Thursday 22 December 2016

Near Solstice Sun - 22nd December

I would have liked to get an image on the 21st December to mark the winter solstice, alas, UK weather was not in my favour, so, i'll have to settle for the day after!  At an altitude of less than 10 degrees in the sky when this image was taken it was a race to get the sun in between the branches as it passed amongst the trees on the urban skyline.  With so many branches passing in and out of the field of view it can be a challenge to actually get a decent focus on our star.  The sun is remarkably quiet at the moment with only a few brighter areas of inactive plage, there are several smaller areas of filaments, and also some smaller prominences on the limb.  Taken with a PST double stacked with a Lunt 50 etalon, running at just over 500mm focal length with a PGR Chameleon 3 camera.  I'm pleased to get an image of the sun at this time of year, at least now with each passing day it is getting that bit higher in the sky!