Hughsie

Having set up my imaging gear yesterday morning I was waiting for the Sun to come into view and took a snap....

A few hours after I finished by solar observing yesterday, a few new active regions sprung up all conveniently located together and shown here. On the 13th August I noticed I had a light leak in my image train creating light smears across the sensor. The Lunt telescope came with a a cloth bag which is pretty useless as bags go as you can’t place the scope in the bag and then into the carry case. When I noticed the light leaking in I thought I needed something to cover it. My wife had the washing out and I thought about using a pair of my pants (underwear for any Americans reading this). But as I already had my head under a black sheet so I could view my laptop screen without glare, the last thing I needed was someone looking over the fence seeing a man under a sheet with his pants on his telescope which is pointing at the Sun. Somehow, the Lunt bag seemed more appropriate. Unfortunately, I forgot to use the bag today despite it being smack bang in front of me. Don’t ask if there were any pants to hand.....just look at the pictures and smears! Image 1 - The solar disc revealing AR12855 / 57 & 53. Images 2 & 3 - A closer view of the three active regions mentioned above both in mono and RGB. Image 4 - A nice prominence on the South East limb. Image 5 - A much larger prominence on the North East limb.

Hazy start to the morning with slow moving high cloud all over the place. Here is a selection of what was visible earlier today. Image 1 - The full solar disc. AR12853 got its spots back and has been producing decent flares whilst AR12855 lost a spot but is still hanging in there. Oooh then there is those nice proms on the Eastern side of the solar disc. Images 2 & 3 - AR12853 classified Axx and located N22W13 on the disc. At the time of imaging it had two spots. It has been producing A class flares but last night SDO detected an increase in strength to C1.5 at 21.05 UT. Here we have both a wide view of the region and a closer inverted version. Images 4 - AR12855 classified Axx and located N13E32 on the solar disc. Yesterday it had three spots but one has since decayed. Ar12853 is lurking in the top right hand corner. Images 5 & 6 - A prominence on the North East limb and estimate of its height plus a gentle reminder of how insignificant we are. Images 7 & 8 - Another prominence this time on the South East limb. All the best, John

A belated happy birthday!

The following is a selection of images from 10 August 2021. Image 1 - Close up of AR12853. Image 2 - AR12852 near the South West limb and a nearby prominence. This AR region gradually decayed as the day progressed. Image 3 - AR12853 rotated c90 degrees and prominences on the solar limb. It almost looks like the chromosphere has been ‘dug out’ by this AR region. Image 4 - AR12853 in the same orientation but not inverted. A bright flare region can be seen and this activity has been continuing for several days now. Cheers John

Below are a selection of images taken with the set up detailed below. I recently acquired a 4x Tele Vue Powermate which has reduced the focal ratio of my Lunt 60mm combined with the ZWO ASI174mm down to a level more manageable, whereas with the 5x Powermate there was significant over-sampling. Here we go.... Image 1 - An overview of the solar disc revealing AR12853 which I focused my attention on today and a nice prom on the South East limb. Image 2 - Moving to the South East of the disc we have a nice prominence but little in the way of detail on the Chromosphere. Captured with the 4x Powermate. Image 3 - Inverted image of AR12853. No spots on show but this area has been showing a lot of flare activity. A nice filament near the ‘dark’ flare areas and a few smaller filaments to the South. Image 4 - Just for a different perspective I have included an inverted image of the same region in Image 3, both captured with the 4x Powermate. Image 5 - A wider view of the last two images showing the position of AR12853 on the solar disc. Image 6 - Image 5 now inverted to reveal the prominences on the solar limb. Equipment: Lunt 60mm TH⍺/B1200CPT ZWO ASI174mm & Tilt Adapter SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro Tele Vue 4x Powermate Images acquired with SharpCap Pro. Stacked using Autostakkert 3, inverted with ImPPG and remaining processing done through PixInsight. Cheers John

Mmmmm fluffy carpet!

Lovely captures Luke.

It is cloudy now but there was a nice clear sky this morning which allowed me enough time to capture the proms and a small AR on show.

