Saturday Morning Sun

[Pig]

Wonderful Sun again today

Prominences

A wonderful sight at the 4 O'clock position a huge spread going on.

Another set of 3 grouped together at the 8 O'clock position are causing havoc and many others spread about the disc.

Update: 10:13am

2 of the 3 proms at the 8 O'clock position are joined together and have produced a spectacular arch, this one is going to pop at any minute, I must get back out before it blows

Sunspots

White light is amazing for sunspots, once again I can see al the glorious detail, not only can I see the " eyelashes" but I can also see blobs of mascara stuck to them

There are many sunspots dotted together again all of them look brilliant through the Equinox, it truly delivers magnificent detail.

Surface Detail.

I have got to say the detail today is the best I have seen in both Ha & white light, the skies are as clear as a bell, inbetween the rushing clouds, I guess it is all due to the rain we had here last night thus clearing the atmosphere.

The granulation is excellent and is peppered all over the surface, Moustaches are everywhere showing swirled footprints they have left in their wake. There are also several lovely areas of very bright Plage to be seen.

Cracking views guys, back off out I go

[Steve Ward]

Nice report sir , should be good to go here very shortly when the heavy rain wafts away ... 

[Pig]

Thank you Steve, it is a very good clear seeing today   I hope it clears for you soon.

Some very black clouds about to come over, time to get inside

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report. All grey here, alas.

[Uplooker]

Saturday morning sun - what sun? Good report, enjoy it while you can. Its pea soup here

Ian

[DrRobin]

Hi,

Nice report.  Just having to have a cloud induced break after 3 shots out of 12 for a Ha mosaic.  Weather is not playing ball up here, too much cloud and heavy rain.

Robin

[Pig]

Thank you Michael, Ian & Robin

Rain has stopped play here also, the forecast shows sunny spells will return around 3pm again today so fingers crossed   I look forward to seeing your mosaic.

[David Smith]

Changes every time I look out this morning, one minute not a cloud in sight the next completely overcast. Managed to grab some white light data though. Just trying to kick the kids off the PC so I can process it now.

[pragmatist]

Great report there, intermittent sun here but lovely views when I do get 10 seconds. Blustery too.

[Peter Drew]

Good early morning view at home with a PST, always cloudy by the time I can get up to the observatory and the "big guns". 

[Luke]

Great report, Shaun

My observing this morning was limited to the lappy screen, though I am quite enjoying video observing, I can see why the video folk get addicted on DSOs. The spots looked good in H-a, which I think is always a sign that in white light they will be awesome!

In white light, the sunspots looked super duper again, closer of course to the centre now. The facculae towards the western limb around the newer small spots... wow, quite magnificent, almost as fab as the chunky cluster of main spots

I am pinning my hopes on it being clear this afternoon, because I hogged the gear for imaging and wanted to try our new 85 scope for imaging in white light. It clouded over before Sarah got to look. She is not happy, and I can't say I blame her. She thought I was setting up the new scope to view, but I couldn't help but stick the camera on it for a sneaky capture Ahem, I was just checking its imaging optics are okay. You gotta test these things!

Glad that your shiny new Equinox 80 has worked out brilliantly. I had my fingers crossed you wouldn't miss the lovely Pronto. Though my Equinox is very nice indeed, I think I was just a bit worried because my F6.25 ED80 (Celestron Onyx) is a tad soft, but then again, it's not an Equinox!

[Sarah]

Nice report Shaun. I am hoping for some clear later this afternoon, as Luke has said, I didn't get a look in this morning. I would have set up the 85 myself but someone was hogging the Giro Mount for imaging!

Sarah

[DrRobin]

Rain stopped play for me after 2.5 hours and only 8 images out of the 12 needed.  Just having a go at stacking them now.

Robin

[Pig]

I fell asleep and have woken in quite a daze

I uncovered the scopes and got a 10 minute session in before covering them again, its very windy out but the AZ4 is a solid mount and is perfectly still   

Most of the proms have stopped the tantrums they were having this morning but they are still kicking around and are probably twice the size of planet earth, so to call them small and settled would be daft  they still look amazing all the same.

The sunspot visuals are brilliant though and the detail is wonderful

Luke I am very pleased with the performance of the Equinox, I must say.

But then again they are not cheap so they should be pretty good

PS.  Stop hogging the show and let Sarah have here turn

[jetstream]

Great reports Shaun and glad to here the new scope is performing well.Seeing here is great today,with the 90mm taking an all time high of 180x with the zoom on sunspots,they actually have a bit of curved outward look to them and they look like a paintbrush layed them down.The other features are excellent too,heavy granulation showing in the 18mm BCO,16mm Nagler and 12.5 TAO.The 12.5mm ortho hits a very nice sweet spot in this scope,one of my favorites.

Good to hear that a lot can get some solar in,its been a while...weather issues

[Pig]

Thank you Gerry.

We have been very lucky in the Northants area lately and have had some nice gaps in the cloud, fortunately there have been some pretty spectacular solar events developing at these same times

Its quite surprising the detail with sunspots and the curls you explain are excellent. I have used your "eyelashes"  term quite often as it is a very apt way of describing them

The equinox along with the Nagler zoom has certainly helped to bring this lovely sunspot detail to life

[Sarah]

I am happy. Just managed a quick look in white light with the new scope, with a small gap in the clouds. Luke is off the hook.

[Pig]

I am happy. Just managed a quick look in white light with the new scope, with a small gap in the clouds. Luke is off the hook.

Pheeeew there is nothing on this planet that is worse being in the Mrs bad books   It can last for years