New monster active region AR11734 rotated into view on the 28th april, the region has a huge umbral area compared to other active regions on the disk and could well easily become a naked eye spot in the days ahead. It also harbours energy for M-class flares. This image was taken with the 70mm PST mod at 1000mm fl with a DMK31 camera.
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Ha Full Disk 30th April
Activity is really starting to pep up on the sun, maybe this is the suns second peak that some scientists were predicting to occur in may 2013. This is a 6 pane mosaic taken with the 70mm PST mod @ f7, with DMK31 camera.
Flame Prom - 30th April
There was a lovely little flame prom visible today in the suns southern hemisphere. Taken with the 70mm PST mod @ 1000mm fl, DMK31 camera.
AR11730 & AR11735 30th April
Nice little grouping heading towards the western limb. Taken with the 70mm PST mod @ 1000mm fl with DMK31 camera.
Sunday, 28 April 2013
AR11731 CaK - 27th April
I was really able to push the focal length on saturday up to 2000mm and zoom in on monster active region AR11731. This is currently the largest active region on the suns disk, and has a beta-gamma magnetic field that harbours energy for M-class solar flares. Currently, these would unlikely be Earth directed, but in the days ahead as this active region becomes more geo-effective the chance for auroral activity could increase. Taken with the 100mm frac at 2000mm fl with homebrew CaK filter and Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
CaK Full Disk 27th April
I'm really liking using the 100mm frac with 0.5x reducer to give me ~500mm fl for getting CaK disks. The increase in aperture from my 70mm scope to this at these short wavelengths is really noticeable. This is a 6 pane mosaic taken with the homebrew CaK filter, Lunt wedge with no ND filters as an ERF and DMK31 camera.
ar11731 CaK 27th April
AR11731 was definitely start of the show today! Taken with the 100mm @ 1600mm fl with the DMK31.
ar11730 CaK 27th April
A 2 pane mosaic taken with the 100mm frac at 1600mm fl with the DMK31 camera. A lovely active region at the centre of the suns disk!
s2377 CaK 27th April
Taken with the 100mm frac at f5 with homebrew CaK filter and DMK31. This active region was undesignated at the time the image was took (s2377), however now is designated AR11732.
Ha Full disk 27th April
Taken with the 70mm pst mod at prime focus - just over f7, following some work in tightening up joining components in the optical train I am now able to image at the native focal length of the system - which is good as only takes 6 panes to make the full disk rather than 12 when I was running at 800mm fl!
ar11731 27th April
Lots of activity today to be seen in Ha! This shot was taken with the 70mm PST mod at 800mm focal length with a DMk31 camera.
Thursday, 25 April 2013
AR11726 In Ha from 20th April
Sometimes the smaller scope works best when the seeing isn't cooperating, and on saturday this was definitely the case. The image I took of this active region with the 127mm was soft, blurry and lacking in definition, however the smaller 70mm was less sensitive to the poorer conditions and as a result the image that came out actually had more sharpness, detail and definition. This was taken with the 70mm PST mod at 800mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
Sunday, 21 April 2013
Ellerman Bombs - The Movie - 20th April
It really surprised me as I watched AR11726 at CaK wavelengths on the laptop screen whilst imaging on saturday, the whole region was actively crackling away with Ellerman bombs erupting on a continuous basis. These micro solar flares are named after Ferdinand Ellerman who studied these solar blasts in the early 20th century. They appear as bright explosive flashes as two oppositely charged ion flows meet in the solar photosphere. I shot this with a cadence of 20 seconds giving me an avi of just less than 600 frames, of this I stacked the best 50 for each frame of the animation. The image above is made up of 34 frames and represents just over 11 minutes in the life of AR11726. It was shot with the 100mm refractor at 1600mm focal length using a homebrew CaK filter and a DMK31 camera. The link below will take you to the full length animation which is over 70 frames long and represents 25 minutes in the life of this active region
AR11726 CaK Closeup - 20th April
Taken with the 100mm scope at 1600mm focal length there is absolutely tonnes of detail to be seen in this CaK image. This is the best 50 frames of 600 shot. Taking short avis for CaK seems to be a key thing is avoiding temporal distortion in the resultant images, as at longer focal lengths the detail changes in a very short space of time.
CaK Full Disk - 20th April
Taken with the 100mm scope at f6 there is plenty to see as always at CaK wavelengths! 6 pane mosaic taken with the DMk31 camera.
Ha Full Disk - 20th April
Lots to see on our star today in Ha wavelengths! Taken with the 70mm PST mod at prime focus - about f7.5, this allows the image to be made up of only 6 panes and at the same time shows no adverse effects due to sweetspotting. Image shot with a DMK31 camera.
Prom Closeup - 20th April
Taken with the 70mm PST mod with 1.6x barlow and DMK31 camera, there was a lovely flame prom visible!
AR11726 Closeup - 20th April
Taken with the 100mm frac at f20, this active region was showing lots of detail!
AR11726 20th April
Taken with the 100mm Tal refractor @ f10 using DMK31 camera, Lunt wedge and continuum filter. This active region was showing some great views!
WL Full Disk 20th April
Taken with the 70mm frac @ f6 this is a mosaic of 2 images using a Lunt wedge and continuum filter.
Tuesday, 16 April 2013
Ha Full Disk - 16th April
An unusual sun today; despite it having quite a few sunspots on the disk it was strangely lacking in activity as a whole, and, as such, was presenting a quiet disk. Fortunately there was a good selection of proms around the limb making up for things. Taken with the 70mm PST mod @ f11 with the DMK31 camera.