Only one active region with sun spots was on show plus some modest prominences as well. Image 1 - AR12850 rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise. Lunt 60mm TH⍺/B1200 CPT scope, ZWO ASI174mm, tilt adapter and Altair Astro 3x Barlow. Image 2 - Closer view of AR12850 and nearby proms. 5x Powermate plus above scope/camera and binning set to 2x2.

Some prominences with estimated height on the North East and South East limb plus AR12850 captured with a ZWO ASI174mm, 5x Powermate and binned 2x2. Exciting times ahead with some new equipment arriving. Not saying anymore as those clouds are listening.

My grey phase........ Image 1 - Solar disc. AR 12850 positioned on the lower right with a nice filament close by. Some prominences on show and a new active region without a spot positioned on the lower left. Image 2 - AR12850 near the South West Limb. Captured with a 3x Barlow. Image 3 - Moving a little closer on AR12850 with a 5x Powermate. Image 4 - Prominences on the North West Limb. Looks a bit blowy up there. Image 5 - An old fashioned spherical bomb with burning fuse. Prominence positioned on the North West Limb. Image 6 - A new active region (no spot - top left) with prominences on the South East Limb.

I recently purchased the Solar Astronomy book published by Axilone Astronomy and it has encouraged me to look at image acquisition and processing somewhat differently to what I have been doing so far. Admittedly there are still a lot of information to go through, however, it is a great read and well worth the investment based on what i have read through so far. For image acquisition I use the ZWO ASI174mm camera and to date I have been adjusting exposure/gain to fill 60-70% of the histogram. Seems I have been missing a trick and with the images below I pushed this to 80% to hopefully improve SNR (in recent days I have gone further to 90%). I have also been somewhat ‘hung up’ on FPS and have kept to using Mono8 to avoid the drop off in frame rate when using Mono16 despite it offering a higher dynamic range. Also, the combination of scope/camera pixel size and Barlow lenses suggested that with a 2.5x and 3x Barlow I would be achieving a good resolution with decent seeing, however, when using the 5x Powermate there would be significant oversampling. A few weeks back I attempted image acquisition with a 5x Powermate and adjusted the camera settings to Bin 2x2 without much success but the seeing wasn’t great either. The 29th July offered a steady sky and so not wanting to be deterred I tried Bin 2x2 again. Here is what was thrown out..... Images 1 & 2 - Prominence on the North East Limb. Here Mono16 was used and I pushed the histogram to 80% which allowed me to capture both the prominences (even though they were barely visible when live on my lap top screen) and the Chromosphere. I know others have done this before but I have avoided doing this, preferring to capture the proms separately by significantly raising the camera gain. After seeing the results I am happy to change! 40% of 1,000 images stacked. Exposure time 10.7 ms, Gain = 100. Altair Astro 3x Barlow used. Bin 1x1. Images 3 & 4 - Moving across to the South West Limb we have some more prominences. Again the same approach as Images 1 & 2 was adopted using the same exposure time, Gain and Barlow. I just need to sort out that bright edge of the disk. Image 5 - AR12847. Mono16 used and Bin 1x1. Exposure time was 21ms with Gain set at 150. This was difficult to process and noise was difficult to control. 5x Powermate was used. Image 6 - Again AR12847 captured a few minutes later. Exposure time 20 ms, Gain 150. Mono16 and Bin 2x2 used. I was able to push the sharpening of the image a bit further without a significant increase in noise. The image size has also been scaled up slightly to match the size of Image 5. What do you think? John

Here is mine from last year.

The morning started with clear a clear sky but no sooner had I finished capturing the full disk and flats, the clouds descended and did not break for another 6 days. Images 1 & 2 - AR12846 and AR12848 are visible in the northern hemisphere. AR’s 12844, 12847 & 12849 are shown in the Southern hemisphere.

