I was really surprised at the quality of the seeing when I got the 100mm Tal100R refractor out at 7am on the morning of the 22nd. It's not very often that it works this well at 100mm aperture but today was of those days! Taken at 1750mm focal length with the home brew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera.
Taken on the morning of the 15th may while the seeing was still reasonable first thing I was hoping that this monster active region might be a little more active, but even in the animation which spans some 10 minutes real time there is plenty of motion in the plasma throughout the image. Taken with the 203mm Airylab Hat at 5.6m focal length with a Daystar etalon and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
I had to back off on the exposure here to keep the flaring regions tame as the sun was having a small C Class burp. The motion of the magnetically charged plasma is quite fascinating. Taken with the Airylab HaT at 203mm aperture, 5.6m focal length with a Daystar filter and a PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
Poorer seeing and high cloud were beginning to prevail when I took these animations with the 203mm Airylab HaT that span 5 minutes real time each. A Daystar etalon was used along with the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera at an effective focal length of 5.6m.
This active region appeared to have a bit of life in it, so I took this timelapse spanning some 12 minutes. Not much happened, but it does show how dynamic the sun is even in times as we head towards solar minimum. Taken with the skywatcher ED80, Daystar Quark and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
I do like how this image from this section of sun with this small active region on the limb turned out! Taken with the Skywatcher ED80, Daystar Quark and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
This pair of active regions looked nice as they approached the limb in this image taken with the Skywatcher ED80, Daystar Quark and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
It was pleasing to see on saturday morning the signs of a new, and big, active region rounding the suns eastern limb. It was really easy to see with the Daystar Quark in the back of the skywactcher ED80 scope with a PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
I wanted to try and zoom in a bit on this Jupiter sized spot that has just rounded the limb, but the seeing just would not allow me to get closer than this. Taken with the 60mm scope at 1050mm focal length with the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera and the home brew CaK filter.
The seeing really was awful with a howling jet stream right over head, I was even struggling with the 60mm at 1050mm focal length. Still, it frames these active regions as they pass towards the solar limb. Taken with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon (IMX265) camera.
Lots of activity on the sun and a huge spot appearing over the western limb! Plenty to look at in the next couple of days! Taken with the 60mm scope at 600mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera.
In true fashion it was predominantly cloudy here in the West Midlands for mondays transit of Mercury, however by early evening the cloud had thinned sufficiently to a mere thick haze to allow some views of the event. I decided to use the Airylab 203mm HaT to get view of the event, knowing that regardless of what the seeing conditions were I would be getting maximum resolution. Through the eyepiece, even with the haze, the views were stunning; Mercury sat quite clearly above the solar disk, looking considerably blacker than the back ground sky. Using a 32mm plossl eyepiece gave me a view at 175x magnification, and looking carefully it was quite easy to see the movement of the planet relative to features on the solar disk. I took some images which came out better than I expected, and managed to get an animation that shows the passage over 12 minutes. Taken with a Daystar Quark and the PGR BLackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
Sundays active regions looked very dramatic and detailed in this shot taken with the Skywatcher ED80 and Daystar Quark in conjunction with a naked PST etalon in the output telecentric beam to reduce continuum leakage in the wings. This setup is very successful in producing very high contrast images. Taken with the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
The blue sky lasted long enough today for me to get a full disk mosaic in Ha using the Daystar Quark with the Skywatcher ED80, now I have got the camera chip tilted there are no interference fringes with the PGR Blackly GigE IMX249 camera. The image is huge and worth a click to see full size. This is in contrast to the full disk I took with the Coronado DS40, even though I managed to recontact the etalon on this scope, now it needs a lot of tilt to get it on band and shows banding effects. This may be due to the etalon not being seated squarely, and will warrant some further attention from me to try and come up with a fix, though I am tempted to bite the bullet and go for a Lunt50, I do think I will get better results with a pressure tuned scope. The image below shows the banding issues.
There is still more contrast with the little 40mm scope!
