Solar Activity 07 May

[brianb]

Another cloudy morning followed by a clear afternoon - and processing still being delayed because of a bottleneck caused by a broken hard disk on one of my systems.

CaK overview shows activity much the same as May 6th.

1308 UT. Coronado PST CaK, prime focus, DMK41

The major active area 11069 is approaching the limb.

1348 UT. WO FLT 110, Lunt solar diagonal, x2 barlow, DMK21

1418 UT. WO FLT 110, Lunt B1200 CaK diagonal, x2 barlow, DMK21

The hydrogen alpha inage includes AR 11067 as well:

1335 UT. Solarscope 60, 2x barlow, DMK41

There is also an interesting "binary pair" of very small spots in AR 11066, near the meridian in the southern hemisphere:

1405 UT. WO FLT 110, Lunt solar diagonal, x2 barlow, DMK21

1413 UT. WO FLT 110, Lunt B1200 CaK diagonal, x2 barlow, DMK21

AR 11068 in the south east sector is interesting in Ha:

1318 UT. Solarscope 60, 2x barlow, DMK21

There are several groups of prominences. There is a notable bright one on the north limb:

1326 UT. Solarscope 60, x2 barlow, DMK21

an interesting group on the south west limb

1321 UT. Solarscope 60, x2 barlow, DMK21

and a complex group on the east south east limb, probably quiescent filaments

1323 UT. Solarscope 60, x2 barlow, DMK21

Transparency very good but some interference from drifting cloud at first. Seeing moderate deteriorating to fairly bad, small amplitude rapid boiling motion. Temperature 14C, wind E force 3-4.

[Neo_uk]

very nice images as usual brian.

nice set of proms and that lunt wedge seems to work very well.

chris

[Mick UK]

Some Cracking Images there Brian, thanks for showing us them.

Are those single images or are they stacked?

[brianb]

Thanks guys!

Are those single images or are they stacked?

If I could take single frames like that, I would. But I can't, so I stack.

Solar imaging is like lunar imaging only more so ... wobbly seeing is the enemy, and the sun makes its own bad seeing by heating the ground.

Typically I shoot 2000 frames & stack 400. Computer processing time (using Avistack) is dependent on seeing to some extent, the wobblier the air the harder it is for the computer - but 20 - 30 minutes computer time per finished image is normal.

[Mick UK]

Thanks Bri...the reason i was asking was that i wasnt sure whether you were only able to get a single image due to the amount of movement on the suns surface.

Is it possible to take images of the sun using my 80ed pro or my 250 newt using a filter and then using my camera to record video footage?

or is the sun too powerfull for the chip in a normal camera?

Bear in mind, attaching my panasonic fz28 and using its optical zoom upto 18X gives me upto 502X for the 80ed, and 756X for the 250.

I tempted to try it but i would'nt want to melt my camera!

[brianb]

Is it possible to take images of the sun using my 80ed pro or my 250 newt using a filter and then using my camera to record video footage?

or is the sun too powerfull for the chip in a normal camera?

Use a ND 5.0 objective end filter - Baader solar film or similar - this reduces the light intensity that comes through the scope to a similar level to the (unfiltered) Moon & removes ALL the dangerous infra red & ultra violet radiation.

If your video technique works on the Moon, it should work on the Sun too.

Movement on the surface - or in prominences - usually takes a minute or so to be apparent. The actual motion may be fast but the Sun is very very big ....

[Mick UK]

Thank you for that Brian, i will have a good read up on it and dabble my toes into the world of solar imaging...i cant wait!

HA!..ive just had a thought..how do you do a star allignment for your mount during the day so you can track the sun while videoing?

[brianb]

HA!..ive just had a thought..how do you do a star allignment for your mount during the day so you can track the sun while videoing?

You don't need to be accurate.

I actually have my patio pre-drilled so the mount is pretty well aligned simply by putting the leg tips into the holes ... skip alignment, just tell it to go to Mercury (first on the solar system list) & point at the Sun. Drive rate is accurate enough, I don't even bother setting solar rate. A bit of drift across the chip actually helps by removing the effect of chip defects / minor dust contamination etc. when the frames are stacked.

[Mick UK]

Thanks again Bri..much appreciated:)