There's a lot happening on our star at the moment, and conveniently it all fits in the field of view when I use the 40mm double stacked Coronado at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera. I'm pleased with this image given it was taken of such a low sun at the end of November, imaging at this time of year is a rare thing!
Not ideal seeing conditions when I took this shot - the sun had only just risen and was still low, but it's nice to get a capture at this time in the year. Taken with the double stacked coronado 40mm etalons at 400mm focal length with the DMK31 camera. Lots happening on our star at the moment!
Things are starting to get spotty again, and some of these spots have potential to start flaring. If the sun is out where you are keep an eye on them! Taken with the 40mm scope at 400mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
The sun seems to be peppered in active regions at the moment, none of them monster, but active none the less. This shot with the 40mm scope at 560mm focal lengths shows them well. Taken with the homebrew CaK filter and the DMK31 camera.
The sun is quite busy again, spots and lots of white plage which is easily seen in CaK light. This image was taken with the 40mm scope at f10 with the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
The sun certainly is getting low now, only 3 weeks away from the solstice - however in a months time it will be rising in the sky again - think positive! This image was taken with the DS40 at 400mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
A quick close up of this active region with the double stacked quark on the 70mm scope using a 0.5x reducer with the DMK31 camera. The sun had only risen for about half an hour when this picture was taken, and with such a low altitude sun i'm pretty pleased with the result.
Was really nice to see the clouds break to reveal beautifully clear skies this afternoon, after what seems like weeks of cloud and rain. This time of year I am limited only to weekends for imaging, and then at certain times when the sun is between the roof tops and trees. I used the coronado DS40 at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera to make this 4 pane mosaic of todays sun. Lots of nice features to see!
I was pleased to be able to capture this giant spot on its second orbit of the solar disk, it's much smaller now but is still a large feature. There were some interesting prominences visible today also, including a small filaprom that can be seen at the top right of the image. The shot was taken with the Coronado DS40 at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
As I was imaging today AR12216 crackled with a small C2 flare, not huge, but still the largest explosion at that time in over a 4 light year radius. Taken with the DS40 at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
Finally some sunshine on a weekend when I have some free time! The sun is low this time of year, and looking across the city skyline hops between the rooftops and trees, fortunately when the blue skies appeared the sun was in a gap. It is nice to catch the big spot on its second rotation before it departed, maybe it will make a 3rd? The sky broke to really transparent deep blue skies as the weather front passed over, and as a result the proms were really easy to see at 393nm. The shot was taken with the 40mm scope at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera and homebrew CaK filter.
This monster is smaller than it was a month ago, but is still a fair sized sunspot, lots of arcs of plasma between the numerous spot centres. There were several prominences also nicely visible. Taken with the 40mm scope at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera and homebrew CaK filter system.
A quick shot of this new active region; the sky was quite a deep blue and as a result the prominences were quite easily visible. Taken with the 40mm scope at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera and homebrew CaK filter.
I couldn't believe quite how dynamic todays lift off prom was in CaK light, it was changing really quite quickly. Alas the sky was full of clouds and so I was not able to get as long a sequence of images as I would like. Still, this animation of 8 images taken over a mere 12 minutes shows just how quickly things were changing. This was taken with the 40mm scope at 700mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the DMK31 camera.
I was pleasantly surprised to see how bright todays lift off prom was in CaK light. The seeing was not the best and only allowed me to use 560mm focal length with the 40mm scope, homebrew CaK filter and DMK31 camera, however at these shorter wavelengths the prom stood out better than in Ha.
There was plenty to see on the the suns south western quadrant this sunday morning with a huge prom in the process of lifting off and AR12205 crackling away with some minor flare activity. Minimal processing with this image, just some smart sharpen and colour applied. Again, this is pretty much the view that you get through the eyepiece. Included is also the mono version. Taken with the Coronado DS40 at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
After what seems like weeks and weeks of not being able to get any sun, this sunday morning dawned with frosty clear blue skies. I knew that with the low sun hopping in and out of the trees and rooftops that the seeing wasn't going to be great so I decided to not be too ambitious with the aperture and stuck to the DS40 at 560mm focal length with the DMK31. I just caught the start of the big prominence that was starting to lift off, and at the time and at this point was just detached. I really liked the raw data that I had got, and so decided to process the image 'naked' - all that was done was some sharp sharpen; no levels or contrast etc, and this in my eyes gives a very natural view of our star like you would get at the eyepiece of the scope, I really like how natural and wispy the prominences look. Included below is the black and white version just in case you prefer monochrome over colour.
