Tuesday 30 July 2013

ar11808 30th July

ar11808 ha by Mark Townley
ar11808 ha, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11808 only joined us a few days ago and is already showing itself having some interesting activity. However on the limb another spot has just rounded onto the disk announcing itself arrival with a crown prominence as it spits small jets of plasma outwards from the sun. All todays shots are rather soft as I was being greedy with the focal length - i was shooting at 3200mm with the 100mm PST mod, with the heat of the late afternoon I should have really backed off to 2000mm or 1600mm fl really. Oh well! These have come out!

ar11805 Wilson effect 30th July

ar11805 ha by Mark Townley
ar11805 ha, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

AR11805 shows the foreshortening depression of the famous Wilson Effect as it nears the limb. Taken with the 100mm PST mod at 3200mm fl with the DMK31 camera.

north east prom 30th July

north east prom by Mark Townley
north east prom, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

A peculiar prom on the north eastern limb!

south west proms 30th July

south west proms by Mark Townley
south west proms, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Some big bright proms on the south western limb today!

ar11807 30th July

ar11807 ha by Mark Townley
ar11807 ha, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Turbulent plasma surrounding this active region!

ar11801 30th July

ar11801 ha by Mark Townley
ar11801 ha, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

A rather soft shot of the rather quiet active region. 100mm pst mod at 3200mm fl DMK31.

Monday 29 July 2013

AR11793 Departing - 27th July





























This active region had already passed over the nortwestern limb of the sun, however it left a legacy; the spot had a spiralling filament wrapping around it, which manifested itself on the limb as a bright and dense prominence.  The solar surface looks very choppy and 3D in appearance in this closeup shot taken with the 100mm PST mod at 3200mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.

Western Swathe 27th July

Taken with the 100mm PST mod at 3200mm fl this is a 4 pane mosaic there is lots to see with these departing active regions and also a nice display of small scale prominences!  Right click and open in a new tab for best  effect with this large image!

Ha Full Disk 27th July

This mosaic was taken with the 100mm PST mod at 1600mm focal length and consists of 24 panes assembled in Photoshop.  This difference in resolution with the 100mm compared to the usual 70mm I use for full disks is quite significant.  For best effect right click on this image and 'open in a new tab'.

ar11801 ha closeup 27th July

ar11801 ha closeup by Mark Townley
ar11801 ha closeup, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Taken with the 100mm PST mod at 3200mm fl with the DMK31 camera, this lone sunspot has an unusual bright aureole around the penumbra of the spot.

ar11801 ha 27th July

ar11801 ha by Mark Townley
ar11801 ha, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Taken with the 100mm PST mod at 2000mm fl using DMK31 camera.

ar11806 27th July

ar11806 Ha closeup bw by Mark Townley
ar11806 Ha closeup bw, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

This new active region has slowly rotated onto the visible side of the sun, hidden under plasma in this shot it should become easier to see in the days ahead.

Sunday 28 July 2013

Detached Prominence 26th July

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

Like a strange alien craft, for some considerable time solar magnetic fields held aloft this massive detached prominence suspending it over the limb of the sun. Eventually the field lines snapped and this huge cloud of plasma drifted off into inter planetary space. This shot was taken with the 70mm PST mod, 2x barlow and DMK31 camera.

Departing Active Regions and Detached Prominences - 26th July

ar11800 Ha detached prom by Mark Townley
ar11800 Ha detached prom, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

A plethora of departing active regions including AR11800 shows some minor B-class flaring and a host of filaments twisted by the solar magnetic field lines. Meanwhile over the limb a huge detached prominence hovers majestically. Taken with the 70mm PST mod with 1.6x barlow and DMK31.

Saturday 27 July 2013

Ha Full Disk 26th July


































This is the first image taken with new 'pre-Meade' Coronado PST etalon.  I have to say i'm pretty pleased!  It does seem to have a slightly tighter bandpass than my existing 'made in Mexico' PST etalon which is what I was hoping for.  This full disk is a mosaic taken with the 70mm PST mod, 2x barlow and DMK31 camera.  The original image is huge, and i'm really pleased how the spicule layer has come out on this, well worth a click on the image to see it full size!

