June 18th to August 1st - x45 Consecutive Daily Observations - I'm not counting todays effort!!

[paulastro]

Well, I've been beaten, I couldn't get a good enough frame to keep my run going today, though I have attached my best image taken at 8.01 pm, the only one I managed after a day of 100% cloud up to this time.  It should get some laughs at least. I knocked the scope when I took it as you can see in my mad rush to get something.

I must admit I didn't imagine the run would last so long when it started on June 18th.  It's been great fun and it's nice  to have a record for such a long continuous sequence.  On a couple of occasions (July 9th and July 15th) I only had one or two minutes to obtain any images so the run could have been much shorter.  On all the days I managed some sort of image which was posted on SGL.  For my own records I always do a daily disk drawing from my best frame(s).

There were many highlights, my favourite was on July 12th when the sun rose with an awesome prominence  on the N limb of the sun.  There were also excellent prominences on June 25th and July 25th.  The best WL highlight was the passage of AR2565 and AR2567 across the sun from July 16th to July 23rd. The fabulous filament which came into view over the E limb on July 21st has been a real treat, and is only now finally passing out of view at the W limb. Also a real treat visually was the flaring around AR2553 near the W limb early on June 21st which glowed brightly even behind cloud.

Thanks to all those who kept encouraging me to go for one more image - it made the sequence longer than it might have been.

Ah well, I'm now looking forward to starting another run, perhaps tomorrow?

[paulastro]

PS Surely, this has to be the worse solar image ever posted on SGL!? 

[DrRobin]

Quite a run Paul, pity it had to come to an end.  My longest run was 14 days, taken from Spain whilst on holiday, it made a nice little time lapse video (suggestion?).

Robin

[xtreemchaos]

i think that counts mate, its a image and i can see a filament, the run continues mate, dont throw the towel in yet, ive posted and seen a lots worse. thanks charl.

[David Smith]

45 days is quite a run and way more consecutive days than I have ever managed. Congratulations Paul and here's to the next run!

[Peter Drew]

I agree with Charl, there is a genuine disc and the filament is shown in it correct position. It may be your worst image but an image it is. 

[Davey-T]

Well done Paul, probably qualify as Solar pic' of the day in the UK 

Dave

[johnfosteruk]

+1 for it counting, it's clearly the Sun and as Charl said there's definitely a filament

Shame it had to come to an end, but as you say, start a new one and aim for 46 this time.

[laudropb]

Well done Paul. I have not managed 45 days viewing in the las 2 months, so that was some going.

[paulastro]

10 hours ago, DrRobin said:

Quite a run Paul, pity it had to come to an end.  My longest run was 14 days, taken from Spain whilst on holiday, it made a nice little time lapse video (suggestion?).

Robin

Many thanks Robin.  I must admit, it would have been nice to get to 50, perhaps another time .  I'm afraid I wouldn't have a clue how to make a time lapse - it would probably take me more time than I have available  with such a steep learning curve - starting from zero! 

[paulastro]

10 hours ago, xtreemchaos said:

i think that counts mate, its a image and i can see a filament, the run continues mate, dont throw the towel in yet, ive posted and seen a lots worse. thanks charl.

Many thanks charl, that's kind of you.  However, my standard for an acceptable image (to count towards my run) is that it must show at least what's on the GONG images and hence shows enough detail for me to complete a disk drawing showing all the main features.  Alas, this image falls rather short of this .

[paulastro]

10 hours ago, David Smith said:

45 days is quite a run and way more consecutive days than I have ever managed. Congratulartions Paul and here's to the next run!

Many thanks David, I'll certainly do my best - though with the days now shortening it's going to become more difficult, especially if I manage to obtain some gainful (and much needed) employment.  Late September/October is always my least active solar time of the year, I'm then following my other passion of watching and photographing wild rutting deer .

[paulastro]

10 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Well done Paul, probably qualify as Solar pic' of the day in the UK 

Dave

  I suppose it might Dave, if it is the only pic taken .

