The sun is quiet, but is still picturesque, that filament looks like it it nearly stretching across the whole disk. Interesting that there has been a feature here on this part of the sun now for over 4 months. This image was taken with the DS40 at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
So, a patchy filament rounds the solar limb again in the southern hemisphere, is it the same one that was first visible in january? maybe, all the timings are right, if so it would make it a very long lived feature on our star. Taken with the DS40 at 700mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
No more big filaproms in CaK today - maybe that little surge on the eastern limb is indication something is on the way around the limb, hopefully so as the sun is looking rather quiet in CaK at the moment. Taken with the 40mm at 560mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and DMK31 camera.
Filaments and prominences are at best ghostly and tenuous in CaK light, so imagine my surprise when I focused in on the sun with the 40mm OTA at 560mm focal length and saw not just one, but two filaproms visible quite easily on screen. Just a few hours later, the one in the north east limb lifted off in spectacular style. Taken with the homebrew CaK filter and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
A quick shot taken very early in the morning on 28th of april with the ED80 and the Quark in it's native format showing this little emerging flux region and filament. Taken with the DMK31 camera.
It was cold and frosty this morning, however the etalons on my DS40 definitely perform better in temperatures closer to 20c, offering more contrast due to to being on band at the higher temperatures. This image was taken at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
Taken with the ED60 at 600mm focal length, there is more detail using the larger aperture scope,. but unfortunately is more susceptible to the effects of poor seeing in the individual panes that make up this mosaic.
The last signs of real activity for the moment start to head over the western limb on the sun, taken with the ED60, homebrew CaK filter and the DMK31.
A barren bit of sun taken with the ED60, homebrew CaK filter and the DMK31 camera.
The seeing was not ideal, but there was still plenty of detail to see in the big filaprom that was snaked over the suns north eastern limb on sunday. This was taken with the Daystar Quark, Skywatcher ED80 and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
The seeing conditions were far from ideal, but I managed a brief closeup of these departing active regions taken with the Quark, ED80 and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
This small active region is going to be the only one left on the disk of the sun in the next couple of days unless something else comes around this limb. Taken with the quark, ED80 and imaging source DMK31 camera.
There was a huge filament visible on the sun this Sunday, kinda reminded me of a caterpillar. After the chain of active regions that are passing over the suns western limb at the moment, things generally seem to be quietening down on our star a bit. This shotn was taken with the DS40 at 560mm focal length with the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
The sun was spitting and crackling away with M class flares on the limb, throwing off whorls of plasma. Taken with the ED60, homebrew CaK filter and Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
This is a fairly quiet active region, but also a picturesque one too, lots of fine detail visible in this shot taken with the ED60, homebrew CaK filter and the DMK31 camera.
Using the Skywatcher ED80 stopped down to 60mm and running at the native focal length of 600mm, when the seeing conditions are good the extra aperture pays off. There was a bit of haze affecting transparency when this picture was took, but on the whole i'm pleased with the results. Taken with the homebrew CaK filter and Imaging source DMK31 camera.
A busy part of the sun heading towards the western limb, with active regions, sunspots filaments, prominences and some flaring! Taken with the Skywatcher ED80, Daystar Quark, Baader Solar Telecompressor and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
A closeup shot of this rather quiet active region taken with the ED80, Quark and DMK31 camera.
Our active regions of the last week are starting to all head off towards the suns eastern limb, which, is possibly timely as the weather in the UK changes from the glorious, warm high pressure we have had to something much more unsettled and cooler. Taken with the DS40 at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
Energetic active regions look absolutely fantastic in CaK wavelengths, and these are no exception. There is tons of detail in and around the spots, and the seeing must have been fairly decent as the penumbral fibrils are starting to resolve. Taken with the Ed60, homebrew CaK filter and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
Hints of the ghostly filament visible in CaK wavelengths can be seen towards the top of this frame, it was much more apparent in the live view than in this stacked image. Taken with the ED60, homebrew CaK filter and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
A closeup of the new active region that has come round the eastern limb, though to be honest looks like it is decaying and unlikely to produce any fireworks of note. Taken with the ED60, homebrew CaK filter and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
The sun has plenty of activity at the moment as can be seen in this overview CaK image taken with the ED60, at 600mm fl, Imaging Source DMK31 camera and the home brew CaK filter.
On catch up with my images, here's the Ha full disk from sunday taken with the DS40 at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera.
This is my favourite image from saturdays session when the seeing was really holding up I was able to use the full resolution the Tal100R stopped down to 80mm offered, interestingly I used the scope at the full 100mm aperture and the results weren't as good. You can see the penumbral fibrils in this image taken with a Beloptik tri-band ERF, homebrew CaK filter and imaging source DMK31 camera at 1750mm aperture.
A closeup of this active region with the Tal100R stopped down to 80mm running at 1750mm focal length with the DMK31 and homebrew CaK filter.
A closeup of AR12327 taken with the ED60 at 1350mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the DMK31 camera.
A mid scale closeup of the main active regions that were mid disk on sunday, taken with the ED60 at 960mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the imaging source DMK31 camera.
CaK full disk taken with the ED60 at 600mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the DMK31 camera.
