Saturday, 12 December 2020

AR12790 Departing 12th December

departing-ar-colour
AR12790 gets ever closer to the limb in this image taken with a Lunt 50 etalon double stacked with a Daystar Quark and using a FLIR IMX174 camera.

Prom! 12th December

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

New Active Region 12th December

new-ar-colour
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

Ha-FD-DS-colour
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.

Sunday, 6 December 2020

Ha Full Disk 5th December.

Ha-FD-DS-colour
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

CaK-FD-colour northern-ar-cak-colour ar-cak-colour
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

Ha-FD-DS-colour active-regions-Ha-colour active-regions-other-side-ha-colour prom-ha-colour
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.