Friday 26 July 2013

Solar Cycle 24 Underwhelming...



Solar Cycle 24 is shaping up to be the weakest solar cycle in more than 50 years. In 2009, a panel of forecasters led by NOAA predicted a below-average peak. Now that Solar Max has arrived, however, it is even weaker than they expected. Look inside the yellow circle to see the shortfall:

It may be premature to declare Solar Cycle 24 underwhelming. Solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center thinks Solar Cycle 24 is double peaked--and the second peak is yet to come. Also, weak solar cycles have been known to produce very strong flares. The strongest solar storm in recorded history, the Carrington Event of 1859, occurred during a relatively weak solar cycle like this one.

Stay tuned for flares? Maybe, but not this week. Solar activity remains very low.

Saturday 20 July 2013

Pareidolia Proms - 19th july

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

Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving seeing familiar patterns in random data - examples include clouds that look like animals, the face of the man in the moon, listening to records backwards and hearing hidden messages etc. Prominences on the limb of the sun are a great place where this happens, and friday provided a great example of this!

eastern prom 19th july

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

south west prom 19th july

south west prom by Mark Townley
south west prom, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

south east prom 19th July

south east prom by Mark Townley
south east prom, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

north east prom 19th july

north east prom by Mark Townley
north east prom, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

north west prom ha 19th July

north west prom ha by Mark Townley
north west prom ha, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

This prom was sufficiently bright to get a decent one shot of it and the surrounding disk. 70mm PST mod at 1050mm fl with DMK31.

ar11791 19th July

ar11791 by Mark Townley
ar11791, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

ar11800 ha 19th July

ar11800 ha by Mark Townley
ar11800 ha, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

ar11793 ha 19th July

ar11793 ha bw by Mark Townley
ar11793 ha bw, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Taken at f15 with the 70mm PST mod.

ar11793 19th July

Taken at f25 with the 70mm PST mod this is the major active region on the disk at the moment!

Fridays Full Disk 19th July

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

Lovely blue skies this friday so a great opportunity to get a full disk with the DS40. Lots to see!

Thursday 18 July 2013

Eastern swathe Ha14th July

Eastern swathe Ha BW by Mark Townley
Eastern swathe Ha BW, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Still working through a backlog of images here; one from the 14th, a mosaic of the eastern swathe of the sun with all these new active regions rotating into view. Taken with the 100mm pst mod at 1600mm fl DMK31 camera.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

AR11787 - The Living Breathing Monster

Working through a bit of the backlog of data I had:  This is a shot of AR11787 from the 7th July and represents an animation of 20 minutes in the life of this active region.  NASA at the time was giving out a >50% chance of M-class flares, and I was optimistic of catching something happening.  However this part of the sun just sat there, bubbling away but never did any flaring.  A shame, but I do like the way  this animation shows the continuous flow of plasma around the surface of our star - it is never static!  This was taken with the 100mm PST mod @ 3200mm focal length using a DMK31 camera.

Sunday 14 July 2013

Spitting Prominences - 14th July

I knew sunday was going to offer quite hazy skies with the associated poor transparency, and in combination with the heatwave we're currently having the poor seeing.  So I decided to setup nice and early when temperatures are at their lowest and the atmosphere is most likely to offer the best seeing conditions of the day.  I looked on the GONG website to see if there were any likely subjects for an animation, and was pleased to see departing active regions AR11787 & co were putting on a small but dynamic display of prominences as they passed over the limb.  Using the 100mm PST mod at 1600mm focal length and the DMK31 camera, the above animation represents a 22 minute time lapse in the life of the limb of our star.