My observations for 22 July 2021. Images 1 & 2 - Full disk revealing some small prominences, a number of active regions and filaments. Images 3 & 4 - AR12842 classification Dsi, has put on a good show and is now drifting from view. A nice swirling prom is visible towards the top of the disc in the inverted image. 402 of the best 1,005 frames stacked. Exposure time 8.5 ms, Gain = 80. 3x Barlow used. Images 5 & 6 - AR12846 classification Cso moving away from the North East limb. Some small prominences are also visible. 402 of the best 1,006 frames stacked. Exposure time 8.5 ms, Gain = 80. 3x Barlow used. Images 7 & 8 - A closer view of AR12846 using a 5x Powermate. 402 of the best 1,007 frames stacked. Exposure time 12 ms, Gain = 170. Images 9 & 10 - AR12848 classified Bxo, located West of AR12846. Best 406 out of 1,016 frames stacked. Exposure time 8.5 ms, Gain = 80. 3x Barlow used. Images 11 & 12 - A nine pane mosaic of the solar disc captured using a 2.5x Powermate. Equipment; Lunt TH⍺/B1200CPT telescope. ZWO ASI174mm camera. Tilt adapter. SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro mount. 3x Altair Astro Barlow and 2.5x & 5x TeleVue Powermate. Software; SharpCap Pro for data acquisition. Autostakkert 3. ImPPG & PixInsight for processing. Thank you for dropping by. John

ZWO ASI174mm.

Below are the remainder of my images captured on 2 July 2021. Images 1 & 2 - AR12844 on the southern limb of the solar disc. Image rotated 180 degrees. 234 out of the best 1,006 images stacked. Exposure time 18 ms, Gain 80. 3x Barlow used. Images 3 & 4 - Closer view of AR12844 taken with a 5x Powermate. 227 out of the best 503 frames stacked. Exposure time 28 ms, Gain = 150. Images 5 & 6 - AR12845 classified Axx heading towards the western limb (up). 314 out of the best 1,011 frames stacked. Exposure time 18 ms, Gain = 80. 3x Barlow used. Images 7 & 8 - New AR12847 classified Cro. 500 out of the best 1,003 frames stacked. Exposure time 18 ms, Gain = 80. 3x Barlow used. Images 9 & 10 - AR12846 (left) classified Cso and AR12848 (right). 441 out of the best 1,000 frames stacked. Exposure time 17 ms, Gain = 80. 3x Barlow used. Equipment - Lunt 60mm TH⍺/B1200CPT telescope. ZWO ASI174mm camera. SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro mount. Altair Astro 3x Barlow where indicated. SharpCap Pro for image acquisition. Processed using AutoStakkert3, ImPPG and PixInsight.

A more abridged version of what I have been posting recently as processing all the data just occupies too much time. So here is a flavour of what was visible on the Chromosphere on Wednesday 21 July. Image 1 - Full disc showing some activity and small prominences. It was only last year I spent all my time capturing blank discs so this is a welcome change. Image 2 - AR12842 (left) classified Dai and AR12845 (right) classified Axx. North is left and West is up. Some faint prominences are also visible. Image 3 - AR12846 classified Cso on the Eastern limb with some nice proms on show. AR12846 (right) gets credit for photo-bombing! Image 4 - Close up of AR12842 using a x5 Powermate. Image 5 - AR12848 taken with a x5 Powermate. Image 6 & 7 - The prominences in image 3 in closer detail. Situated on the North East limb, an estimation of the height is also provided. Thank you for dropping by. John

Lovely capture again Rusted.

A lot of detail in there and some great attention to detail when processing. Top quality mate.

Haha, thanks mate.

Tuesday 20th July brought us the demise of AR12844 and the arrival of a new active region, AR12846. There was also some nice but small prominences on the eastern side of the solar disc. Images 1 & 2 - A quick check on what is visible on the Chromosphere. The RGB image is a 5 pane mosaic taken with the Lunt 60mm and 2.5x Powermate and the inverted image is without the Powermate. Images 3 & 4 - AR12842 is still with us, classified Dsi. Three spots showing with the top and right hand side spot appearing bi-polar evidenced by the filament between the two. 263 of the best 1,000 frames stacked. Exposure time 16.4 ms, Gain = 74. Images 5 & 6 - An active region close to the South pole. 24 hours earlier this was AR12844, however, it has now lost all sun spots which is confirmed by the inverted image. 530 of the best 1,000 frames stacked. Exposure time 16.4 ms, Gain = 74. Images 7 & 8 - AR12845 now classified Hrx (Cso 24 hours earlier) was bi-polar yesterday but this is no longer the case. 538 of the best 1,000 images stacked. Exposure time 16.4ms, Gain = 74. Images 9 & 10 - A new active region, AR12846 classified Hrx. This region shows the ‘Wilson Effect’ and looks slightly indented. 360 of the best 1,000 frames stacked. Exposure time 16.4 ms, Gain = 74. Images 11 & 12 - A prominence on the Eastern limb and estimation of height. 131 of the best 504 images stacked. Exposure time 45 ms, Gain = 180. Images 13 & 14 - A prominence on the North Eastern limb and estimation of height. 111 of the best 504 frames stacked. Exposure time 45 ms, Gain = 180. Bye for now. John

