There's so much going on in such a small bit of sun in this picture; 2 named active regions, one as yet unnamed active region - all 3 ACTIVE aswell! Not to mention the huge filament that has been gracing the sun for several days now. Shortly after taking this picture the magnetic field lines that hold the cool plasma that is the filament snapped and launched this cloud of plasma out into space. This should be an intersting area of sun to watch develop in the coming days. Taken with the 127mm @ 1900mm fl DMK31.
Friday, 31 August 2012
ar11560 ar11561 31st August
Sunspots are basically (generally) giant dipole magnets, and these 2 active regions are no exception. Ribbons of plasma can be seen flowing around the sunspots like iron filing around magnets in a physics experiment!
Big Purple Sun - 30th August
Taken at CaK wavelengths ourt star is covered in activity! Taken with the 70mm @ f9 DMK31 Baader-Nado homemade filter system...
Ha Full Disk 30th August
Finally after days and days of solar activity being at an absolute minimum our star is picking up in activity!
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Fantastic Filaprom - 28th August
By far the star of the solar show today was a huge quiescent filaprom that was visible - a huge cloud of cool plasma that floats above the surface of the sun held in place by magnetic fields. Despite being quite bright it was unusual in the sense that it was very lacking in structure and contrast, never the less was a sight to behold in the eyepeice. This was taken with the 127mm SS @ 2250mm fl with the DMK31 camera.
AR11555 & co 28th August
Sunday, 26 August 2012
AR11553 & Big Prom - 26th August
Active region 11553 has a large single spot with several small satellite spots, however by far the star of the show on todays sun was the big and also bright prominence that was visible. There was lots of fine intricate detail visible! Taken with the 127mm SS @ 1900mm with the DMK31.
New Active Region AR11555 26th August
This new active region is a double spotter, possibly with a light bridge on the leading spot, it is also crackling with small scale flare activity. The proms on the limb adjacent to this active region were great aswell! Taken with the 127mm @ 1900mm DMK31.
Filament & New Active Region (?) 26th August
An interesing peice of sun here on the north eastern limb: several filaments - of which many currently grace the suns disk, and right on the limb the first signs of a new active region coming around?
AR11554 26th August
This active region shows a bit more promise in terms of activity, with quite a few small spots making up the group. Still not got the orientation of my PST etalon completely sorted out as this and the previous picture show a general grading of bandwidth of the filter across the field of view. I just need the sun to come out and stay out for long enough to get the whole setup collimated!
AR11552 26th August
Not a huge amount going on with AR11552, however it sports a nice filament, and white plage areas indicate the recent very low levels of solar activity may have increased, if only slightly...
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Flame Proms 22nd August
I was really pleased with these delicate flame prominences that I photographed in the cloud breaks on wednesday afternoon. There's lots of intricate fine detail visible when you look closely.
Surge Prom 22nd August
Activity isn't always just visible on the near side of the sun as this picture shows. A surge prom is visible as bright plasma spurts from an active region that has rotated out of view. I only got fleeting and infrequent views of this however it was a very dynamic and constantly changing feature.
AR11552 22nd August
New active region 11552 recently rotated into view a couple of days ago, however doesn't look particulary active currently. The big filament however is more interesting and could well lift off in the coming days if and when solar activity increases.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Quiescent Prominence 20th August
I don't normally bother taking pictures of solar prominences; these are great 'clouds' of plasma swirling around the suns disk held in place by magnetic field lines. However on monday I decided to give it a go with the 127mm PST mod at 1900mm fl and these are the results. I pretty pleased, so maybe should try photographing this solar weather more often...
Ha Full Disk 20th August
After heavy morning rain the skies cleared in the afternoon to let me get some solar observing in. Activity levels are pretty low at the moment, but never the less our star offers a photgenic face towards us. This was taken with the DS40 @ f20 and is a 6 pane mosaic.
Sunday, 19 August 2012
AR11546 & AR11548 19th August
Another frustrating summers day - across much of the country skies cleared apart from in the West (Wet) Midlands where cloud lingered till early evening. Even then they never cleared, just fragmented a bit so I decided to put the term 'lucky imaging' to the test - just kept firing off avis even though clouds were passing. Stacking the best 7% in latest version of Autostakkert produced this image, taken with the 127mm @ 1900mm DMK31.
