannot be used and result in an error. A video of 2000 frames produces a file size of 2.28 GB in just over two minutes at the 1/15 sec max capture rate. In Registax 4 I came up against the problem that Registax will only recognise AVI files up to 1GB in size which equals 869 frames. Beyond that Registax throws up a read failure message and the aligning procedure fails. So until registax 5 comes out I may be limited to videos of 869 frames, which isn't too bad, but I would prefer to be able to stack at least 1000 to reduce noise in the final image. K3CCD Tools may be the answer to my problem but an early attempt to stack in that resulted in confusion - I need to read the manual !

The whole disk view does seem to show up the shortcomings of the PST now though. It appears my PST may be slightly astigmatic with focus better on one half of the sun than the other. This is really obvious now whereas with the smaller DMK21 each pane was capable of being sharpened so that the overall view looked more consistent. Sharpening the whole DMK shots does look OK though and the inconsistent focus may even be due to the chip not being square to the objective in the holder - need to check that!

Today was not exactly the sunny, blue-sky day that was promised by the weather forecasters! We actually got 1 hour of patchy clear sky then thick cloud the rest of the day and rain in the evening. I captured these images at 9.16 UT. Not much to see in terms of proms, but the active region is a little larger and there were some small filaments around. Overall i'm pleased with the speed at which I can create a high resolution full disk now and will be even happier when Registax 5 comes along !

The Sun 22-8-08 8.20UT - New AR getting bigger

2008-08-23T00:52:00.003+01:00

Had a brief half hour of blue sky first thing this morning at 9.30am before the cloud rolled in from the west for the rest of the day. Managed to capture the whole disk and proms with the DMK21, PST, low profile adapter. The new AR seems larger today with some nice structure developing. Still no sunspots visible though.

The Sun 21-8-08 New Active Region and Tall Prom

2008-08-21T23:36:00.002+01:00

A quick look through the PST this morning revealed a new small active region area in the south east consisting of two short linear areas of plage brightening. There were seven main proms active around the limb with a tall spike in the west that had a filaprom at its base. There were two small filaments in the north. By 17.30 BST when I was imaging the active region had developed some small active region filaments and appeared to be trying to divide into a bipolar region, but no sunspots could be seen. Bizarrely, Spaceweather was reporting two clear sunpsots in the same area, but if they were there they must have faded extremely fast. Lets hope the active region lasts over the Bank Holiday and puts on a show! DMK21, PST, low profile adapter. 2x barlow for proms and 2x + 4x barlows used for active region close ups.

The Sun 18-8-08 - Low Activity

2008-08-18T23:44:00.002+01:00

Managed to get a lucky break in the cloud between 6-7 pm BST although seeing conditions were less than average and cloud interrupted the prom captures on many occasions. Very low activity visible today with only small proms and no surface features. DMK21AU04 and PST. The detailed image of the largest prom is the DMK plus 1.6x barlow lens. Whole disk composited in iMerge and coloured in PSPX.

The Sun 17-8-08 Whole disk mosaic

2008-08-17T22:54:00.004+01:00

Not an ideal day for imaging anything today and this disk mosaic is a result of about 3 hours (10.59 - 13.55 UT) of chasing separate prom and disk details between clouds. Even so I managed to miss a notch of surface detail, but the overall picture of todays activity is nonetheless complete. The slight blurring effect on the disk is due to the iMerge mosaic software as all original surface panes were pin sharp. This is four surface panes and three prom panes composited in iMerge and coloured in PSPX. DMK 21AU04 with low profile C mount adapter and PST (no barlows).

The Sun 14-8-08 Small intricate Proms

2008-08-14T21:57:00.002+01:00

Great to see some sun today after a week of rain and cloud, plus it is now getting colder and feeling like Autumn instead of Summer! A nice set of small but quite detailed proms scattered around the limb with the largest example in the west displaying multiple arches. No surface activity seen. The seeing varied a lot with frequent thin milky layers of wispy cloud crossing the sun. Even so I managed to get some good detail with slow exposure settings and a minimum of 2000 frames for each video.

The Sun 10-8-08 - Large prominence in the west

2008-08-10T22:25:00.002+01:00

A very tall prom was visible in the west today with the other main prom groups in the south and east. No surface activity visible. Horrible conditions for imaging with high winds, frequent squally rain showers and fast moving cloud obscuring the sun for most of the day. Finally got a break in the cloud around 14.50 through to 16.12 BST and grabbed a few AVI's with the DMK 21AU04 mostly working at 1/13 sec for proms and surface shots at 1/60. Cloud ruined a lot of video footage and led to lots of processing to cut the clouds out in Virtualdub then re-save as AVI and re-align in Registax. Processing time was probably 2.5 to 3 hours total!

The Sun 2-8-08 - New active region and proms

2008-08-03T11:40:00.003+01:00

A new solar cycle 24 active region appeared late yesterday with the characteristic higher latitude location and reversed polarity. No sunpsot yet, but I could see a couple of very small active region filaments. Elsewhere on the limb the large claw like prom on the north limb is still there and there were plenty of others scattered around the limb.

New SC24 active region to the right of the big prom

The Sun 1-8-08 - Partial Eclipse Day !

2008-08-01T22:30:00.002+01:00

Took a day off work today to see if I could catch the partial eclipse on camera. It looked very doubtful at first with lots of cloud and the potential for rain, but to my amazement at 9.30 the clouds started to clear and I got a complete sequence of the partial eclipse from 9.42 BST through to 11.04 BST using afocal photography via the PST. You can see a video of the sequence here http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Astronomy/PartialEclipse1-8-08.gif Below are images showing the start, middle and end of the sequence plus the full disk and main proms for the day taken in the afternoon.