Below are a selection of images from Monday 19th July. Another hot day with no new active regions or major prominences though there was a small prom on the western limb which I have detailed below. Images 1 & 2 - As usual the full disc revealing AR’s 12842, 12844 & 12845. Best 72 out of 1,000 frames stacked. Exposure time 4.5 ms, Gain = 0. Images 3 & 4 - We kick off with AR12842 classified Dso and captured with a 3x Barlow. 99 of the best 500 frames stacked. Exposure time 17 ms, Gain = 55. Images 5 & 6 - A closer look at AR12842 using a x5 Powermate. 125 of the best 500 frames stacked. Exposure time 30 ms, Gain = 130. Images 7 & 8 - Moving on to AR12844 close to the south west limb and classified Axx. AR12845 is included but we will look at that shortly. Here is the view through a 3x Barlow. 64 of the best 500 frames stacked. Exposure time 17 ms, Gain = 55. Images 9 & 10 - AR12844 close up using the 5x Powermate. 125 our of 500 frames stacked. Exposure time 30 ms, Gain = 130. Images 11 & 12 - Now on to AR12845 classified Cso. 87 out of the best 500 frames stacked. Exposure time 17 ms, Gain = 55. Captured using a 3x Barlow. Images 13 & 14 - Moving in a little closer to AR12845 with the 5x Powermate. 125 out of 500 frames stacked. Exposure time 30 ms, Gain = 130. Images 15 & 16 - A small prominence on the western limb of the solar disc and an estimation of height. Equipment used; Lunt 60mm Th⍺/B1200CPT. SkyWatcher Eq6R-Pro mount. ZWO ASI174mm Barlow and Powermate where shown. Images acquired using SharpCap Pro. Stacked in AutoStakkert 3. Kneeded into shape using PixInsight and Affinity Photo. Many thanks for dropping by. A lot of time and effort goes into producing these and I have a ton of data still to go through but your kind words keep me going so cheers all, I am off for a beer! John

Hot clear start to the day on Sunday 18th with three active regions on show but little in the way of prominences. Images 1 & 2 - The usual full disc so we can get our bearings, presented in RGB and inverted. 166 of the best 1,000 stacked. Exposure time 2.7 ms, Gain = 0. Images 3 & 4 - AR12842 classification Cso showing a nice filament and prominences (on inverted image). 149 of the best 1,00 frames stacked. Exposure time 12 ms, Gain = 55. Captured with 3x Barlow. Images 5 & 6 - AR12842 in closing detail captured with a 5x Powermate. 70 of the best 500 frames stacked. Exposure time 30 ms, Gain = 100. Images 7 & 8 - A new active region coming into view, AR12844, on the south east limb classified Axx. 140 of the best 1,000 frames stacked. Exposure time 12 ms, Gain = 55. Captured with a 3x Barlow. Images 9 & 10 - AR12845 approaching the south west limb. It is apparent from this image that this active region is bipolar though it is not clear whether there is a penumbra. Classification Bxi. 150 of the best 1,000 frames stacked. Exposure time 12 ms, Gain = 55. Captured with a 3x Barlow. Images 11 & 12 - Close up of AR12845 captured using a 5x Powermate. Here it becomes clearer that this is no penumbra. 93 of the best 500 frames stacked. Exposure time 30 ms, Gain = 100. Thanks as always for dropping by. John