I have to stress this comparison image was taken in far from ideal conditions, the sky was particularly hazy with poor seeing, and, given we are in january the low altitude of the sun. However it does show very well the effect of double stacking - the double limb feature disappears, filaments are more pronounced and sunspots become more ill defined as photospheric leakage is reduced. This is a comparison I want to try again later in the year in better conditions. The Quark was double stacked by simply putting a PST etalon in the Quarks eyepiece holder. Taken with the 70mm f6, 0.5x reducer and Daystar Quark with the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
This is a really quite small active region about to pass over the suns western limb, but had this nice little surge of plasma coming from it, so thought was worthy of a shot. Not the best image but any image taken mid january is a bonus. Shot with the 70mm f6 with the quark and 0.5x reducer with the DMK31 camera.
Lovely flame prom visible on the suns north eastern limb today. Taken with the 70mm scope and 0.5x reducer with the Quark and DMK31 camera.
AR12268 is a monster, and has potential for M-class flares in the days ahead. Throw in a nice flame prom and it made for a nice cak quadrant, even if the sky conditions were far from perfect and there was haze. Either way, at this time of year it is just nice to be able to observe our star. Taken with the 40mm at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
Despite the haze, the CaK shots seemed to have come out ok today. Taken with the 40mm scope at 400mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
Another cold and frosty morning here, alas skies are not blue rather a little milky and hazy, but, the sun is out so always good to see what is happening on it. huge new sunspot group (ar12268) appeared on the eastern limb is already crackling with minor flare activity and poses threats for potential M-class in the days ahead. One to watch out for! Image taken with the DS40 at 400mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
The proms were looking pretty again today at CaK wavelengths!
The sun is starting to get quiet lately, even in CaK! Taken with the 40mm at f10 with the homemade CaK filter and DMK31 camera.
I was pushing the seeing conditions today at 393nm with the 40mm scope at 700mm focal length, the image just about came out - quite a bit softer than I know I can get with this setup but i'll take it for a winters day in the middle of january! There's just a hint of todays filaprom too - need to get the CaK bandpass a bit tighter...
No doubt in a day or so time this emerging flux region, currently known un-glamorously as S4149, will be classified as a fully fledged active region as in this image it shows all the signs of coming to life. I'm pleased with the results I got from the Quark today given the low altitude of the sun currently, things can only improve as it climbs higher as the year progresses. Taken with the 70mm scope at f6, with the DMK31 camera and 0.5x focal reducer.
Thought i'd go all 'inverted' with this one, don't do this style of shot very often but it works with this image I think. There was a lovely filaprom today that is captured really well in this image taken with the 70mm f6 refractor with the Daystar Quark and 0.5x focal reducer on the end of the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
The dark clouds of plasma that sit above the surface of the Sun are known as filaments, as they cross over the limb of the Sun they are a filaprom, when they are no longer on the surface and illuminate in the blackness of space they are a prominence. Todays Sun showed great examples of all 3 of these features in this south western quadrant of our star. I left it in black and white as it keeps the original image contrast better. This shot was taken with the DS40 at 560mm focal length with the Imaging Source DMK31 CCD camera.
Glorious clear blue skies today means I can get a shot of our star in, the seeing was remarkably good for such a cold day, revealing plenty of detail in the departing filaprom. Taken with the DS40 at f10 with the DMK31 camera.
The proms in CaK were really bright this morning, and there were lots of them, so I decided to up the exposure and go for a prom shot. It also gave me the opportunity to try out a setup I intend using for the eclipse on March 20th; at the time I will be doing outreach, and so have decided to show views of the sun through the eyepiece in whitelight and also Ha, however I plan to record a timelapse of the eclipse in CaK light, showing its complete passage (weather permitting of course!) I shall image at the same scale as the image above, as this gives me some 'space' around the solar disk, which if someone nudges the scope I hopefully wont lose it out of the fov. I will ofcourse be using the excellent Hutech solar guider to make sure things are kept squarely in the field of view. This image is with the 40mm scope and a 0.5x reducer on the nosepiece of the DMK31 camera with the homebrew CaK filter.
Clouds were scudding all over the place when I took this image which was frustrating, however when I saw the image that came out it was pretty decent for a frosty January morning. Despite a quiet disk there were quite a few proms visible this morning. Taken with the 40mm at f10 with the DMK31 camera and homemade CaK system.
With temperatures at or around freezing this morning it was not helping the tilt tune etalon system on my Coronado DS40, for an even disk it was off band, however if I tilted the etalon to nearer on band then the image was plagued with uneven banding and illumination artifacts. So, in the end I just settled for an off band disk. Taken with the DS40 at f10 with the DMK31 camera.
Active region ar12253 really has been getting bigger over the past couple of days, and now has the potential for M class flares as it rotates towards Earth to become geoeffective. Throw in a couple of brightish proms on the limb and this made for a nice view. Taken with the 40mm scope at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera and homebrew CaK filter.
Todays sun is starting to look interesting in CaK light, with some nice proms visible on the eastern limb. Seeing is poor this time of year with the low sun so went for a full disk at prime focus with the 40mm scope using the homebrew CaK filter and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
The seeing was really boiling away this morning and has softened the image up quite a bit, but still got a nice view of this quickly developing active region. Taken with the DS40 at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
Woke up to clear skies this morning, so decided to make the most of my brief gap in the trees to get some views in of the sun low in the sky. Glad I did, it's quite a nice disk today! Taken with the Coronado DS40 @ f10 with the DMK31 camera.