9.42 BST

Maximum for our latitude at 10.15 BST

Near end of sequence 11.04 BST

The Sun 29-7-08 - The Spire Lives On!

2008-07-29T22:24:00.000+01:00

The tall prominence we named The Spire lives on it seems on the north-west limb. No surface activity and prom activity generally low.

The Sun 28-7-08 - Proms before the Thunderstorms

2008-07-28T23:42:00.003+01:00

An increasingly hot and humid day today which broke into thunderstorms around 6pm. Some excellent proms on the limb with a huge spire dominating the lineup. I had half an hour to capture the proms in ever decreasing visibility around 17.57 BST. Had to hack a load of frames out of the DMK videos with Virtualdub as Registax just would not process the frames properly with bouncing turbulence and cloud passing through. Amazed I ended up with something resembling the main proms!

The Sun 27-7-08 Imaging in a mini heatwave

2008-07-27T22:36:00.004+01:00

It was extremely hot this afternoon , up to 27 degrees and very humid with it. I got all the imaging done by 1.30pm as the equipment would have fried later on. Still no surface features but plenty of nice prominences distributed around the limb. Finally got the feathering to work in PSPX so the composite joins look a bit better now. The main prom group in the second image down was visibly spitting high velocity thin plasma streamers as I watched it live on the laptop screen.

The Sun 26-7-08 Fun with composite images!

2008-07-27T16:41:00.003+01:00

Amazing clear blue-sky day and very hot. There was a very large tree-like prom on the west limb today and a hedgerow prom in the south. I decided to try and get both onto a surface/prom composite covering the southwestern third of the limb. Took 3 surfsce shots and mosaic'd them in Autostitch then added the proms. The whole process was very time consuming, at least two hours! I had problems getting PSPX to feather the selections properly but this was probably down to my technique. I did get some images I was really pleased with in the end and the results can be seen below.

The Sun 25-7-08 - Large prom !

2008-07-26T00:34:00.003+01:00

Hot and humid, but also loads of cloud all day. I had the EQ6 mount set up from 5pm and was beginning to give up on seeing some clear sun tonight when the clouds suddenly parted at 8pm leaving a perfect blue sky. The only problem was that the sun was now very low and in danger of disappearing behind the hedge before I could get any images. I had to move the mount inside the conservatory, which is set higher than the garden patio, and that did the trick. Just managed to run off some videos of the main prom and the area where AR1000 was seen yesterday before cloud thin cloud rolled in and the sun dipped below the hedge.

The large prom today was a nice surprise, very active and constantly changing shape. The remains of AR1000 and the filament adjacent to it which could be seen yesterday were still just visible right on the very tip of the limb.

The Sun 24-7-08 - AR1000 still on view

2008-07-24T23:38:00.002+01:00

Typically, after a fairly clear day, the cloud rolled in before I could get a good set of disk and prom videos. Proms were fairly small today and all scattered around the west limb. I thought AR1000 had faded yesterday but today it made a final comeback before vanishing over the west limb. There was a nice filament nearby which is just about to turn into a filaprom. AR1000 appeared to have two small AR filaments associated with it.

The Sun 22-6-08 - AR1000 has faded

2008-07-23T12:31:00.002+01:00

Cloudy but very warm today. Not brilliant seeing with wispy thin high cloud masking the detail. I could not locate AR1000 easily, but I think what is left of it appears in the centre of the surface image below. The proms were nice today though with a nice curtain and an arch lifting off. Imaging completed between 18.20 - 19.00 BST.

The Sun 21-7-08 AR1000 filament activity

2008-07-22T00:10:00.000+01:00

Imaging between 17.40 and 18.18 BST. The seeing was absolutely horrendous with the surface and limb turning to wobbly jelly on occasions and plenty of thin wispy cloud passing over. I thought video imaging would be a waste of time but how wrong can you be! The DMK's capabilities truly are remarkable at 60fps. Out of each run of 2000 frames I was getting only 30 or less to stack at 95% quality threshold. Even so the images were more than acceptable and the surface shots clearly showed detail in the active region. Prom shots were more tricky and only one of these turned out OK. AR1000 was very dynamic with tiny areas of occasional brightening and fast moving AR filaments. Some nice larger filaments nearby too.

The Sun 20-7-08 - More DMK camera trials

2008-07-20T22:02:00.000+01:00

Plenty of time to set up the EQ6 mount and DMK this morning although imaging was tricky with a buffeting wind making the PST bounce a lot. Tried a few 2000 frame videos of the main prom and AR1000 plus some single shots of the many small filaments visible today.

I finally nailed the processing with Registax and PSPX and the images are coming out superb now with lots of detail in the active region and the proms.

The Sun 19-7-08 - AR1000 and Proms

2008-07-20T00:47:00.000+01:00

First time imaging with the PST mounted on the EQ6 so that I can track the sun and keep objects centred in the video frames. Tracks very well on solar rate and the PST is a lot steadier in the wind than on the Alt/Az mount. Imaged at 60fps producing 2000 frames which gave file sizes of 587mb. The atmosphere was really turbulent and it took multiple videos to get one that stacked with a sharp final image in Registax 4. Prom on north west limb was the best. AR1000 is still visible and has clear spots and pores now. I could easily resolve the structure of the active region around the spots. I think the resolution of the PST holds the image quality back a little, but overall I am really pleased with the first results.