paulastro

Snaps from GONG below.

I loved reading your post John. It made me smile. I had a similiar experience for the same Mercury transit 🙂.

I'm sure the forecast will still have its ups and downs right up to the time of the eclipse. I'll wait until lunchtime on Wednesday before I decide my own options. By then it will be much clearer what the weather is likely to be like for any location than it is at present. I'd prefer to stay fairly local and observe with some friends. However, if it seems it may be a lost cause, I may decide to travel further E or SE- if it is still likely to be more favourable In that direction. I'll make a final decision by Wed evening. At least as the eclipse doesn't start until around 10am, I could always make an early start on Thursday if I decide to re-locate. Whatever happens, I'm sure I'll have some fun - irrespective of whether I get to see the eclipse or not 🙂.

Ah well, in that case you may as well cancel your day off straight away 🙂. I wouldn't, but if you are so certain... As Stu said, forecasts change all the time. I have to admit, it does amuse me that whilst many people are always moaning about how inaccurate our forecasts are, they are so willing to believe any bad forecast for an event they want to observe! Whilst over the years I have missed many events due to bad weather, I have also seen many events when the forecast was rotten and I managed to drag victory from the jaws of defeat. Especially with the sun, you often get a glimpse of it unexpectedly on even the worse of days! If you don't buy a ticket, you won't win the lottery. Good luck!

That's a shame John. When you are having your family commitment, couldn't you get away with nipping outside wearing a pair of solar eclipse glasses? 😎

Only a week away, just about time to get yourself a solar filter, if you can find a suitable one in stock. More worrying, it's close enough to start looking at your local weather forecast for the event 😄.

Excellent, good to see some mod images. Great results, for a snip compared with the price of commercial scopes of similiar apertures.

Spotted this in SE quadrant in PST as I did a quick sketch at 7.20am, excellent seeing. It's slightly inside the limb, not on it as it looks in my hurried sketch. Looked at GONG when I came in, only one 'live' image and it didn't show this active area, looked like it was affected by haze.

Fabulous detail, very impressive

That's a lovely pic Nicolas, thanks for sharing it.

I was observing from 11am to 11.30am. The seeing was very poor at the start, and got worse, hence the short session I did manage to see some reasonable detail in fleeting moments though. I did try to get a pic and the best is below, not great but it gives some idea what it was like. It's a single frame taken at 11.08am Tecnosky 102ED F7, Olympus E - M5 Mk11, 1/3200 sec at 250asa. According to spaceweather AR2827 had quadrupled in size in the last 24 hours. I could see no sign of AR 2828 which is shown on the current pic of the sun by spaceweather.

I managed some observing inbetween clouds this morning. Missed out yesterday due to cloud. Using the Tecnosky 102ED F7 it was nice to seem how the two AAs had developed since I last saw them Unfortunately the seeing was very poor, but I did take a couple of frames at prime focus with the Olympus E- M5 Mk11. The pic below was taken at 10.03 am, 1/5000 at 250 asa. Alas it was rather affected by the the seeing. The close-up is a crop of the whole disc pic.

Hi Stu. The only named feature within your area appears to be Schneckenberg or 'Snail Mtn. Two images below from the Cambridge Photographic Moon Atlas. The map below is from The Times Atlas Of The Moon, from 1969.

I culled from 21st Century Atlas.

Thank you Stu 😏 🙂

That would be of great interest and be a real help. If you go ahead, can you let me when it's available Stu? I have to admit I don't know anything about Stargazine 😱

Many thanks Stu, that sounds amazing. I could do with a primer on all this to get me up to speed. Perhaps there's already something on SGL?

Thanks Stu. I'm surprised my camera works so well, it's been around at least 2/3 years, and it certainly was never top of the range. I'm wondering how much better more recent and higher speced phone cameras are for astro photography?

Thanks Chris.

Yes it is John! Here's a photo and description from The Cambridge Photographic Moon Atlas.

A warm welcome to you Gonariu. No need at all for you to apologise for your English. Your English is a lot better than the "Sardinian" will be of anyone reading your post 😄.

Observing with the Tecnosky 102ED F7 on evening of May 22nd. The seeing was was almost continuously scintillating, but by careful fine focusing in better moments the detail was outstanding. Particularly well placed on the terminator were J Herschel, Gassendi and Schiller. The three close-ups of these, below, were taken using my Samsung A40 phone with the Celestron smartphone holder through a 17.5mm Morpbeus eyepiece. They don't do justice to the eyeball views, but do show how well placed they were. Also I've added a single frame shot of the whole disc taken with my Olympue E-M5 Mk11.

Been watching sun from 6.40am till now. AR2824 just about on CM and is showing lots of detail in PST and some brighter areas, though not currently flaring, A nice filament arching round one side of the AA.. wide are of plage around the sunspot with lots of structure. Certainly worth keeping an eye on. GONG images below.

Thank you charl. I have a PST on loan, lucky for me the owner isn't very interested in solar - still very kind of him to loan it to me though 🙂.

I observed between clouds this afternoon. The sunspot had quite a lot of structure in it, though the seeing was rather poor. Single frame below taken at 3.55pm, Tecnosky 102ED F7 at prime focus, Baader Solar Filter, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/6400 sec at 250 asa. The close up is a crop from the while disc.