The sun at first glance seems surprisingly quiet at the moment; this image is dominated by the nice arching prominence, however look to the centre of the image and there is a small brighter spot, this is a bright point in the latitudes we would expect cycle 25 activity. Further to the right of this a small filament is also coexistent at the same latitudes. Activity is there, it is only small scale and small field strengths but is there if you know where to look. Taken with the Coronado SM90 double stacked with the Daystar Quark and the new Grasshopper 3 IMX174 camera.
Trying out my new FLIR Grasshopper 23S6M camera with IMX174 chip this morning; I double stacked the Quark onto the Coronado SM90. I was pleased with the level of detail I was getting and the fast frame rate certainly helps with the seeing at these longer focal lengths. This region of turbulent plasma on the Sun marks the position where there have been active regions and sunspots for the past couple of solar rotations.
A quick full disk before work on Thursday taken with the SM90 at prime focus with the FLIR Grasshopper 3 ICX916M camera. The region rotating into view on the limb is where we have had active regions for a few rotations.
The suns southern pole was where it was all happening on Saturday, a small surge took place just off the edge of the limb as can be seen in this animation spanning just over 10 minutes. A small filament forming part of a solar crown can also be seen along with the faint bright points associated with polar faculae. This was taken with the Coronado SM90 double stacked with the Daystar Quark. The FLIR Grasshopper 3 ICX916M camera was used to make this animation.
The sun was very quiet in Ha viewed on the full disk scale, taken with the SM90 and FLIR Grasshopper 3 ICX916M camera.
Using the 100mm Tal refractor at 3000mm focal length to get in closer on the suns southern polar region, the small area of plage is associated with cycle 25. The spicule ring is also faintly visible on the limb.
Using the 100mm Tal and the 3x barlow to close in on some of the plage on the solar equator associated with cycle 24. The inverse granulation pattern in CaK is just starting to show through in this image.
The sun is very quiet at the moment, with little visible even in CaK wavelengths. There is a small patch of plage in southern polar regions associated with cycle 25. Cycle 24 has still not fully departed and there are still a few patches of plage on the equator. This full disk was taken with the 100mm Tal refractor at f10 with the homebrew CaK filter and the FLIR Grasshopper 3 ICX916M camera. Looking at the image full size it is possible to see the inverse granulation that is typified at Calcium wavelengths.
The sun was shining this friday morning so decided to get a quick shot. Wow, it's quiet at the moment. Taken with the SM90 and FLIR ICX916M Grasshopper 3 camera.
Following a weeks solid rain a very brief window of blue skies presented itself this Sunday morning before the next rain rushed in from the west. I had the mount setup and waiting outside under a tarpaulin for such an opportunity so was able to get out and observe with the SM90. The sun is quiet, but a few bright points are starting to become visible now, possibly a tell tale sign of an increase in activity as we get closer to cycle 25. The seeing was quite good for a change, and the spicule ring resolves itself nicely, as is a nice flame prom visible at 10 o'clock when the image is viewed full size. Camera used was the FLIR GH3 ICX916M.
Despite being sunny very first thing I anticipated clouds not building till 10am, which is what usually happens. Today was different and by 7am clouds were bubbling away, as such the imaging session I has planned was cut very short and I only managed a full disk with the SM90 with the 2x cemax barlow and the FLIR GH3 ICX916M camera. The remnants of the active region from previous rotations only has a couple of days before it rotates out of view and, on it's return in a few weeks time is likely to have little to show.
Wanting a closeup of the region of activity, I double stacked the setup I used for the full disk with the Daystar Quark but with 2x2 binning on the camera to get a better sampling rate. Maybe not quite on band but the clouds were coming in fast.
First clear skies for me for a while happening at the same time i've been able to image. There may be no spots but the region of activity from previous rotations manifests itself as an area of disturbed plasma with filaments marking the magnetic boundaries. Taken with the Lunt 50 etalon, 2x cemax barlow and FLIR GH3 ICX916M camera.