CaK Full Disk 16th April
Despite there being a decent selection of spots on view, things seemed pretty quiet on the big purple sun today. Regardless, it is always nice to view our sun in these short wavelengths. Taken with the 70mm @ f9 with the homebrew CaK filter and DMK31 camera.
White Light Full Disk - 16th April
Taken with the 70mm refractor @ f9 with the Lunt solar wedge, Baader continuum filter and DMK31 camera. It's nice to see some spots on the sun for a change!
Friday, 12 April 2013
AR11718 M3.3 Flare 12th April
NASA has upped the chance of solar flares earlier today with active region AR11719 harbouring a delta class magnetic field, however it was AR11718 that ultimately went pop at 2038ut on the 12th April with a M3.3 class flare. It had already given off 3 smaller C-class flares in the preceding 24 hours, however showing some spot development throughout the day it's beta-gamma magnetic field finally snapped resulting in the flare that can be seen in the Mauna Loa GONG image above. The chances are that the resultant coronal mass ejection is not directly Earth bound, although the possibility of a glancing blow exists.
Thursday, 11 April 2013
AR11719 Erupts With M6 Flare - 11th April
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
How Dynamic Is The Surface Of The Sun?
Sunday, 7 April 2013
AR11711 Up Close & Personal - 6th April
Taken with the 127mm PST mod at 2000mm focal length with a DMK31 camera, this shot shows what a sprawling mass of activity AR11711 is, with dark lines of plasma being channeled and directed by the magnetic field lines emanating from this massive active region.
AR11711 Hi Res Mosaic - 6th April
Taken with the 5" PST mod as shown in the post below, this image is a 6 pane mosaic taken at ~2000mm focal length with the DMK31 camera. The original image is huge - 3000 pixels wide and shows alot more detail than can be seen in this small preview - click on the image to be taken to the flickr host site for the image in a range of sizing options.
Saturdays Solar Setup - 6th April
Glorious weather on saturday meant the first proper run out of the year for the 5" PST mod.
Ha Full Disk - 6th April
With so many (if small) sunpsots, the view in ha was always going to be a good one. Taken with the 70mm PST mod there was plenty to see! Click on the image to view the full size version on flickr!
Hi-Res AR11711 CaK - 6th April
Taken with the 100mm at 2000mm focal length, this is a stack of only 10 frames from autostakkert2. The image is slightly noisy as a result, but does show a wealth of small scale fine details. I do wonder that by stacking with image stacks up in the 100s of frames if some of the details are just being smeared out by seeing variations or through temporal distortion. Either way, the use of smaller stacks at these shorter wavelengths is something I will be exploring in more detail when the sun returns again.
CaK Overview - 6th April
Like with the white light, the 100mm Tal refractor at f6 offers a considerable improvement in resolution over the 70mm in terms of the finer details visible, and at only 6 panes for a full disk mosaic makes for a very easy option. However, the down side of this increased resolution is greater susceptibility to poor seeing conditions, which unfortunately struck on this image which as supposed originally to be a full disk. This is a very large image, much larger than is capable of being shown on this blog, and as such is recommended to click on the image which will take you the flickr host page and the full resolution version.
White Light Overview 6th April
I'm quite liking using the 100mm Tal refractor with focal reducer to give ~600mm focal length as a useful way to get full disk images. This is a 6 pane mosaic taken with the Lunt wedge and continuum filter along with the DMK31 camera.
AR11711 White Light - 6th April
The monster spot is still with us and shows some interesting subtle detail. Taken with the 100mm frac at f20, lunt wedge, continuum filter and DMK31.
Friday, 5 April 2013
AR11711 - 5th April
The weather isn't being as kind as I would like, but there were a few very brief breaks allowing me to get a view of monster sunspot AR11711. Still sporting a light bridge indicative of a decaying spot, this active region is clinging on, barely! This shot was taken with the 70mm PST mod at 1000mm fl with a DMK31 camera.
Wednesday, 3 April 2013
AR11711 Monster Spot! 3rd april
What a view this monster active region is currently giving us! Despite the region currently decaying in terms of activity with NASA giving less than 5% chance of M class flares and less than 1% chance of X class flares, there is plenty to see! Taken with the 70mm PST mod, 2.5x powermate and DMK31 camera.
Ha Full Disk 3rd April
Our star is simply stunning at hydrogen alpha wavelengths at the moment with so many different features to see, and today was no exception! Taken with the 70mm PST mod at 800mm focal length this image is a 12 pane mosaic shot with a DMK31 camera. The original image is very large and well worth a look on a large monitor, just click on the image to take through to the Flickr image host and a range of resizing options.
CaK Full Disk - 3rd April
As usual there is lots going on at 396.4nm. Taken with the 70mm frac, 1.6x barlow, homebrew CaK filter and DMk31 camera.
WL Full Disk - 3rd April
The other spots on the disk pale away compared to monster active region AR11711.
AR11711 3rd April
High winds today meant the 100mm scope was a no-no; it was flapping around in the wind like a sail, so, had to resort to using the 70mm which is much more tolerant of poorer conditions. This was taken at 1050mm focal length with the 2.5x powermate, Lunt wedge and baader continuum filter and DMk31 camera. The monster spot can still be seen to be sporting a very photogenic light bridge still.
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