The northern hemisphere on our star has a lot happening at the moment. I was actually going for a full disk shot with the Quark, but the seeing wasn't going to allow me to make use of all the panes that I took for this mosaic. Taken with the ED80, Daystar Quark, Baader Solar Telecompressor and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
This active region looks like it has a chasm of light to the north eastern edge. Taken with the 100mm Tal100R refractor, Daystar Quark and Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
This active region was looking very fierce with its looping filaments. Taken with the 100mm Tal, Quark and DMK31 camera.
A bit of a hazy image of this new active region just coming around the eastern limb as the seeing was a bit wobbly, taken with the 100mm Tal refractor, Quark and the DMK31 camera.
The sun is currently quite active with plenty going on as can be seen in this full disk image taken with the Coronado DS40 at 560mm focal length with the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
I was looking again at the data I got from the 14th april, and initially thought all of my CaK shots were a write off, however, spotted I had 6 consecutive frames of ar12320 as it was going over the western limb with this little dynamic surge prom that took place over a couple of minutes. Taken with the 100mm Tal at 2250mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter.
The extra 20mm resolution of the 100mm Tal100R compared to the ED80 is quite apparent when the image is clicked and viewed at larger scale, showing much finer detail. This is a lovely strip of active regions that have rotated into view over the past couple of days, active region ar12321 has a beta - gamma magnetic field with the potential for M-class flares, at the moment these have just been C-class. The image was taken with the Daystar Quark, Baader Solar Telecompressor and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
A mid scale view of the north eastern quadrant of the sun where all of a sudden we have a whole host of activity. Taken with the ED80, Quark, baader solar telecompressor and the DMK31.
Our sun is looking great at the moment with all this activity that has come round the eastern limb, by the weekend it will be more mid disk and in great position for imaging. This shot was taken with the DS40 at 560mm focal length with the DMK31 camera. These etalons definitely produce better images when the temperature is warmer and the pressure is higher - oh the physics of etalons!
Been a while since I took a CaK image, been far too distracted with the Quark, but, here is a quick full disk taken with the 40mm at 560mm focal length with the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
Conditions were far from good on Sunday morning, with a high and gusty wind buffeting the scope about, but also a layer of fairly persistent high cloud and fast moving thicker clouds scudding by. I could see that a solar flare was under way so decided to try for a capture anyway; this is about 20 minutes of animation captured with the ED80, Quark and DMK31 camera. While not perfect it was nice to be able to get some view of the flare from this new set of active regions.
The sun has got to be the most dynamic object you can observe, with every day offering different features, however in this instance this mega filament has got to be one of the most long lived features that I have seen on the face of our star. I first recorded this in mid January and so far it has survived 3 rotations. Held aloft above the suns surface by magnetic field lines this cool plasma hovers like a solar cloud, although it is significantly reduced in density compared to a few months ago it remains to be seen whether this long term solar feature will remain for a fourth rotation. Guess we will have to wait a couple of weeks and see. This image was taken with the 100mm Tal100R refractor, Daystar Quark, Baader Solar Telecompressor and the Imaging source DMK31 camera.
AR12320 has been relatively quiet in terms of flare activity over the past week or so, but despite its quiet disposition still looks a very angry active region with many turbulent swirls of dark filamentary plasma. Taken with the 100mm Tal100R refractor, Daystar Quark, Baader Solar Telecompressor and Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
The north east quadrant of the sun was looking very busy on Saturday, with an emerging flux region and a trio of new sunspots passing over the limb. Throw in a filaprom, filaments and prominences and there was a lot to see. Taken with the 100mm Tal refractor, Daystar Quark, Baader Solar Telecompressor and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
Yesterday crown prominence heralded something coming around the suns eastern limb; on Saturday morning the feature revealed itself as a trio of active sunspots, spitting plasma in a cauldron of turbulent magnetism. Seeing wasn't great but I got this image very first thing with the 100mm Tal refractor, double stacked quark, Baader solar telecompressor and the Imaging Source DMk31 camera.
Looks like we're about to get a new active region coming over the eastern limb, this crown prominence was spluttering and spitting on the live view from GONG and would have made a great timelapse, alas cloud was not being kind this friday and not giving up many opportunities for solar observing. Taken with the 100mm Tal100R refractor, double stacked daystar quark, baader solar telecompressor and Imaging source DMK31 camera.
The Tal100R shows itself to be a great performer with the double stacked Quark as shown in this image of the mega filament as it slowly winds it's way over the solar limb.
I've only recently started to image with the Tal 100R refractor and the double stacked Daystar Quark, Baader Solar Telecompressor and Imaging Source DMK31 camera, but I must say the initial results are promising, I particularly like the textured surfaces the sun takes on with this setup that has a sense of real depth and 3 dimensionality to it. All these images from Thursday were taken in less than ideal conditions with poor seeing and poor transparency, but recording 1000 frames and only stacking the best 25 seems to get acceptable results. The good weather is set to continue for a few more days at least here in the UK so hopefully should get a few more images in yet.
The northeastern quadrant of the sun had some lovely delicate proms and a filament visible, while conditions weren't great I managed a closeup with the 100mm Tal refractor, DS Quark, baader solar telecompressor and the Imaging Source DMK31 camera.
A closeup of the longest lasting filament i've seen for some time taken with the 100mm Tal refractor, Quark and DMK31 camera.
This mosaic taken with the 100mm Tal refractor and Daystar quark shows just how turbulent and angry this active region is.
