The sun is starting to come alive with activity again after a lull in activity for a week or so. The large spot that has just rounded the solar limb can be seen to be popping with a small c-class flare. The STEREO spacecraft shows there is more to come too! Great news for solar observers in the days ahead. This image was taken with the 40mm scope at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
The clouds finally cleared for just long enough this afternoon to let me get the frames I need to make up the full disk shot here. It finally looks like we're going to get some decent activity in the days ahead. Taken with the 40mm ota at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
The new active regions that came around the suns limb in the last couple of days have quite a bit of activity compared to some of the smaller inactive spots that we've had for the last week. Good news as it gives us something more to look at! This closeup image was taken with the 40mm scope at 925mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
The sun has been quiet over the past couple of days, but now sunspot numbers are increasing and more are coming around the limb in the days ahead. This shot was taken with the 40mm at 700mm focal length and the DMK31.
Not much left at all of this active region now, just a bit of plage, but the CaK view is often more revealing in this situation than the Ha and this is no exception. This closeup was taken with the 40mm scope at 925mm focal length with the DMK31.
The sun is still fairly low in the sky when i'm imaging at 6am, and with Birmingham airport to the east of me transiting planes and their contrails are fairly normal. The disk is fairly quiet at the moment but indications are that more active regions will round the limb in the days ahead. This shot was taken with the Coronado DS40 at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
Our new active region is a lot more interesting and a lot more active than the one that is departing; it has been crackling with small B class flares but hopefully should show a bit more activity in the days ahead. Taken with the DS40 at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
There's really not much left of this active region now as it nears the solar limb in this shot taken with the DS40 at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
A very quiet disk, but hopefully in the days ahead we will see more active regions rounding the limb. Even a quiet disk like this shows the super granulation cells very well! I still have some reflections I want to deal with to darken the sky background more, but hopefully should solve this problem in the weeks ahead. Taken with the 40mm ota at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
This caK image shows well how the new active regions are a pretty decent size, and hopefully should have some decent activity in the coming days. Taken with the 40mm ota at 925mm focal length and DMK31 camera.
Another dying active region heads towards the solar limb in this shot, however a nice little arching prom is visible. Taken with the 40mm at 925mm fl with the DMK31 camera.
Very little remains of this active region apart from a single spot about to pass over the limb. Taken with the 40mm at 925mm focal length and DMK31 camera.
A very quiet full disk compared to those of the past couple of weeks, still looks nice though! DS40 560mm fl DMK31.
Although it looks pretty small in Ha this active region is actually reasonably large as it rounds the surface of the sun. Hopefully it should put on a good show in the days ahead! Taken with the DS40 at f20 with the DMK31.
A very quiet active region departs the sun in this shot taken with the DS40 and 2x skywatcher barlow with the DMK31 camera.
I did a high contrast process of what was probably the busiest part of the sun on saturday taken with the 100mm PST mod at 2250mm focal length with the DMk31 camera. Not my usual style of post processing but I thought I would give this a go!
There were some nice proms visible on the limb in this picture of ar12090 taken with the 100mm pst mod at 1750mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
The solar surface was looking quite churned up in this image taken with the 100mm pst mod of ar12087 about to pass over the limb.
A nice prom was visible on saturday as can be seen in this shot taken with the 100mm PST mod and DMK31 camera.
For a change there seems more to see in Ha wavelengths at the moment, with plenty of small filaments. The active region at the centre of the disk was under going a small C1 class flare when I took this picture with the Coronado DS40 at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
There's not really a lot of activity in this pair of sunspot groupings, however there is some fine detail in the plage regions in this shot taken with the 80mm scope at 1000mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
The seeing was barely supporting this shot taken with the 80mm scope, but, it came out ok!
I've not really been able to image in CaK with the 80mm scope much this time of the year with the heat giving poor seeing, however this shot came out ok.
The sun would seem to be entering a bit of a quieter period with the main spot groups passing towards the western limb. A couple of small proms were visible though in this shot taken with the 40mm at 700mm focal length with the DMK31.
I took over 50 shots at 925mm focal length with the 40mm scope on friday afternoon, but the heat was causing the seeing to boil all over the place and this is the only one that came out how I like, the rest were mush!
On the last day of northern spring, with the summer solstice occurring tomorrow our star was putting on it's best views in hydrogen alpha wavelengths today. The suns southern jet stream was busy with activity with many small filaments. None of them could come close to competing in size with the one that is in the northern hemisphere. This long cloud of cooler plasma is held aloft above the surface of the sun by magnetic fields. There were also a couple of nice filaproms visible on either limb too. This shot was taken with the Coronado DS40 at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera. I hope tomorrows summer solstice holds clear skies so I get some imaging in then too!
