Once the little Lunt50 has acclimated once it has been setup it produces some nice full disks with decent Ha detail. Taken at ~f10 with the PGR Chameleon 3 camera I'm pleased with the results!
The sunny skies continue in the UK and with it the opportunity to see what the face of our star presents. While the sunspot activity has all but died away there is still the large area of plage. Taken with the 40mm scope at f13 with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 camera.
Adding a second etalon to the Lunt LS50 solar telescope through 'double stacking' has the effect of increasing contrast on the solar disk as a result of reduced continuum leakage in the wings of the Hydroge Alpha centreline. It gives an alternative take on the single stack view. Taken with the PGR Chameleon 3 camera.
Todays sun has all the hallmarks of our star heading into solar minimum. Active regions are sparse, with AR12709 sitting very much geoeffective. Flare activity is likely to be negligible from this region. All the main active regions are now focused very much towards the solar equator, with filaments at polar latitudes in both hemispheres indicating a boundary of magnetic fields. The 2 prominences looked very nice visually through the 80mm scope and the Quark. This image was taken with the Lunt LS50 (single stack) at ~f13 using the PGR Chameleon 3 camera.
As we head towards solar minimum activity on our Sun will get less and less. Imaging in CaK light is a good way to show up activity that can be difficult to see in white light views. Three active regions are currently on the suns earthward face, with the largest of these closer to the eastern limb showing a couple of small pores where magnetic field loops break the solar surface. This image was taken at 393nm in Calcium light with the homebrew CaK filter, 40mm scope at ~f13 with the PGR Chameleon 3 camera and then coloured to mirror the AIA1700 image.
A trio of active regions are currently transiting the earthward face of the sun. Visible as bright plage in CaK wavelengths where there is higher magnetic field strength. Taken at 80mm aperture fl 1000mm with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 camera.
Nice to see some active regions and their associated white plage visible on the sun. There seems to have been a slight uptick in solar activity in recent weeks going against the longer downward trend as we head towards solar minimum. Taken with the 40mm f10 scope somewhere around f13 with the homebrew CaK filter and the PGR Chameleon 3 USB3 camera.
