Prom! 12th December

There was a lovely prom visible on the suns north western limb today, looked really nice through the eyepiece.

New Active Region 12th December

More activity rounds the sun as this as yet undesignated active region put in an appearance.  The Stereo image indicates a few more are to follow.

Ha Full Disk 12th December

It was nice to get some sunshine this Saturday afternoon, and despite the sun being quieter than it was a couple of weeks ago there is considerably more activity than there was in solar minimum.  The southern hemisphere is still currently the most active.  Taken with a Lunt 50 etalon, double stacked with a Daystar Quark and a FLIR GH3 91S6M camera.

Ha Full Disk 5th December.

Activity really is increasing on the sun, particularly so in the southern hemisphere which has just erupted into life over a couple of solar rotations.  I was fortunate to be able to observe as the forecast was for sleet all day, but turned out quite nice and predominantly blue skies.  The observing pad I created during the first lockdown is working well, and in conjunction with my 7 foot pier looking over a 6 foot fence to see the sun is quite feasible.  It has a bit of bounce to it and is only really suitable for smaller scopes, but, in winter, with the low sun this is not a problem.  As the sun gets higher in the sky in the spring I will replace the 7 foot pier with the 5 foot pier which is notably more stable.  This image was taken with a Lunt 50 etalon on a 60mm f6 scope and then double stacked with a Daystar Quark.

CaK Sun 22nd November

It's nice to see activity picking up again on the sun and I always like the alternative views in CaK.  The air was very clear and the prominences were quite easy to see at this wavelength.  

Ha Sun 22nd November

After what seemed like weeks of not being able to observe the sun, the weather was obliging on the 22nd.  I was keen to see the activity that had bubbled up in the southern hemisphere and I certainly wasn't disappointed.  Taken with a 50mm Lunt etalon double stacked with a Daystar Quark.

Ha Full Disk 11th October

The sun finally showed itself this weekend and with some cycle 25 activity kicking in I decided it was worth getting the scope out for a look.  The sun is now getting much lower in the autumn sky as we head towards mid October and the seeing even at 50mm aperture was not on my side, still it was nice to see our star and the developing activity from this new solar cycle.