Solar Imaging Session - March 30, 2010

Hello:

I got to wake up late this morning and hurriedly setup my PST-Ha to check out old Sol. AR 11057 Sunspot Group is still nice to looked at but it was obvious the group is starting to deteriorate on its central core structure the past 2 days. AR 11059 , on the other hand remain quite small but the group is starting to show some small activity in its core and let's hope it will continue to do so in the days to come.

Aside from the 2 groups, a large faint looped prominence can be faintly seen in the SE limb plus some small prominences scattered around the solar limb.

I wasn't able to do solar white light this morning because I'm already late for work :( I hope to also monitor it in white light tomorrow.

Solar Imaging Session - March 28, 2010 (2 Sunspot Groups Now)

Hello:

I got to wake up a little early this morning and didn't waste time to start imaging the Sun. AR 11057 continues to show its activeness while another new sunspot group, AR 11059, can be seen in the SE limb. This sunspot group can also be seen from my yesterday's white light whole disk image at the extreme limb edge :) LOL

Solar prominences seems to quiet down a bit as I can only see a few small group of prominences around the solar limb. Seeing today is a little better than yesterday's seeing condition. Once again, I got hampered by clouds while trying to image the Sun in white light! Fortunately, I was able to image the 2 groups before being clouded out!

I have to wait till past 1:00pm before i was able to image the Sun in whole disk using our alternate scope, KC's Meade ETX-90AT with Baader 5.0 solar filter. Since I just need to image whole disk, the ETX-90AT suits my need and convenience rather than hauling the entire solar imaging system down to our laundry area :) LOL

Solar Imaging Session - March 27, 2010 (AR 11057 Sunspot Group)

Hello:

The sky this morning is again partially clear with lots of dark clouds on the eastern horizon :( I hurriedly try to image the Sun before the clouds catch up with me. As I observe and image the Sun in Ha light, AR 11057 was very beautiful and eye catching so I quickly image it. As for prominences, they are several moderate and small prominences visible on the limb as well as a faint large eruptive prominence that can be seen in the SW limb.

As I was about to image the Sun in white light, clouds suddenly block my view and I wasn't able to image it till around 1:30pm! Darn ! That was a long wait but worth it :) Although the seeing was still not good, I still managed top image the group up close as well as whole disk. I hope to be able to image AR 11057 again tomorrow morning and maybe with a better seeing condition :)

Solar Imaging Session - March 26, 2010 (AR 11057 Sunspot Group)

Hello:

The sky this morning was partly clear and I can see some small window for me to shoot the Sun. I hurriedly setup as I'm eager to image AR 11057 which is at least a moderate to large size sunspot group. As I scan the Sun's disk, there are some moderate size prominences as well as a large faint eruptive prominence which almost got away from me if not for careful inspection of the limb. AR 11057 shows a nice structure both in H-Alpha light and white light. A faint large dark filament can also be seen at the center of the Sun as well as some smaller dark filaments.

Unfortunately, clouds rolled in before I could make a shot of the Sun in whole disk as well as AR 11057. I was able to center the group in my computer field of view and I can say, the structure of the group is very beautiful but sadly, clouds keep on passing in front of the group and seems to taunt and test my patience! :) LOL

In the end, no amount of patience waiting for the sky to clear up for me to image it forced me to stop my session at 9:30am. I waited again for another crack at the Sun at lunchtime and the sky is still overcast :( Oh brother....... tomorrow again :) LOL

Solar Imaging Session - March 21, 2010 (Beautiful AR 11056 and Large Dark Filaments and Eruptive Prominence!)

Hello:

The sky this morning is partly cloudy and today is Equinox which happens also to be my son KC's birthday as well! As I view the Sun, I can see a nice large eruptive prominence in the NW limb. Also visible is the departing AR 11054 which is at the edge of the western limb. There are lots of Dark Filaments visible in the NW as well as the SE limb.

But what caught my attention today is the active AR 11056 Sunspot Group which entertained me this morning with a nice eruption that cause the group's plages to brighten up! On the AVI, the view was very nice as one can see the brightening of the group in less than 16 minutes period.

08:30:48 (00:30:48 UT)

08:46:00 (00:46:00 UT)

I was planning to image in white light but cloudy sky covered the sky where the Sun is located so I wasn't able to image anymore as the Sun got passed my roof's obstruction already :( The Sun is fast rising in the morning now and from my observation area, I wont be able to see the Sun after 9:00am instead of the usual 9:40am time frame. :( Anyway, if weather is ok, I still don't see much problem observing the Sun in the morning maybe until mid May when the Sun will be rising more in the NE horizon and I will not be able to image and observe the Sun until mid September again.

