Solar Imaging Session - November 18, 2008

Seeing this morning is ok with some blue skies and less clouds than previous days. The Sun was again a bit quiet after AR 1008 Sunspot Group had exited the western limb. Lots of small prominences are visible in the solar limb but a nice grouping of prominences stands out from the rest so I took an image of it on fair seeing condition.

Solar Imaging Session - November 16, 2008

Hello:

I wake up late today so my observation window is limited to the point that I can only image the Sun in less than 15 minutes before it gets obstructed :( Nevertheless, I was able to capture a nice bar prominence but unfortunately, I missed imaging AR1008 sunspot group as by the time Im set to image it, it got obstructed already :( Below is the image of the prominence.


Before lunchtime, I got another chance to image the Sun but this time around, I opted to test the William Optics WCL-52 digicam lens I got in conjunction with my Canon 650IS to image afocally with TV-101 refractor. With that setup, it will give me an effective focal length of 1500m f/15. Unfortunately, clouds rolled up as fast as I setup again, but I got to image the whole disk before getting clouded up. Not that sharp as I got no time to finely focus though :(

Solar Imaging Session - November 14, 2008 (AR1008 Sunspot Group)

Hello:

With much expectation from yesterday solar session, I again waited this morning to image the AR1008 Group again. Seeing was surprising good for a short while when I was imaging it. But seeing didn' t stay long for me to continue shooting the Sun i good detail. Nevertheless, below are images that I took of AR1008 this morning. Some nice eruptive prominences can also be seen together in the same frame with the sunspot group.

Solar Imaging Session - November 13, 2008

Hello:

This morning, although a bit hazy, I try to image the Sun as I read from Spaceweather.com that AR 1008 Sunspot Group is visible and so I waited till the breaks of the clouds for me to image it. From Ha view, the main sunspot group of AR1008 is clearly visible. Aside from the group, I was also able to image a very faint large eruptive prominence that was faintly visible but really large. Another smaller eruptive prominence is also visible in the limb.

I was planning to image the AR1008 through white light but unfortunately, clouds cover the Sun and thus, I wasn't able to test my new William Optics DCL-52 digital lens with my Canon 650IS digicam on TV-101 refractor :( Hopefully tomorrow I would be able to do that before the group exits the western limb.

Solar Imaging Session - November 9, 2008

Hello:

This morning, the Sky was a bit hazy but I was still able to see the Sun through the haze so I proceed to setup. While scanning the limb of the Sun, I was able to see a nice eruptive prominence that was bright. As I image the prominence, I carefully check again on the rest of the solar limb and saw another fainter prominence that was almost invisible from visual view. Nevertheless, I image both of them amid bad seeing and thick haze and they can be viewed below:

Solar Imaging Session - November 4, 2008

Hello:

The sky this morning was again hazy but I still proceeded in imaging the Sun. From my computer monitor, there were several prominences again but image was really poor and soft. Nevertheless, I still image them as viewed below:

Solar Imaging Session - November 2, 2008

Hello:

After coming home from a tiring stargazing session at Caliraya, I saw the sky was a bit clear so I setup my PST-Ha to check out the Sun. Although there is some haze hovering on the Sun, I was able to see around 3 prominences at the limb of the Sun. SO before I got covered up by the darn clouds, I was able to image it. Seeing though was a bit poor :(

Deep Sky Imaging Session at Caliraya - November 1-2, 2008

Hello:

Last November 1, I went with Vincent Lao to Caliraya at around 6:00pm to have a stargazing session there amid a bad weather outlook .When we reach Caliraya at around 9:00pm, lady luck seems to run out on us as we were greeted with hard rain ! Since we were already there, we both decided to wait for a while and hope the rain will stop. At around 10:30pm, the eastern sky started to break up and we were able to see Orion rising majestically. Unfortunately, mild shower was still present that time and was still trying to ruin our session :( With the hard rain comes a very muddy observing site , I initially plan to quit the session because the telescope tripod will surely sink into the mud but seeing Vincent still enjoying binocular viewing of the beautiful sky, we decided to stick around more and after searching for a lesser muddy area , we setup our scopes at around 11:30pm after the rain finally comes to a stop.

I brought along a TV-101 refractor on Vixen GP-DX mount while Vincent brought his new Orion Starblast 4.5" reflector on EQ-1 mount. With a compromise area, the view of the sky was not perfect as some parts of the sky from South to Southwest were block by tall trees. The original observing area that we regularly setup before were under the water. For me, I was a bit disappointed on the weather because the unexpected early heavy rain doused cold water on my original imaging plans for the night :( So i opted instead to image old favorites such as Orion Nebula, Pleiades star cluster, and California Nebula. Vincent , on the other hand, image M35, Double Cluster, constellation Orion,and Beehive cluster.

I was also able to observe several Orionids meteor shower and lots of sporadics as well. The night was not that perfect though as there were 2 mild rains that pour on us in the morning :(

We were able to observe till around 4:30am before the sky started to brighten already. Before we started to dismantle our scopes, we had a group picture taken before packing up our equipment. As we were dismantling our scopes, they were able to observe beautiful crepuscular rays as the Sun was starting to rise .

Despite the disappointing sky and muddy conditions in the early evening, both of us were happy and satisfied. It has really been a long time since we had a successful observing session and we were really grateful for taking our chances .

Below are the images that I took at Caliraya using my TV-101 refractor at prime focus with Canon 300D on Vixen GP-D mount. EFL= 864mm f/5.4.

M42 Great Orion Nebula in Orion
24mins at ISO 1600
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M45 Pleiades Star Cluster in Taurus

20 mins at ISO 1600
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NGC1499 California Nebula in Perseus
21 mins at ISO 1600