Wednesday 29 June 2016

Plasma Waves - 26th June

Another 10 minute 25 frame time lapse animation showing just how turbulent the seemingly quiet filaments are; the irregular shape of the solar limb is a result of one of these filaments as it rounds the edge of the sun.  Waves of plasma can be seen washing around in this image taken with the 203.2mm Airylab HaT at 5.6 metres focal length with a double stacked Daystar etalon and the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.

Solar Tornados - 26th June

All the data on the web indicated something was coming around the limb on sunday morning, a close up view with the 0.2m HaT revealed a twisting turning mass of plasma, which revealed itself in the days ahead to be filaments.  This animation is 25 frames taken over 10 minutes and shows the tornadic motion of the plasma as it passes over the limb.  Taken with the 203.2mm Airylab HaT at 5.6m focal length, double stacked daystar solar filter with the PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.

Sunday 26 June 2016

Subtle Filaments - 26th June

This animation spans just 10 minutes and contains 25 frames, but there are some subtle movements going on with this filament.  More obvious is the dancing spicules all over the image jetting up from the chromosphere.  Taken with the 0.2 metre Airylab HaT at a focal length of 5.6m with a PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera.  A double stacked Daystar etalon was used to reduced continuum leakage of the filter.

Sunday 5 June 2016

CaK Full Disk - 5th June

I got back just in time this afternoon to grab a quick CaK full disk with the ED60 at 600mm focal length, the home brew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera.  Despite the disk being devoid of spots in white light there was plenty of plage visible at 393nm wavelength.

A Blank Sun In White Light - 5th June

I decided to dust off my Lunt Solar Wedge this afternoon and try a full disk in white light.  You can tell solar minimum is heading our way in a couple of years, for the first time in ages the disk was completely blank, a few areas of plage if you look very closely, and maybe a single pore.  Taken with the ED80 at 600mm focal length with the PGR Chameleon 3 (IMX265) camera.  Using the new GPIO connector for this camera I was able to power it from a 12 volt battery rather than over the noisy USB3 connection, and, as a result was able to apply noise free gain to keep the exposure time as short as possible.  When I have a little more time over the summer I want to write an article discussing the benefits of how cameras are powered.

AR12546 Ha Animation 24th May

Desperately trying to catch up on some data I took in late May here.  This is a 50 frame animation that spans 25 minutes real time of AR12546 taken with the 203mm Airylab HaT at 5.6m focal length with the PGR GigE IMX249 Blackfly camera.  Sadly this active region was pretty quiet when I took this timelapse, though there is some subtle movement in the plasma that can be seen happening.

AR12546 in Ha with the HaT - 22nd May

I really am pleased with this image of this particular active region I took with the 203mm Airylab Hat at 5.6m focal length, it quite possibly is my best image to date with this scope.  While i've seen from other images from scopes of this aperture that more detail is possible, i'm really not far off maximum resolution with this image.  The PGR Blackfly GigE IMX249 camera was used.  The image is worth clicking on to view full size as there's lots of detail in it!