CaK Full Disk 27th March

It was the briefest of windows on Saturday morning before the clouds rolled in, but I managed to get a quick CaK full disk at 60mm f16. Nice to see the spicule ring around the edge, double click for a full size view!

AR12811 in Ha 21st March

It's nice to see activity ramping up on the sun, and the DS90 is a great setup for showing this activity, seen in this shot taken at f25 with the IMX174 camera. These new active regions have rounded the limb and are looking rather nice with plenty to see. I was fighting the seeing at this aperture, but lots of frames seemed to work. Just need the weather to improve a bit now we have moved into spring with the sun higher in the sky!

Filaments! 21st March

As the suns magnetic fields start to build up in strength as it slowly ramps up activity in this new solar cycle, the boundary of these magnetic fields is marked by darker filaments, clouds of cooler plasma held in place by magnetic fields. Taken with the DS90 at f25 with the IMX174 camera.

Ha Full Disk 21st March

Quite pleased to have got this full disk on Sunday, as it looked like the clouds weren't going to budge at all, but by late afternoon they suddenly shifted. Taken with the DS50 setup it was nice to see some activity starting to brew up on the sun.

CaK Disk Through The Clouds - 20th March

Saturday was predominantly cloudy, however diffuse shadows appeared late in the afternoon so I decided to see what could be seen through the clouds. I had to use 2x2 binning and have the camera gain 3/4 the way up to get an image on the screen, but this just about worked! Including the cloud haze around the disk the new active region and it's attendant spot can be seen that has just rounded the limb. Taken with the Coronado sm40 with a 2x Cemax barlow. I think I will be lucky if I get any cloud breaks on the Sunday too!

CaK Full Disk 17th March

I was able get home slightly earlier than usual from work on the 17th, and fortunately the endless grey skies had cleared earlier in the afternoon to reveal the blue above. The sun was only 4-5 degrees above the horizon when I took this image and as a result atmospheric extinction was a problem, however, 2x2 binning with the camera came to the rescue of the light levels, even if the resultant image is under sampled. Still, it shows the larger main features well, and also hints at the plentiful proms that were easily visible as a result of good air transparency. It was just nice to get some sun in!

Ha Full Disk 17th March

No time for the Quark to heat up for a double stack view, instead just using the Lunt 50 etalon for a single stack view of the sun that was only a few degrees above the horizon when this image was taken. Despite being only single stack the main features and activity came out quite nicely. It was a good day for the proms!

CaK Full Disk 14th March

Sundays weather forecast did exactly what it said it would... Started off clear at sunrise, steadily clouding over before rain came in. Fortunately my new piers position means I can see the sun just after 8am at this time of year, so I made a point of getting out early before the weather window closed in. MeteoBlue was saying seeing aound 1.6", so I decided to give CaK at 60mm a try, it seemed to work and given the hazy conditions with poor transparency i'm pleased how this image came out.

Ha Closeups 7th March

Given the poor conditions with boiling seeing I decided to try a new configuaration to try and get some results from the day in Ha. Using the ED80 stopped down to 60mm to give me f10, I used the Airylab 2.8x telecentric to give an overall f28 at the Quark and the IMX174 camera. I ended up having capture 4000 frame runs to get some usable data, but on the whole these have worked and gives me a small aperture setup to use when the seeing conditions just aren't working for the larger apertures.

Ha Full Disk 7th March

Even with the 50mm DS setup I was fighting the poor seeing conditions in the late afternoon sunshine, I had hoped to use the DS90, but looking through this visually the sun had a saw tooth edge to it, so, very little point in trying to use the larger scope.

CaK Closeups 7th March

A closer look at the 2 regions of activity, with the 40mm f10 scope, 3x barlow and the IMX174 camera. It's nice to see the sun slowly but surely waking up in cycle 25 finally!

CaK Full Disk 7th March

Seeing wasn't great so resorted to the 40mm f10 scope along with the 2x cemax barlow for this full disk.

CaK Full Disk - 2nd March

An unexpected break of the low cloud late on Tuesday afternoon meant I was able to grab a quick image of the sun when I got back from work. To my surprise the sun was birthing 2 new active regions. Taken with the 40mm f10 and a 2x Cemax barlow along with the home brew CaK filter. The sun was low and I needed to use 2x binning to bring the exposure time back up.

Solar Sunday - 28th February

For the 3rd day in a row (must be a record!) the day dawned sunny and clear, and I was keen to observe. Starting at around 9am with the 120mm scope at f28 for Ha, and again found myself fighting the seeing which was deteriorating by the minute. First off our departing active region and a bit of aggressive post processing to try and claw something back. I did a quick scoot around the limb for the proms as the disk itself was pretty blank. Switching down to the 50mm double stack setup was giving better outcomes in the turbulent atmosphere. And a look round at the areas of activity: An hour or two later and after a bit of lunch and the sun out of the trees and I decided to have a look in Cak, using the 40mm scope. First off the full disk and the good sky transparency was ideal for CaK proms.

Solar Collection - 27th February

Saturday offered great transparency but awful seeing, very first thing was ok and allowed some closeups in Ha with the 120mm scope at f28: With seeing deteriorating I switched to Calcium wavelengths and used an aperture stop of 72mm on the same scope to save some time. I was fighting the seeing and post processing came to the rescue with quite heavy deconvolution. Dropping back to 60mm and a change of camera gave some cropped views of the main regions of activity. Finally a view of the Ha full disk with the DS90, seeing wasnt great and the tuning is not quite there, but i'm pleased with the results given less than ideal conditions.