AR11236 made itself famous over the last week or so as a single behemoth spot that was characterised with a 'light bridge' that split it in two. This can just be made out in this image. This is a large active region that has a single small trailing spot. The active region is characterised by a lot of bright white faculae that can be seen standing out on the granulation of the solar disk. Todays WL shots were taken with the 706nm 'TiO' filter that has a magical effect of taming seeing.
Monday, 27 June 2011
AR11241 @ 706nm 'TiO' Wavelengths
A loose cluster of small spots in this relatively quiet active region...
White Light Full Disk - 26th June
When the most obvious features on the sun in WL are faculae around the limb it's a sure sign things are quiet on el-sol. Still, it makes for a nice disk!
CaK Full Disk 26th June
When there's not a huge amount going on in white light on the disk as a whole, CaK always shows the solar jet streams well, even if everyone on Earth has decided they are shutting down...
AR11240 CaK Wavelengths
No much to see in the visible end of the spectrum, but CaK was showing up the plasma froth very well indeed.
Surge Prominence - 26th June
Something is coming over the limb, spitting and spluttering as it does so, this was a very dynamic prominence to observe visually!
Ha Full Disk 26th June
First proper test of the DS40 with the ERF removed from the primary etalon. This has resulted in image brightness roughly twice what i was getting before, allowing more magnfication at the eyepeice and roughly a halving of exposure time with the CCD. Next step is to calibrate the alignment of the TMax tuning unit - I have made a gasket to assist with this and this should offer an improvement in even field illumination. A reasonably quiet sun was visible on sunday, but made for a nice frame either way.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Ha Full Disk 21st June
Had a nice bonus when I home from work in that the streamers of clouds that have been frequenting my skies of late managed to actually sit either side of the sun meaning I could get the scope out and get some imaging in.
Todays sun is a pretty one - not the huge prominences we have seen of late, but smaller more dainty ones. Filament wise there were some that were thin sharply defined, yet these were somewhat more ill defined and broader towards the limb. The active regions on the sun were very apparent through the eyepeice.
Hope you like it!
Sunday, 19 June 2011
AR11236 Light Bridge, Dark Filament
There seems to be some discussion as to exactly what the 'Light Bridges' are that divide large sunspots such as the one that dominates AR11236 http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=19&month=06&year=2011 However, from my perspective, looking at this picture it is quite clear that a 'Light Bridge' is just a filament that sits over the top of a sunspot. It is light against the black of the sunspot core, however either side it can be seen to extend as a dark filament hovvering above the brighter solar disk.
Sadly today was dominated by cloud and only intermittent gaps, as such this is the only capture of note that I managed. Visually the sun was very impressive with plenty of prominences all around the limb.
Hopefully the 'British Summer' will improve from the cloud and rain of late and I will be abler to get somemore views in!
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Blurry Ha Full Disk - 14th June
Today was a race against time - i woke up this morning to perfectly blue skies, however work beckoned so off I had to go. However through the day a weather front was getting ever closer, slowly dropping transparency with a haze of thickening high cloud. By the time I did get home skies were hazy but this wasn't going to stop me, for a UK summer i've not got as much imaging in as I would like so have to capitalise on every opportunity.
This was a challenging image to get; a 6 pane mosaic, with each pane showing variations in brightness. In addition, the 2x nosepeice i'm using not only gives me Newtons rings, but also demonstrates quite noticeable field curavture across the frame. This manifests itself as a blurring in the mosaic joins. The 1.6x nosepeice I have been using is optically great, however doesn't give me the magnification i'm after - no such thing as a free lunch! I'm twitching to get a Meade 2x teleextender to rememdy these problems!
Todays sun is interesting though - the 'new spot' looks a nice and i'm sure is going to prove photogenic for many in the days ahead. Haze was robbing the shot of contrast and hiding the fainter proms and spicules, but some sun is better than no sun!
Hope you like!
Mark
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Ha Full Disk 11th June
Over the last week or so the sun has been really busy, throwing out one of the largest flares in a while. However now it has quietened off again; there are a couple of active regions and a smittering of filaments. There were some really nice proms visible though! This is a 'one shot' 6 frame mosaic, taken with the DS40 at f20.
CaK Full Disk 11th June
Full disk taken with the homemade CaK filter, 70mm refractor @ f11 and DMK31 camera. This is a mosaic of 6 frames. Seeing was deteriorating as I was getting the subs for this image, and this can be seen as parts of the image not being as sharp as they can be...
AR11234 @ 705nm TiO Wavelength
This saturday morning afforded a few hours of sunshine before the clouds and showers that are associated with the unsettled airmass that currently resides over the UK. After a week when the sun was putting on some real fireworks todays disk was relatively blank at visible wavelengths, with AR11234 being the most prominent feature. This was taken with the 127mm frac @ f19, Lunt wedge, 705nm TiO filter and DMK31 camera. Realistically this was too long a focal length to be using as the image isn't as sharp as I would like or know is possible. Good old British seeing conditions!
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Ha Near Full Disk - 4th June
A quick shot yesterday through the briefest of gaps! If the clouds ever go today I want to get some more pics taken, activity on the sun is really hotting up at the moment!
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