Saturday, 18 August 2012
M2 Flare! - 18th August
I couldn't believe my luck today, the continuous cloud that has been present for the past week finally broke to give a warm and sunny end to the afternoon. Needless to say I capitalised on the opportunity and got the solar scope out. Imagine my suprise when the as yet undesignated active region threw off an M2 class flare at just past 17.00GMT. The near Earth sized eruption of plasma from our star was easily the largest explosion currently happening in a several light year radius. Taken with the 127mm @ 1900mm DMK31.
AR11543 Departing - 18th August
AR11543 gets ever closer to the suns northwestern limb however still remains pleasantly photogenic. Taken with the 127mm @ 1900mm DMK31
AR11547 - 18th August
A relatively uninteresting bit of sun, maybe this active region will develop into something?
Saturday, 11 August 2012
Fiery Solar Swathe 10th August
This swathe of sun has shown quite a bit of activity over the past week with it's grouping of spots and huge floating filament of plasma. This shot is a mosaic of several shots taken with the 127mm PST mod at 2250mm focal length with a DMK31 camera.
The full size image is definitely worth a view - follow the link below...
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8162/7754741560_48110870ed_o.jpg
ar11543 10th august
The slightly smaller image scale just sharpens up the detail a bit more in this shot. Taken with the 127mm @ 2250mm fl.
ar11542 10th August
Loaded with detail and rippling with flare activity. Taken with the 127mm @ 2250mm fl.
AR11543 3000mm 10th August
This is my favourite shot taken at 3 metres focal length today; I just love all the intricate detail, in particular the 'M' shaped feature on the right hand side of the light bridge. Taken with the 127mm ss @ 3000mm fl DMK31 camera.
AR11535 AR11537 10th August
They've been a bit of a boring pair of spots these, but I gave them a photo anyways! Taken with the 127mm SS @ 2250mm fl. DMK31 camera.
AR11542 3000mm 10th August
Again another high mag shot taken with the 127mm PST mod. This is quite an active part of the sun and is crackling with c class flare energy. M class flares are possible in the days ahead...
AR11544 3000mm FL 10th august
Ramping the focal length up to 3 metres in good seeing conditions for a change!
AR11543 wl 10th August
Taken with the 127mm @ 2250mm fl. Lunt wedge. I love the lightbridge across the main spot in this photo!
Thursday, 9 August 2012
AR11538, AR11540 & Mega Filament 9th August
This region of the sun continues to show lots of activity, and as such the only way to capture it is by doing a mosaic. This is 6 frames taken with the 127mm PST mod at 1900mm fl with the DMK31. In the bottom left corner new region S1850 [S31E07] emerged quickly and has many spots. If the region develops further minor M class flares will become possible.
AR11543 9th August
Lots on intricate detail in this image - i really like the lightbridge and the little spotlets!
AR11542 C8.4 Flare 9th August
I managed to capture the tail end of this c8.4v flare from this active region. It has polarity intermixing and is likely to produce further low level C class flares. A minor M class flare is possible.
ar11535 ar11537 9th August
This pair of active regions quietly march towards the suns limb. Dying sunspots...
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
ar11538, ar11540 and the Mega Filament - 8th August
Over the past couple of days a mega filament has been visible on the surface of our star. This cool ribbon of plasma floats above the main hydrogen alpha layer held aloft by magnetic fields. It stretches further than the earth to moon distance. It is also joined by a series of resonably active regions and their accompanying spots.
This image is a 6 pane mosaic taken with the 127mm SS @ 1900mm DMK31. It represents quite an achievement for me as i've been doing considerable work to minimise the sweet spotting associated with the PST etalon. Given that 6 panes are able to be stitched together seamlessly i'm happy this has been achieved.
ar11542 8th August
This new active region seems to be popping and crackling with activity and could put on a decent show for us in the coming days. 127mmSS @ 1900mm DMK31
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