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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.