March 13/14 Stargazing / Messier Marathon / Imaghing Session at Caliraya , Laguna

Hello:

I together with members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP), as well as PLM Astrosoc and RTU MS Astro students / members went to Caliraya , Laguna last March 13 to have our Stargazing / Imaging and Messier Marathon 2010 event there. More than 37 members, guest and Messier Marathoners attended the event.

While setting up for the activity, we were able to observe a broken rainbow in the eastern horizon and we were worried a bit as there is large rainclouds hovering in the horizon :(




As for me, I did my usual imaging routine but unfortunately, the early evening skies was compromised by passing clouds as well as some short burst of rains so I waited till after midnight before the sky was steadily clear and I quickly made polar alignment. The rest of the Messier Marathoners as well as guests, on the meantime, were doing their activities.

For this session, I was able to image only the following and I hope to make another return here during the Lenten vacation days to do some more imaging of the deep skies.

M4 Globular Star Cluster in Scorpius

M8 Lagoon and M20 Triffid Nebula in Sagittarius

Summer Milky Way in the Scorpius / Sagittarius Region

Just before sunrise, the thin crescent Moon rose from the eastern horizon through the clouds for me to image it together with a nice earthshine :)

Thin Crescent Moon

Thin Crescent Moon with Earthshine

Me after a tiring but enjoyable imaging session

ALPers and participants posed after a successful and enjoyable stargazing / imaging / Messier Marathon 2010 event!

Wacky Shot ! Till next Messier Marathon 2011 !

Official Messier Marathon 2010 results as well as full details and more images of the activity will be posted at the ALP webpage at http://www.astroleaguephils.org in the days to come!

Solar Imaging Session - March 13, 2010 (Beautiful AR 11054 and Large Eruptive Prominence)

Hello:

The sky this morning was clear and seeing was fair. Although we have a scheduled Stargazing Session at Caliraya in the evening, I couldn't resist myself not to take a peek at the Sun despite having slight fever and hard cough and was blessed to see beautiful AR 11054 and bright plages surrounding the group! Small AR 11055 can still be seen but it had lose its core activity in H-Alpha wavelength. A beautiful eruptive prominence in the SE has finally break the large prominence drought :)

I also was able to take a white light image of the whole disk as well as closeup shot of AR 11054 Sunspot Group.

Solar Imaging Session - March 10, 2010 (Numerous Dark Filaments and Large Prominences)

Hello:

The sky this morning is clear and seeing is fair. I quickly scanned the Sun for the development of the large dark filament and this morning the filaments becomes shorter but thicker! Numerous small dark filaments are also visible from the northern limb. Also 2 large eruptive prominences are visible as well as numerous small prominences.

In the NE limb, it seems the possible active region is starting to develop and I do hope this will grown even more in the days to come.

Solar Imaging Session - March 9, 2010 (Numerous Dark Filaments)

Hello:

The sky was a bit cloudy this morning and I thought I wouldn't be able to image the Sun this morning so I quickly get dressed for work but as I walk out of my room, the sky suddenly opened up for me to see the Sun so I didn't waste any time to quickly setup for solar imaging in less than 5 minutes and start to image old Sol. Seeing was not that good this morning but still, I continue to monitor the breaking up of the Long Dark Filament. The filament indeed started to deteriorate and breaking up but the filament's western section got wider and is a real beauty!

As for prominences, there are more numerous eruptive prominences today than the previous days but they are not that large but are mostly grouped together in the NE and NW limbs. Hoping to see more actions in the large dark filament tomorrow.

Lastly, there is a possible new active region near the NE limb that is developing and hope this developed into a sunspot group.

Solar Imaging Session - March 8, 2010 (Numerous Dark Filaments)

Hello:

The sky this morning was partly cloudy so I was only able to image the NE limb of the Sun only. The long dark filament that was visible in the NE limb is starting to breakup already compared to yesterday's image. The dark filament was estimated to be more or less around 50,000 km from end to end!

Below is yesterday's image of the same dark filament from one I took today. See the slight detachment of the dark filament from the NE limb.

We will see if the long dark filament will still be visible tomorrow................. :0

Solar Imaging Session - March 7, 2010 (Numerous Dark Filaments)

Hello:

The sky this morning was a bit cloudy and I patiently waited for the clouds to persist as I want to monitor the long dark filament that I saw yesterday at the NE limb. Although I can see it in my monitor screen, I wasn't able to image the Sun till past lunchtime! I have to bring all my solar setup down to the laundry area for me to image the Sun at that time!

As I train the PST-Ha at the Sun, I was surprised to see a large bright eruptive prominence in the western limb which I didn't see in the morning. The changes in that prominence was very fast as the prominence changed structure in less than 13 minutes!

After imaging the said prominence, I went back to image the NE limb wherein the large dark filament together with some small dark filaments are visible. Small residual traces of AR 11051 can still be seen near the NW limb.