Solar Saturday - 17th September

[markt]

I didn't expect to get any observing in for today as the forecast was far from great, however for whatever reason there seemed to be plenty of breaks in the cloud, even if there was a buffeting wind. I ended up getting a unexpected soaking however; when I first set up I was marvelling at the sun through my 15mm plossl, and despite the southern half of the sky being clear and blue, without me realising a large cloud snuck up behind me in the northern half - its presence was announced by a very heavy shower that caught me completely off guard. I ended up throwing my jacket over the scope and getting a soaking, 30 seconds later the shower stopped.

I decided it was time to get some images as todays sun was a real visual treat. Great proms, active regions, spots, filaments - I love it when full disks have all these features in!

ha full disk final by Mark Townley, on Flickr

This was taken with my DS40 @ f20, DMK31. There's a bit of banding which the flat field did not take care of - I think this was a result of the buffeting wind causing a bit of movement in the sliding dew shield onto which the etalons are mounted.

Next off I decided it was time to take a closer inspection of the proms, and so used the 2.5x powermate. The seeing in the unstable air surrounded by cumulus wasn't up to much, and I think these are just about passable...

ha 2x 0009 11-09-17 15-25-13 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ha 2x 0011 11-09-17 15-28-09 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ha 2x 0010 11-09-17 15-27-05 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ha 2x 0012 11-09-17 15-29-12 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Really pleased to have been able to get some solar in, been a good couple of weeks for me...

Hope you like them!

Mark

[Bizibilder]

Those are really great! I must resist the temptation to go Ha!!!

[markt]

Thanks mate

You'd love Ha, you should go for it

[Photosbykev]

I would be well happy to get that quality

[markt]

Cheers Kev!

[smt1988]

great images man best ones ive seen so far

[markt]

Thanks, just hope the sun manages to come out a bit today aswell...

[foundaplanet]

Stunning, stunning whole of the Sun image.. Brilliant.

[Black Knight]

Awesome pics Mark, absolutely stunning!

[markt]

Cheers fellas!

[Carbon60]

Superb Mark. Particularly the full disk.

Stu.

[Merlin66]

Well done!

As my kids would say, "Awesome"

[markt]

Thanks Stu and Ken

[sheri_barri]

Superb image! Worth risking the shower!!!