Last Sun of 2015! Ha Full Disk 31st December

I woke this morning in the wake of 'Storm Frank' to a suckers gap - that band of clear blue skies that follows the passage of a cold front before the unstable air triggers off bands of showers.  It wasn't much of gap, but it was enough for me to capture this full disk of our star taken in Hydrogen Alpha light taken with the Coronado DS40 at 700mm focal length with the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.  For such a low altitude sun the conditions were really stable and I was pleased with the result, especially as this is my last shot of the sun for 2015.  Happy New Year everyone, I hope it is a good year for you with clear skies!

AR12470 in CaK Light - 23rd December

I took quite a lot of images with the 60mm scope at 1900mm focal length, but, with the poor seeing most were useless, apart from this one!  Which, while far from perfect is quite easily the best of a bad bunch.  Taken with the PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE camera and the homebrew CaK Filter.

CaK Full Disk 23rd December

The sun was looking nice down at the blue end of the spectrum, and this full disk taken with the 40mm scope at 700mm focal length was good in riding above the poor seeing that was prevailing with the low near solstice winter sun.  Taken with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE camera.

Ha Full Disk 23rd December

The sun is surprisingly busy still, with a decent amount of large active regions and their sunspots.  The seeing wasn't great when I took this image with the sun still very low in the sky only a day after the solstice, still, it is over a month since I was last able to image our star.  Taken with the Coronado DS40 at 700mm focal length with the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.

AR12454 in CaK 21st November

I was pleased with these results from the 21st taken with the ED60 and homebrew CaK filter, especially given the low altitude of the sun.  The proms were quite bright today too, normally a sign they are quite energetic.  I also did an over exposed shot to show them up a bit more:

Both shots taken with the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera, it's large pixels are great for CaK work like this where I think it excels!

AR12457 in CaK - 21st November

This active region had just rotated into view when I observed the sun on saturday morning, conditions weren't great in the low sun but I was pleased with the result taken with the ED60 at 1900mm fl with the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.

CaK Full Disk 21st November

The CaK sun was looking nice this saturday, lots of features too, and, some bright proms.  Taken with the 40mm scope at 650mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Blackfly IMX249 camera.

Ha Full Disk 21st November

It's been 3 weeks since i've been able to observe the sun, fortunately there was plenty to see on the disk, and some nice proms too!  The sun is really dropping in altitude now and sits low in the tree tops, so it's a game of waiting for the gaps.  Taken with the Coronado DS40 at 650mm focal length with the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.

AR12443 in CaK Light 1st November

I was really pleased to be able to image this complex active region that rounded the suns eastern limb in the final days of october, the complex string of spots is quite unusual. This shot was taken with the ED60 at 1900mm focal length with the PGR Blackfly gigE IMX249 camera.

AR12442 In CaK Light 1st November

This active region is just looking to explode into activity, it was crackling and bubbling away in both Ha and CaK light today.  Taken with the ED60 at 1900mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.  

CaK Full Disk 1st November

The sun looked serene and smooth in Ha I though today, but in CaK light it looks really quite angry I think, the active regions that are visible are real firecrackers and are likely to send plasma Earth ward in the next couple of days as flaring inevitably happens.  Taken with the 40mm ota at 650mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE camera.

Ha Full Disk 1st November

Wow, the sun is getting low in the sky now, but, I supposed it is the 1st November and only 7 weeks till the winter solstice.  First time i've been able to observe the sun in what seems like ages today, very autumnal with all the fog, but it did clear long enough for me to get some shots in.  First was with the DS40 at 650mm fl with the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.

Reflected Sunshine at Sunrise 26th October

A beautiful start to the day, finally skies cleared just before dawn allowing me to image the morning conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and Mars in a triangle.  Difficult to see in this image scale is also Mercury, just above the gap in between the mountains.  Throw in Earth in the foreground and that's five planets in one shot, not bad going!  Just hoping the aurora put on a show tonight as the clear skies are forecast to stay.

Bubbling Clouds, Dancing Lights - Iceland Aurora October 2014

The clouds bubbled away as the aurora danced around in this 10 minute time lapse taken from Brekka in Hvalfjordur in Iceland.  Taken with the Canon350D, Sigma 10mm F4, ISO 800 and 30 seconds exposure.  

Brekka Aurora Animation - Iceland 2014

It's only taken me a year to get this animation together from last years images of aurora from Brekka in Hvalfjordur in Iceland.  About 50mins worth of timelapse here, taken with a Canon 350D, Sigma 10mm f4 lens at ISO800, 30 second exposures.  Hoping for something better in a weeks time! 

Icelandic Aurora Pt 2 - October 2014

I love the rays in this shot!  Hopefully weather permitting this year aurora will be more spectacular than those of last year with any coronal holes or active regions being closer to the equator and more geoeffective than previous years when activity was more poleward on the sun.

Icelandic Aurora - October 2014

One of my favourite shots of aurora taken in Iceland last October, really looking forward to going again in a couple of weeks, and hope the skies are clear and the aurora are string this time around!

