New Active Region 10th November

new ar wl colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

100mm, 2000mm fl, solar continuum filter, Lunt wedge.

ar11887 10th November

ar11887 wl colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Taken with the 100mm @ f20 with the DMK31, this active region had a lovely display of plage visible.

WL Full Disk 10th November

WL full disk colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

It's typical, it's northern winter and the sun is low in the sky and has really started to bustle with activity. Contrails hindered this full disk a little, but the end result is passable and gives a good overview. Taken with the 40mm @ f20 DMK31.

Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project Annual Fundraiser

Here at the Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project we are having our annual fundraiser - this is to raise the funds for the 1000's of solar glasses, scopes and outreach events that have shown over 80,000 young people the sun over several continents worldwide.  

So far we have raised over $11000 towards our target of $15000, however there is still 3 weeks left to donate money towards this good cause.  For each donation of $100 you will receive a raffle ticket for the fantastic pressure tuned Lunt 60 solar telescope above.  However any amount, no matter how small you wish to donate will be going towards achieving  and hopefully exceeding our target.  If you have not donated towards this I would strongly urge you - If you have received free solar glasses then it is the Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project that has paid for them.

Donations can be made online using paypal here!

Iceland Aurora - October 30th

I have visited Iceland a number of times to view the aurora borealis, the interaction of the charged particles of the solar wind and our Earth's upper atmosphere.  This causes the dance of ribbons of colour across the night sky.  However despite several visits in recent years bad weather has not allowed me to make any observations since 2010.  This October we returned to Iceland for a weeks holiday and needless to say looking out for the northern lights was a priority.  We had travelled to Myvatn in Northern Iceland and were staying in a wooden lodge; the Icelandic weather service were promising clear skies around midnight, and this was also confirmed by a local who said he was going at midnight with a view to photographing them.  This was good enough for me, so at midnight I ventured out in the -12c freezing landscape.  The first thing that struck me was how clear the sky was and just how many stars were visible - Jupiter seemed nearly bright enough to cast shadows.  I looked to the northern sky and could see a faint green arc, slightly brighter than the milky way.  I knew activity wasn't high, the Kp index at the time was at 1 on the scale which is basically next to nothing, however this was the first time in 3 years I had a chance so you have to take what is on offer.  I used my regular aurora photographic setup; a canon 350D on iso800 shooting consecutive 30 second exposures, the lens was a Sigma 10-22mm at 10mm f4.  I managed 77 minutes of continuous exposures before the camera battery started to give up the ghost, and as this was now after 2am I was getting rather cold and tired.  At several times throughout this session I could see the rays and streamers shooting up from the horizon, and the ripples and waves moving along the green arc.  It has taken some work to get the time lapse presented in such a way that the subtle details are not lost through image compression, and as a spin off i'm hopeful some of this new learned technique should lend itself to producing higher resolution solar animations - however the proof of that will have to wait until the sun returns higher in the sky next year.

Ha Full Disk 3rd November

Ha Full Disk colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Our star is crackling with solar flare energy at the moment with several large active regions currently on view. Throw in some great filaments and prominences and this makes for a fine sight in the shorter days of November. This image was taken with the Coronado DS40 at f20 with the DMK31 camera.

DS CaK Full Disk 3rd November

DS CaK colour, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

The sun was getting low and the sky was getting hazy late on sunday afternoon when I took this shot, and despite it being a little softer than I like, for an early november image I don't think it is too bad. Tilting the notch filters with respect to each other (and the baader K-line) has sorted out the issue with ghosting that I was getting with previous images. I'm happy with the contrast i'm getting from this setup now, and are really looking forward to the spring when the sun starts climbing higher in the sky again...