Solar Activity 14 Mar

[brianb]

A frustrating day with much cloud cover, some light showers causing several stops & starts and eventually unable to complete my usual range of images - no hi-res CaK, sorry 8-(

The Sun is much quieter than yesterday. The main active area 1054 persists and is still a notable white light feature, though the penumbra around the trailing spot cluster is decaying.

2010 Mar 14, 1359 UT. WO FLT 110, 4x Imagemate (f/28), Baader solar film (ND5.0), NO CONTINUUM FILTER, DMK21.

Decided to try omitting the continuum filter on the principle that the FLT shouldn't have false colour and the loss of light in the filter; a good move, I think, the image seemed to be more contrasty & was easier to focus as well as needing a shorter exposure, which helps to beat the seeing. I did add a UV/IR blocking filter to the imaging train to control the out-of-visual band "light" which the objective is not corrected for.

AR 1054 in Ha:

2010 Mar 14, 1103 UT. Solarscope 60, 2x barlow (f/16), DMK21.

CaK whole disk image shows that there is no major activity on the disk other than AR 1054.

2010 Mar 14, 1020 UT. Coronado PST CaK, prime focus (f/10), DMK41.

Ha disk shows less filaments than yesterday though there is a notable one on the north east limb & some small but active looking prominences in the same region.

2010 Mar 14, 1026 UT. Solarscope 60, Atik 0.5x focal reducer (f/5), DMK41.

2010 Mar 14, 1104 UT. Solarscope 60, 2x barlow (f/16), DMK21.

And that's your lot for today - thank you clouds

Transparency variable, moderate at best, with drifting clouds sometimes thin enough to image through. Seeing moderate. Temperature 10C, wind N force 4-5.