Ha Full Disk 14th July

DS40 Ha full disk bw by Mark Townley
DS40 Ha full disk bw, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

The heatwave continues in the UK and as a result seeing and transparency just aren't as good as in cooler weather. While this is a hinderance for larger aperture scopes, this makes no difference to the Coronado double stacked 40mm. What it loses out in terms of aperture it makes up for with it's tight bandpass in terms of the detail it produces. This shot was taken at f20 (800mm fl) and is a 6 pane mosaic taken with the DMK31.

ar11789 ha closeup 13th July

Not really much left of this active region now, but it is putting on an interesting display of small scale proms as it passes over the suns limb. Taken with the 100mm PST mod at 1600mm fl with the DMK31 camera.

ar111791 Ha closeup 13th July

Twisting arcs of plasma indicate there is some activity in the new active region, but just how much? This shot was taken with the 100mm pst mod at 1600mm fl with the DMK31 camera.

Saturday 13 July 2013

DS40 Ha 13th July

DS40 Ha colour by Mark Townley
DS40 Ha colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

When the suns disk is quiet the only thing to do is bring out the double stacked 40mm scope. The tighter bandpass of this scope can tease out the surface details quite well! Taken with the ds40 @ f20 DMK31.

southern prom 13th july

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

Lots of nice, if small, proms visible on the sun today!

northwestern prom 13th july

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

southwestern prom 13th july

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

ar111791 Ha 13th july

ar111791 Ha colour by Mark Townley
ar111791 Ha colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

A few small B-class flares crackle away in this new active region, but no fireworks yet with it...

ar11789 ha 13th July

ar11789 ha colour by Mark Townley
ar11789 ha colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

All quiet in Ha apart from a very small B - class flare as this active region passes over the limb. 70mm PST mod @ f11 DMK31.

ar11791 cak closeup 13th july

Zooming in close to our new active region in CaK shows it sporting a light bridge, and a few ellerman bombs can be seen in the shot, but on the whole things look pretty quiet here and are likely decaying...

ar11791 CaK 13th July

ar11791 CaK colour by Mark Townley
ar11791 CaK colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Maybe our new active region will show a bit more flare activity that the one that is currently departing?

ar11789 cak 13th july

ar11789 cak colour by Mark Townley
ar11789 cak colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Dropping back the focal length to 2000mm with the 100mm frac really does show how things have quietened down on our star with regards to the monster active region of the past 2 weeks!

ar11789 cak closeup 13th july

Not really much left here now with these active regions apart from some plage. Taken with the 100mm @ f32 DMK31.

cak full disk 13th July

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

Things are even looking quiet in CaK at the moment, not a huge amount happening on our star! Passing haze and high cloud played havoc in getting even frame brightness for this mosaic. 100mm f5 DMK31.

ar11791 WL 13th july

ar11791 wl colour by Mark Townley
ar11791 wl colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

This is the latest active region to appear on the scene, though, I have to say doesn't look very busy at the moment. Maybe it will grow in the days ahead? 100mm @ 2000mm fl DMK31.

ar11789 WL - 13th July

ar11789 wl colour by Mark Townley
ar11789 wl colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

This group of active regions are certainly a shadow of their former selves as they quietly slip over the western limb of the sun. Taken with the 100mm frac @ 2000mm fl with a DMK31 camera.

Ha full disk 11th July

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

The sun looks picturesque during this july heatwave we are having in the UK at the moment, but the sun is relatively sparse when it comes to activity. This was taken with the 70mm pst mod at f11 using a DMK31 camera.

Departing Active Regions 11th July

This group of active regions has been putting on a show for us for nearly 2 weeks now, but despite NASA giving a >50% chance of M-class flares nothing has happened. Hopefully it should put on a decent display of prominences as it passes over the limb at the weekend.

Southern Proms 11th July

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

Towards the southern polar regions there was a lovely prominence on the sun on thursday.

New Active Regions - 11th July

new activity ha colour by Mark Townley
new activity ha colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

New activity appearing on the eastern limb of our star on an otherwise quiet sun. Taken with the 70mm PST mod @ f11 with DMK31 camera.