Seems to be lots of white plage on the sun today; these are frothy magnetically 'hot' regions associated with active regions. Taken with the 40mm scope at 550mm focal length with the home made CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera. Hoping the cloud breaks up a bit later on so I can get some more imaging in today on what looks like will be the hottest day of the year so far...
This is a nice little active region as it heads towards the limb in this shot taken with the 203mm Airylab HaT telescope at 5.6m focal length with a Daystar etalon and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
The filaments in and around this active region were certainly quite dynamic and quickly changing in this 20 frame time lapse taken over a period of 10 minutes shows. I forgot to take a flat with the animations from thursday morning so there are a few dancing dust bunnies and fibres to contend with. Taken with the 203mm Airylab HaT at 5.6m focal length with a Daystar etalon and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
After the lovely surge prom I managed to capture coming from this active region the previous day I was keen to get another shot at it. I did a run of 20 frames which spanned 10 minutes real time. Unfortunately the whole region was rather quiet in comparison to 24 hours earlier. Still, is nice to see the movement of plasma in and around the active region. This was taken with the 203mm Airlylab HaT at 5.6m focal length with a Daystar Quark etalon and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
This surge prom was so dynamic it could be seen visibly changing at the eyepiece of the HaT. I took this 9 pane animation that spans 4 minutes at 5.6m focal length with an Daystar etalon and the PGR Blackfly gigE IMX249 camera. Hopefully it will be just as busy tomorrow and will be able to get a longer time lapse!
This little active region looked nice sat close to the limb this morning in this image taken with the 203mm Airylab HaT at 5.6m focal length with a Daystar etalon and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
This active region looked quite angular and angry to me this morning! Taken with the Airylab HaT at 203mm aperture, 5.6m focal length with a Daystar etalon and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
Seeing wasn't great but it was nice to see the intricate details in the filaments that surround this active region. Taken with the 203mm Airylab HaT at 5.6m focal length with a Daystar etalon and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.
This active region has only just rounded the limb, but the faint proms above it hint at possibly something else coming around in the next couple of days. Taken with the 100mm Tal100R refractor at 1400mm focal length with the home brew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera using tilt to remove interference fringes.
Only a couple of very small spots and some pores make up this active region. Taken with the 100mm Tal100R at 1400mm focal length with the home brew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera.
These active regions are quiet but picturesque as they head towards the suns western limb - can you spot the paw print in the spots? Can't beat a bit of Pareidolia. Taken with the 100mm Tal 100R refractor at 1400mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera.
Up nice and early this morning for a spot of solar observing before work. The full disk in CaK always looks nice! Taken with the 40mm scope at 550mm focal length with the home brew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265).
It's nice to see so much activity on the sun at the moment, even if it is only in the solar northern hemisphere. Another active region can be seen on the eastern limb rotating into view with what would appear to be a couple of small spots in it. Taken with the 60mm scope at 1050mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera.
Using the 60mm scope at 1050mm focal length was about all I could push things with the poor seeing, but the end result isn't too bad of these pair of active regions heading towards the suns western limb. A little bit of flaring in one of the active regions, and in the other the spots take on the appearance of a paw print - Pareidolia! Taken with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera.
Transparency was great allowing for a nice fast exposure, which was good as the seeing was awful coupled with the blustery wind. Still, this image came out looking quite nice in the end. Taken with the 40mm scope at 550mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera.
The weather forecast for sunday for me was rain, apart from a glimmer of hope of a bit of sun right around dawn. I decided to get up early and take my chances. The sky wasn't completely clear, and as a result there was a fantastic display of halos: I'm used to the usual 22 degree halo in our frequently milky skies, but today offered a bit more. There is a hint of a Parhelic circle, parhelia (sun dogs), a really bright upper tangent archttp://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/common.htm but also a plainly visible 46 degree halo, which is an altogether rarer phenomenahttp://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/46hal.htm , and something i've only seen a couple of times in over 30 years of looking for these things. Anyhoo, I was supposed to be solar observing, I started off with the CaK full disk, this is all I got as those clouds were thickening all the while. This is all I ended up with in the end... Taken with the 40mm scope at 550mm focal length with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera.
