WL and H-alpha action from today (phone pics included)

[Victor Boesen]

I recently started studying at university so time has been limited lately, however, this week was my holidays and today the weather was mostly clear. I decided to get out my TecnoSky 102mm APO and solar flight case for some white light and H-alpha observing.

This was also the first time I got to try out the skywatcher AZ mount extension I bought second hand a while ago. Really happy with it so far.

I started in white light in which both AR2886 and 2887 looked beautiful during moments of steady conditions. I must say, conditions weren't the best today, very turbulent but calm in some occasions. Especially AR2887 had many interesting features such as very prominent faculae around the entire region and small islands of spots located inside the faculae. AR2886 had a sharp penumbra and oval umbra which looked great among the surface granulation. During my white light observing I used an OIII filter to increase contrast and detail in granulation (Baader continuum filter still knocking the back of my head reminding me of its existence, but not prioritized yet). Other than the two active regions a very small sunspot was visible about half way between the two ARs and another  one further south of the solar equator.

Note the obvious faculae around AR2887 and the small sunspot between the two ARs.

After a while of white light observing and cloud dodging I decided to bring out my Quark Chromosphere and do some H-alpha observing. I was mostly interested in the eastern limb and AR2887 which looked like it had some potential interesting features judging by the white light features. After a quick switch, I was finally ready for H-alpha observing.

I was powering the Quark with a solar powerbank I got from Amazon. This worked flawlessly most of the time only turning off one time during the entire session. I believe this may have been while the Quark was cooling off and the power draw was too low.

Observing the sun in H-alpha provided a beautiful look at a prominence just south of AR2887 which reminded me a lot of the Flame Nebula in Orion. As in white light AR2887 was surrounded in a large area of plage which at moments were bright enough for me to confuse the plage with small flares. At one moment a large spicule formed just east of AR2887 (shown here on GONG). This was beautiful to follow and changed dramatically in minutes. This area on the limb showed a lot of small flaring, potentially indicating a new active reagion rotating into view in a couple days.

The two best images I managed to capture with my phone. The top one clearly shows the plague around AR2887, while the bottom image reveals slightly more detail in the prominence. Note the Flame Nebula similarities

After a while of observing and moving the telescope to avoid areas shaded by surrounding buildings, I packed up after more than two very succesful hours of observing our Sun. Lately I've been highly considering to get a pair of binoviewers since I mostly do Lunar, Solar and Planetary observing nowadays. And! It's not really helping that Solar Astronomy recommends the use of a binoviewer numerous times

If you stuck around for long enough to reach this part of the post, I hope you enjoyed reading it! I look forward to the next observing opportunity, whether that might be solar, lunar or whatever else is worth a look

Clear skies!
Victor

Edited October 23, 2021 by Victor Boesen
Added GONG image of spicule

[Stu]

Great report and excellent pictures @Victor Boesen, I enjoyed reading that.

Your pictures are really good, and that OIII looks like it is doing a decent job. I did likewise when I needed a 1.25” filter for solar and they work very well.

Binoviewers? Who mentioned binoviewers for solar? 🤣

[Victor Boesen]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

Great report and excellent pictures @Victor Boesen, I enjoyed reading that.

Thanks a lot Stu, glad you enjoyed it:)

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

Binoviewers? Who mentioned binoviewers for solar? 🤣

We don't all have four eyes like you Stu😅!! Jokes aside, you have the TS-optics binoviewer on your H-alpha setup there don't you? I'm currently torn between saving for the MaxBrights (would take a while before I could afford them + a T2 prism), the TS-optics binos or the WO binos which include a pair of 20mm eyepieces that seem to get mixed opinions. How do you like your TS binos? I know you've been through a decent number of binos by now

[Stu]

8 minutes ago, Victor Boesen said:

We don't all have four eyes like you Stu😅!! Jokes aside, you have the TS-optics binoviewer on your H-alpha setup there don't you? I'm currently torn between saving for the MaxBrights (would take a while before I could afford them + a T2 prism), the TS-optics binos or the WO binos which include a pair of 20mm eyepieces that seem to get mixed opinions. How do you like your TS binos? I know you've been through a decent number of binos by now

Tee hee!

Yes, these are the TS binoviewers. Generally I like most things about them. Optically they seem pretty good. The only weakness is that there is a little play in the diopter adjustment when not screwed fully in which can knock the collimation a little. I keep them screwed in fully, and adjust focus just by pulling the eyepiece out slightly as needed. Not sure if that is specific to my unit or if it affects others.

I think personally I would save for the Baader, unless the wait time is very long. Ultimately I would like a pair of these as my second set.

[Victor Boesen]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

I think personally I would save for the Baader, unless the wait time is very long. Ultimately I would like a pair of these as my second set.

Exactly what keeps me from getting anything else. Would rather get some quality optics like the ZEISS T2 prism, MaxBright and some Baader orthos (???) which I will likely end up happier with. Thanks once again Stu