Tuesday 29 May 2012

ar11490 & ar11492 29th may

ar11490 ar11492 by Mark Townley
ar11490 ar11492, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Taken with the 100mm SS @ f16. Seeing and transparency not too bad today for a change!

ar11492 29th May

ar11492 by Mark Townley
ar11492, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11490 29th May

AR11490 by Mark Townley
AR11490, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

ar11492 & prom 29th May

ar11492 prom by Mark Townley
ar11492 prom, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

flame prom - 29th may

flame prom by Mark Townley
flame prom, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

ar11486 & ar11488 29th May

ar11486 ar11488 by Mark Townley
ar11486 ar11488, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

ar11492 - 28th May

ar11492 by Mark Townley
ar11492, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Moved the collimating lens in the pst mod which seems to have had a positive effect on contrast...

Ha Full Disk 27th may

ha full disk 2 by Mark Townley
ha full disk 2, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

A fiery sun this sunday!

AR11488

AR11488 by Mark Townley
AR11488, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11486

AR11486 by Mark Townley
AR11486, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11490 AR11492

AR11490 AR11492 by Mark Townley
AR11490 AR11492, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

CaK Full Disk 27th may

CaK full disk colour by Mark Townley
CaK full disk colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Sunday 27 May 2012

Ha Full Disk PST Mod - 26th May

PST-mod-full-disk-small by Mark Townley
PST-mod-full-disk-small, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

This is a 12 pane mosaic taken with the 100mm pst mod, alot of effort to do as at its native focal length of f10 sweetspotting and vignetting is apparent, taking alot od work in post processing to remove. Compare with the full disk in the post below, and I think I will be carrying on using the DS40 for my full disks; despite the DS40 only having 40% the aperture of the larger scope, the extra detail the tighter bandwidth delivers far outweighs the resolution the 100mm offers.

Ha Full Disk 26th May

ha full disk colour by Mark Townley
ha full disk colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Taken using the DS40, another glorious sun!

AR11486

AR11486 by Mark Townley
AR11486, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Close up of AR11486 using 100mm. The only image I managed to get at this image scale on saturday due to the blustery wind, quite mad considering temperatures were in the mid to high 20's at the time.

Proms 26th May

prom 4 by Mark Townley
prom 4, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Proms 26th May

prom3 by Mark Townley
prom3, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Proms 26th May

prom 2 by Mark Townley
prom 2, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Proms 26th May

prom 1 by Mark Townley
prom 1, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Saturday 26 May 2012

Fridays Fiery Sun - 25th May

ha full disk colour copy by Mark Townley
ha full disk colour copy, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Another fine day! Banding issue cracked - it was slack in the focuser...

AR11484 & AR11486 - Old Spots Departing

AR11484 11486 by Mark Townley
AR11484 11486, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

ar11490 - New Spots Arriving

ar11490 by Mark Townley
ar11490, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Friday 25 May 2012

Ha full Disk - 24th May

Ha full disk by Mark Townley
Ha full disk, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

The UK heatwave continues and it's another fiery day on the sun!

AR11486

AR11486 by Mark Townley
AR11486, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11484

AR11484 by Mark Townley
AR11484, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11490

AR11490 by Mark Townley
AR11490, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Thursday 24 May 2012

Ha Full Disk 23rd may

Ha Full Disk Colour by Mark Townley
Ha Full Disk Colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Despie less than ideal conditions in terms of seeing or transparency I still managed to get a full disk shot with the DS40. The sun is a real treat in double stack mode at the moment - get out there and observe it!

AR11486 23rd may

AR11486 by Mark Townley
AR11486, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11484 23rd May

AR11484 by Mark Townley
AR11484, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11483 23rd May

AR11483 by Mark Townley
AR11483, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11488 23rd may

AR11488 by Mark Townley
AR11488, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

AR11482 & AR11484 In Whitelight

AR11482 11484 WL by Mark Townley
AR11482 11484 WL, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Taken with the 100mm PST Mod, ERF in place, just replacing the etalon for the Lunt Wedge. Quite a nice result of this interesting little complex of spots!

AR11482 & 11484 Ha

AR11482 11484 Ha by Mark Townley
AR11482 11484 Ha, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Quite possibly my sharpest image yet with the 100mm PST mod. I'm pretty pleased with this one!