[paulastro]

10 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

I agree with Charl, there is a genuine disc and the filament is shown in it correct position. It may be your worst image but an image it is. 

Many thanks Peter.  I wouldn't say it's my worse image, but it's probably the worst image I've ever shown to anyone else!  .

[paulastro]

10 hours ago, johnfosteruk said:

+1 for it counting, it's clearly the Sun and as Charl said there's definitely a filament

Shame it had to come to an end, but as you say, start a new one and aim for 46 this time.

Thank you John, perhaps I'll revise my view on whether  to claim it as my 46th........if I now go on to reach the 50 mark if I include it .

[paulastro]

9 hours ago, laudropb said:

Well done Paul. I have not managed 45 days viewing in the las 2 months, so that was some going.

Many thanks laudropb, your encouragement has been much appreciated, as it has been from others who kept urging me on.

[Iainp]

Well done! An impressive run. Grey skies here for days, which to a man with a broke scope (well, mount), is actually a consolation 

Iain 

[Pete Presland]

Thanks for sharing the run with us all Paul, you have got some great memories to go with your images.

[paulastro]

3 hours ago, Iainp said:

Well done! An impressive run. Grey skies here for days, which to a man with a broke scope (well, mount), is actually a consolation 

Iain 

Thank you very much Iain.  One advantage of my single frames with a camera and an un-driven altaz is that I don't have such concerns over these technical matters .   The downside of course is the quality isn't so good .

[paulastro]

1 hour ago, bunnygod1 said:

Thanks for sharing the run with us all Paul, you have got some great memories to go with your images.

That's very kind of you Pete, thank you.  Yes you're quite right, I'm hoping the memories of it will be of some consolation when I'm in the middle of a snow-bound and frozen Yorkshire winter. 

[Iainp]

44 minutes ago, paulastro said:

I don't have such concerns over these technical matters . 

Ha, I know what you mean. Ridiculous that I have a lovely 80mm Lunt gathering dust because I have no way of supporting it, even to take a quick look at the sun! (The 10" Meade scope is fork mounted). I'm started to get into the technical side of deep sky imaging just now, (flats, darks etc) and it's all very exciting but some of those really wonderful images people post on the deep sky forum here are the result of 20+ hours of data collection, and goodness knows how much time on post processing. Do I really want to go there?? Not sure...

Iain 

[Pete Presland]

3 hours ago, paulastro said:

That's very kind of you Pete, thank you.  Yes you're quite right, I'm hoping the memories of it will be of some consolation when I'm in the middle of a snow-bound and frozen Yorkshire winter. 

Mmmm winter!

[paulastro]

4 hours ago, Iainp said:

Ha, I know what you mean. Ridiculous that I have a lovely 80mm Lunt gathering dust because I have no way of supporting it, even to take a quick look at the sun! (The 10" Meade scope is fork mounted). I'm started to get into the technical side of deep sky imaging just now, (flats, darks etc) and it's all very exciting but some of those really wonderful images people post on the deep sky forum here are the result of 20+ hours of data collection, and goodness knows how much time on post processing. Do I really want to go there?? Not sure...

Iain 

It does seem a shame you can't use the 80mm Iain.  I think I mentioned it before, but you could do a lot worse than having a Vixen GP mount on standby for such circumstances.  It makes my head spin at the mere mention of things like flats and darks ( whatever they are!  ).  I should think if you go the route of 20+ hour exposures, your output will fall to about 2 or 3 images per annum  .

[paulastro]

1 hour ago, bunnygod1 said:

Mmmm winter!

You sound as if you're looking forward to winter Pete, no doubt for some deep sky adventures.  To a virtual solar monomaniac like myself, the thought of those long nights and negligible sunlight with the sun hardly creeping about the local vegetation it's enough to send me into uncontrollable panic! 

[Pete Presland]

I do love solar imaging and the winter dark skies. I know what you mean I do frequently trawl a few country lanes/lay buys due to the low sun.