AR12427 in CaK Light - 4th October

I ended up taking dozens of images in the poor seeing in the hope that one would come out, and this one did - the definition of lucky imaging.  The shot was taken with the 100mm Tal refractor at a shade over 3000mm focal length using the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE camera.  This is not as sharp an image as I know I can get with this setup, but for a shot taken in early october with a low sun it works pretty well!

CaK Full Disk 4th October

A quiet sun, but there's always something to see in CaK wavelengths on the disk.  Taken with the 40mm scope at 650mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE camera.

Ha Shots With the ED80 and Daystar Quark 4th October

Sunday offered clear skies, however despite the glorious blue the seeing conditions just weren't as good.  I tried the 100mm scope but seeing would not allow me to stack the images, so I dropped down to the 80mm scope.  The full disk just about managed the panes needed without too much variance between the panes.  It was nice to see a bit of activity!  Taken with the kywatcher ED80, Daystar Quark, Baader Solar Telecompressor and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.

CaK Selection from the 26th September

Using the Airy Labs solar scintillation monitor allows me to choose and process images from the times when the seeing is at it's best, and it works and is a recommended and nifty piece of kit for any solar imager.  Here is a selection of images from the 26th september using a range of scopes and focal lengths taken with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE camera.

AR12422 Animation with the 100mm Tal - 26th September

I took this animation over a period of about 8 minutes at 3 frames a minute, using the daystar quark, Tal100R refractor, baader solar telecompressor and PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE camera giving a focal length of just over 3 metres.  While there are some really sharp frames you can see the waves of poorer seeing in between.

AR12422 With the 5" Frac on the 26th September

A close up of this turbulent active region with the Meade AR5 refractor and Daystar Quark.  The scope isn't the best and is a bit soft, but i'm quite pleased with this slightly closer perspective of this interesting active region.

Shots From the 26th September with the Tal100R and Daystar Quark

I took the following set of shots with the Daystar Quark and the Tal100R refractor, using the Baader solar telecompressor and the PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE camera.  Seeing varied at times but I think I got some half decent results considering.

Shots From The 26th September with the Skywatcher ED80 and Quark

The following images were all part of a set taken on the 26th september using the Skywatcher ED80 telescope, Daystar Quark, Baader solar telecompressor and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.  Seeing was variable throughout the day, but by shooting the subject a number of times, and by using lucky imaging it was possible to find some sharper images.  

Ha Full Disks 26th September

 Work has meant i've been slow in both processing these and also getting them up onto the website, however when taken the sun was nice and busy.  Seeing was awful and the first disk taken with the DS40 at 650mm focal length with the PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE camera.  The second was taken with the Daystar Quark and the ED80, but this was falling foul of the poor seeing, and while it works at this image scale a close up view reveals the uneven seeing in the different panes that make up the mosaic.

AR12415 Ha Closeup 13th September

I got a close up of this active region with the Meade AR5 and Daystar Quark with a Baader solar telecompressor giving a reducing factor of 0.75x with the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.  The Solar scintillation monitor was used to process the images from the best seeing conditions, with the data being shown below along with an image of the same active region when a (small!) B class flare was taking place.

AR12414 Ha Closeup 13th September

I used the autorun feature in Firecapture, and then in conjunction with the data from the Airlyab Solar Scintillation Monitor and processed the files that corresponded with the moments of better seeing; the method worked as this shot taken with the 5" Meade AR5 and daystar quark shows.  Not bad for a shot when the sun had only just come above the rooftops and there were clouds and high level haze floating around at the time.  The Baader solar telecompressor was used to give a reduction factor of 0.75x and the camera used was the PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE.

AR12414 CaK Closeup 12th September

I don't have the Airylabs 'Solar Scintillation Monitor' acting as a trigger for the acquisition software yet, but it is still possible to use the data from it to see what time the best seeing was and then process the image files from this time.  The image above is a result of this process, and while not necessarily apparent when viewed at this small scale, there is a lot of fine detail visible; in particular the penumbral fibrils are starting to be resolved, which considering the image was taken using 60mm aperture is quite good.  The image was taken at 1900mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.

CaK Full Disk 12th September

I'm always impressed how large sunspots appear to be at Calcium wavelengths as can be seen in this image taken with the 40mm OTA at 650mm focal length with the PGR Blackfly IMX249 camera and homebrew CaK filter.

Ha Full Disk 12th September

All the activity on the sun seems to be in the southern hemisphere with the northern hemisphere essentially featureless.  This image was taken with the Coronado DS40 at 650mm focal length with the PGR Blackfly IMX249 camera.

AR12414 in Ha with the Skywatcher ED80 - 12th September

I'm pleased with how this closeup taken with the ED80 and Quark has turned out of this active region as it gets nearer the limb.

AR12415 in Ha Closeup - 12th September

A closeup of this active region using the 127mm scope with the Quark and PGR Blackfly.

AR12414 in Ha - 12th September

A rough and ready (ie no flats applied) shot of this active region taken with the Meade AR5 (127mm) refractor using the Daystar Quark and PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE camera.

Active Regions Closeup In CaK - 10th september

They aren't the largest of active regions, but they are still active never the less, and the seeing conditions were favourable when I took this image with the 60mm ED scope at 1900mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Blackfly IMX249 GigE camera.  The large pixels of this camera work well at these longer focal lengths in CaK.