Activity on the sun would seem to be getting quieter at the moment, even in CaK which is normally bustling, but there is only a group of 3 active regions that can be seen, even the proms were small. This shot was taken with the 40mm at 560mm focal length with the homebrew filter. Initial tests with the UV polariser would seem to suggest it is indeed in cutting some reflections. The sky background was certainly blacker, and contrast does not seem to be adversely affected. Seeing was terrible this afternoon in heat of about 24c but the spicule ring was easily seen. First impressions are certainly positive! The next step is either better blocking filters or a 1/4 wave plate, can't decide which!
There was plenty to see in CaK wavelengths on yesterdays sun, I managed a quick view after work when the skies cleared. This was the first time I got to test my UV polariser in the filter train in an attempt to cut the reflections / ghosts in the system. This was placed between the 2 K line filters and rotated; it was clear that this was cutting the reflection that was offset off the field of view, admittedly at the expense of taking some light from the system (longer exposure!), but, I was thinking about going for a blocking system with more light throughput anyway, so this may force this a little quicker than I was thinking already
There were lovely filaments visible on the sun in this quick disk I managed to photograph after work yesterday with the Coronado DS40 at f14 with the DMK31 camera.
There was a nice collection of proms visible around the limb of the sun today in this mosaic taken with the 40mm scope at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera. I took delivery today of specific ultra violet polarisers which I am hoping will help to reduce the brightening due to ghost reflections around the perimeter of the sun - ultimately I am hoping to get an image with a higher signal to noise ratio which should make the prominences easier to see on a blacker sky background, maybe with a higher contrast disk with maybe filaments that are easier to see? I just need some clear skies now to test out the new filter setup and the theory!
AR12089 is quite a busy active region as it nears the limb, with several proms also visible in this shot taken with the 40mm at 925mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and DMK31 camera.
A nice view of the spot groups heading towards and about to pass over the solar limb in this CaK image taken with the 40mm at 925mm focal length and DMK31 camera.
A new set of spots rounds the suns eastern limb in this shot taken with the 40mm @ 925mm fl with the DMK31 camera.
Magnetic froth trails the spots in this active region grouping in this shot taken with the 40mm scope at f22.5 with the DMK31 camera.
A close up of this quiet little active region taken with the 40mm at 925mm focal length, homebrew CaK filter and DMK31 camera.
The sun was looking nice in hydrogen alpha light in this shot I took before work this morning with the Coronado DS40 at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
I was looking through the avis I took on friday 13th and discovered this closeup I took of the departing active regions, taken with the 40mm at 925mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and DMK31 camera.
Monster active regions AR12080 and AR12085 have been threatening Earth for over a week now to erupt with massive X class flares but have still only crackled away with 'relatively' minor X class flares. Whilst not geo-effective anymore there is still a chance if they do erupt the resultant proton storm could be directed towards Earth by magnetic fields. This image was taken with the Coronado DS40 scope and DMK31 camera at 700mm focal length using the Astro Hutech 'Hinode' solar guider. My experiences so far is that this is a fantastic piece of kit, easy and intuitive to setup and keeping the sun centred in the eyepiece even when no attention is paid to aligning the scopes mount. I don't want to say too much about it at the moment but will be doing a full review of this great piece of kit in the near future.
The new spot grouping that has come over the limb shows some promise for further activity in the days ahead. Taken with the Coronado double stacked 40mm scope at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 and Hutech solar guider.
A really busy sun in Hydrogen alpha light at the moment with all these monster sunspots and snaking filaments as seen in this image taken with the 40mm at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
Though not the same scale as the spots that are passing over the western limb, the most recent batch of spots coming over the eastern limb should give us some interesting activity in the coming days. The cluster in the top right of the shot could be one to keep an eye on in the coming days and could hopefully develop rapidly. Taken with the 40mm scope at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
A closeup of the active regions that have been threatening to flare over the last week as they approach the western limb. Proms are visible as a hazy cloud over the limb showing that these active regions are 3 dimensional features and not just features on the 'surface' of the sun. Taken with the 40mm at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
Friday morning dawned with clear blue skies so decided it was the perfect opportunity to capture some blue sun - in CaK wavelengths. To me when we have these big sunspots they always seem somewhat larger at 393.37nm. It was a pretty disk this morning with some nice faint proms.
Work has been so busy lately, despite the weather being quite nice this is the only time in nearly 2 weeks I have been able to observe the sun. It was nice to get back and spend an hour or so out in the sunshine taking in the beauty of our star. With NASA announcing the second peak of this solar maximum had occurred there was plenty to see on our star. Fluffy clouds floating around meant I wasn't able to get a full set in CaK, but it was still nice to get a close up of the departing active region.
