127mm PST Mod First Light

small prom, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

This is my favourite image from todays run, despite so little going on detail wise it just had a certain photographic lure. The seeing conditions were just starting to allow me to see the spicules on the solar limb. With better conditions the 127mm aperture should resolve considerable smaller features. This was imaged at 1900mm focal length using a DMK31 CCD camera.

ar11514 ar11515 Flaring! 30th June

ar11514 ar11515 tk2, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

I was even treated to some flaring whilst testing out the new 127mm scope!

ar11512 Detail Galore!

ar11512 tk2, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

I love how much more detail is visible with the larger aperture scope when the seeing allows!

ar11513 ar11516 30th June

ar11513 ar11516 tk2, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Inbetween the clouds today was first light for my 127mm pst mod. This first shot was slighty soft on the focus but not bad for a first image!

Crown Prom 25th June

crown prom, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

lovely small eruptive crown prominence on the limb of the sun!

AR11512 25th June

AR11512, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Bit of fun here - double stacked 100mm PST, awful weather conditions but the pinciple is there!

AR11511 Through The Haze...

AR11511, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Following another storm system that has rattled through the UK, saturday morning dawned blustery with rapidly moving clouds at lower levels and a much slower moving band of higher haze / cirrusy stuff. Normally wouldn't even bother in such conditions, but have had such little opportunity to observe lately due to poor weather that decided just to setup and see what I got. The sun is ridiculously quiet at the minute, with the only area of activity on the disk an insignificant small active region AR11511. The haze made it difficult to focus and looking the pic my tuning could have been a little better to get more even across the frame. Still better than nothing!

100mm SS @ f16 DMK31

AR11504 - 18th June

ar11504, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

First opportunity i've had in over a week to image the sun, and today this was in less than ideal conditions. AR11504 has been crackling with flares over the past couple of days, but now as gets closer to the limb is slowly decaying, possibly showing the first signs of lightbridge formation. Sadly at this stage the sun is pretty blank other than this active region. This was taken with the 100mm SS @ f16, DMK31.

AR11499 - New Etalon on the Scope - day 2

ar11499, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11499 has developed quickly in the central section as new flux emerged. While spots disappeared in other parts of the region the new spots have significant polarity intermixing. The region produced a number of small C flares, however, if the current rate of development is maintained, M class flares will become likely. My new etalon is performing well, showing alot more detail than the previous; given this was taken in hazy skies i'm looking forward to see what it can do in proper conditions!

AR11494

AR11494, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

On a solar maximum that is mainly characterised by dying and decaying spots AR11494 is no different - a single spot with a sprialling magnetic field. Picturesque but not doing very much!

AR11504

ar11504, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

This is the new active region to watch out for regards flaring - couple of M class flares already and is only just come around the limb. The region has a weak magnetic delta structure.

AR11499 - 9th june - New PST Etalon

ar 11499, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

I finally got the new etalon for my PST mod and as such was keen to try it out. Thankfully it has a tighter bandpass than the one i've been using given the finer detail that is visible. Based on images taken with isle of man solar scopes, which are 0.7a bandpass, I would estimate this is very close to that. Given that, I would also estimate my 'other' etalon is closer to 0.8a bandpass. I think I will be sticking with this one...

AR11499 is a nice active region that developed rapidly, giving out an M1 class flare a matter of hours before this image was taken, the remanants of it can be seen as the bright white areas in the image.

AR11493 - A Hi Res Ha Closeup

ar11493, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Sadly it was a cloud out for me this morning and so missed the transit of Venus, however by the evening clearer skies had returned and so decided to get the 100mm PST mod out and see what was there. I was really surprised how much there was going on with AR11493 - it's one of those the closer you look the more you see. This active region is described as having 'polarity intermixing' - looking at this picture our star certainly looks very turbulent and mixed up! Hopefully somemore images on friday if the weather obliges...

AR11497 - 4th June

AR11497, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

This is a nicely developed active region showing bipolar spot group - the arching magnetic field lines can be seen going between the two poles - exactly the same as iron filings and a magnet, apart from each of the single spots is about the size of Earth! The image isn't quite as sharp as I would like as I think the focus had slipped on the Tal refractor - something to fix! Taken with 100mm SS @ f16 DMK31

Monster Active Regions - 4th June

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

In the run up to the transit of Venus, I managed to grab a gap in between the clouds to image this melee of solar magnetism that has formed one of the largest active region groupings of recent years: Comprising of AR11493, AR11496, AR11498 & AR11499 there is considerable activity going on. As it gradually becomes geo-effective the risk of flaring causing spaceweather effects here on Earth also increases.