AR11486 Ha closeup

AR11486 Ha closeup by Mark Townley
AR11486 Ha closeup, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

S1672 Ha

S1672 Ha by Mark Townley
S1672 Ha, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

S1671 Ha

S1671 Ha by Mark Townley
S1671 Ha, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11478 Ha

AR11478 Ha by Mark Townley
AR11478 Ha, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Tuesday 22 May 2012

CaK Full Disk - 22nd May

CaK Full Disk by Mark Townley
CaK Full Disk, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Been a while since it's been clear for long enough to image at multiple wavelengths - but fortunately today presented clear blue skies from dawn till dusk. As a result was able to get this shot in. All post processing done solely in Photoshop CS4 - not a wavelet in sight!

Ha Full Disk - 22nd May

Ha Full Disk by Mark Townley
Ha Full Disk, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Best day of the year so far weather wise - it's been glorious! I was rushing to take the frames for this and ended up with some banding as a result - nevermind! Taken with the the DS40 @ f20 DMK31.

Monday 21 May 2012

AR11486 - Light Bridges & Decaying Sunspots

AR11486 by Mark Townley
AR11486, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

As monster spot AR11476 departed over the suns western limb it was replaced by more regular sized AR11486 on the opposite eastern limb. This new single spot has an interesting feature visble - a light bridge - a bright ribbon of plasma that arcs across the dark umbra of the sunspot. Despite this activity this is indicative of a decaying or dying sunspot and signifies the reestablishment of the granulation within the sunspot itself. The magnetic field within a light brige is observed to both weaker and more inclined than within the surrounding umbra, and their increased brightness relative to the surrounding umbra is a clear indication that the plasma temperature in this region is higher. It has also been noted that light-bridges often show enhanced chromospheric activity, with Ha surges and chomospheric jets reported in a number of cases. Light-bridges thus seem important for releasing magnetic energy stored in the spot as well as in its decay.

Despite hazy conditions today when this shot was taken, the forecast for the coming week is unusually summer like her e in the UK, so hopefully get somemore images as the week progresses...

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Chomping Prom Animation - 15th May



The sun never ceases to amaze me as to how dydnamic it is. This image was taken over a period of about 4 minutes with the 100mm scope - this prom reminds me of an angry chomping pacman. Looks like cloud has returned to the UK now for a while - anybody got an anti-cloud machine?

Tuesday 15 May 2012

AR11476 Departing - 15th May

ar11476 by Mark Townley
ar11476, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Active Region 11476 is decaying further as it gets closer to the limb, with associated spots displaying only rudimentary penumbra. The chance of flares has fallen significantly with NOAA forecasting only a 15% chance of M class flares, and less than 1% chance of X class flares. Only 2 weeks ago this active region presented itself as one of the largest we have seen in years, however it was the spot that never was, and despite it's large size never really released any sizeable flare activity.

Monday 14 May 2012

AR11476 Paw Print - 14th may

AR11476 colour by Mark Townley
AR11476 colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Clear skies this afternoon meant I was home sharpish after work today, and managed to get a nice shot of this shrinking active region - couldn't help but think it reminded me of a paw print! In another couple of days it will be passing over the limb. If the gaps in the clouds are big enough there is plenty to image at the moment!

Sunday 13 May 2012

Sundays Sun - 13th May

Unnamed Active Region by Mark Townley
Unnamed Active Region, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

The sun is really photogenic at the moment, absolutely loads going on at a variety of scales. I initially took this pic to frame the proms and the pair of spots, but then upon closer inspection discovered there is a as yet un-designated active region visible, with what appears to be a single medium sized spot. Lets see what NASA decides to call it...

AR11477 & AR11478 Sunday 13th May

AR11477 AR11478 by Mark Townley
AR11477 AR11478, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

A long sinuous active region joins this pair of spots...

AR11479 Sunday 13th May

AR11479 by Mark Townley
AR11479, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Another active region rounds the limb with potential for flaring...

Detatched Prom - Sunday 13th March

detatched prom ss100 by Mark Townley
detatched prom ss100, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

This weekend has been promtastic! This detatched prom hovvered above the sun for several hours, twisting and rotating before finally lifting off...

Flame Prom 13th May

flame prom ss100 by Mark Townley
flame prom ss100, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Some 24 hours later, there isn't much change with this very pretty prominence...

Flame Prom Saturday 12th May

Flame Prom by Mark Townley
Flame Prom, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Lovely faint prom, like a flame!

AR11476 saturday 12th may

ar11476 by Mark Townley
ar11476, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

This is still a very dynamic active region, but it really hasn't delivered in the way of solar flares. Either way there's plenty going on and is very photogenic...