Solar Imaging Session - October 31, 2010

Hello:

The sky this morning is very cloudy but lots of small opening s but the clouds move sop fast that it was hard for me to get a decent shot of the Sun. From a quick short grab of AR11117 Sunspot Group, the image of the departing group near the NW limb is just fair but not that good. Nevertheless, still something a die hard solar imager and observer will still contend to :) LOL



A new sunspot group maybe designated AR11120 is in the works near the NE limb but unfortunately, clouds and roof obstruction prevented me from imaging it anymore :( ===== But a quick glance of the group shows nice activity inside the group so hopefully I can image it tomorrow morning........

Solar Imaging Session - October 29, 2010 ( Huge Eruptive Prominence & Active AR 11117 Sunspot Group )

Hello:

The sky this morning is very cloudy thus I got a hard time doing any imaging at all :( As I was all about to pack up and call it a day. I saw a small window that might let the Sun come out from the clouds for a few minutes.

I quickly scan the solar surface and saw yesterday's super huge eruptive prominence already gone except for the other huge eruptive prominence near AR11117 Sunspot Group in eastern limb which still show a nice appearance.

After I got the prominence and and sunspot group, the clouds shut me down again and I pack up. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to image AR11117 Sunspot Group in white light because of the scenario.

Solar Imaging Session - October 28, 2010 ( 2 Huge Eruptive Prominences & Active AR 11117 Sunspot Group )

Hello:

The sky this morning is slightly hazy with fair seeing condition. As I saw the Sunlight shining through our window. I quickly got up and start to setup and take a look at the Sun in Ha light. Wow!!! 2 super huge eruptive prominence eclipsed my attention to AR11117 Sunspot Group! The super huge eruptive prominence that can be seen in the NE limb is a sight to behold as I was able to image it when the prominence is ejecting its shell out to space! Another huge eruptive prominence can also be found in the Eastern limb that is also a joy to look at!

AR11117 Sunspot Group has shrunk in length but it now looks like a triangle group :) The main sunspot component of this group continues to grown in size thus making it very photographically appealing now than before both in Ha and white light wavelength :) I do hope that the 2 huge eruptive prominences will still be visible so I can make some comparison shots of them to today's appearance.

Solar Imaging Session - October 26, 2010 ( 2 Huge Eruptive Prominences & Active AR 11117 Sunspot Group )

Hello:

I wake up a bit late this morning and saw the sky a bit cloudy. With a small window of time for me to do much solar imaging, I still proceeded to setup and try to image the Sun specially AR11117 Sunspot Group, which has grown more complex in structure with an additional main spot inside its group, and the huge eruptive prominence that was visible yesterday in the SW limb. Yesterday's large dark filament is still visible near AR11117 Sunspot Group :)

To my delight is the visibility of another huge eruptive prominence that is visible in the NW limb in the same quadrant as departing AR11113 Sunspot Group.

Lastly, I attempted to image AR11117 Sunspot Group in white light again this morning but I ran out of time as the Sun already got obstructed by the roof :( Although I was able to glimpse it a while and saw its beauty. Maybe I will try my luck again tomorrow and probably image in white light first before doing Ha light :)

Solar Imaging Session - October 25, 2010 (Huge Eruptive Prominence & Active AR 11117 Sunspot Group )

Hello:

The sky this morning was partly cloudy but there are some thin haze for me to get some images of the Sun in a hard way. I had to wait for about 20 minutes before I could fire my first shot :) LOL Seeing was fair though.

AR11117 Sunspot Group is really growing and now has two big spots in its group as well as a trail of small sunspots :) In Ha light, it also shows lots of solar activity inside its core. AR11113 Sunspot Group can still be seen about to exit to NW limb. AR11115 Sunspot Group, on the other hand is also nearing the SW limb but a huge eruptive prominence is also visible in this quadrant thus making it more lively and interesting rather than a dull AR11115 spot :)






Aside from imaging through H-Alpha light today, I manage to get a quick shot of AR11117 Sunspot Group in high res white light wavelength before I got clouded out thus unable for me to image the other 2 smaller sunspot groups as well as whole disk.

Solar Imaging Session - October 24, 2010

Hello:

The sky this morning is really bad but I can still see some sunlight passing through thick haze so I thought of still observing the Sun to know what's happening on the surface of the Sun. AR11115 Sunspot Group is the most prominent subject that caught my eye first as a single circular spot. Further scanning hard through the haze reveal 2 more sunspot groups so I thought of dong the crazy thing of still trying to image them :) LOL Anyway, I thought..... what am I got to lose by doing that?

As I check the 3 groups through the monitor, it turned out that AR11117 Sunspot Group is the most active of the 3 groups instead of AR11115 as i earlier thought. It shows some internal activity inside the group. I quickly image the Sun through passing clouds thus preventing me to get an even illumination on the Sun's surface but for me, what;s important is to extract as much I can out of the image although of course the image won't be that great as that on a clear sky :) LOL Several groups of eruptive prominences can also be seen on the solar limb as well.

I also did try to image the Sun through white light but clouds and thick haze prevented me from doing further imaging for this morning :( Anyway, I will try to image the 3 groups as well tomorrow morning if sky is fair at least.

Comet 103/P Hartley 2 Imaging Session - October 16, 2010

Hello:

Last October 16, ALPers Andrew Ian Chan and I went back to PAGASA Observatory in UP Diliman after an unsuccessful try last October 15 to try to recover Comet Hartley 2 under sub-urban condition.

Conditions last night was far better than what we had the other day. Last night's transparency was good and amid passing clouds, we could see lots of stars through the cloud breaks that we decided to setup our imaging equipment to try to image it. James brought along a portable setup in Canon 500D DSLR with Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS Lens on Kenko Sky Memo-R mount while Andrew brought along his Canon 500D DSLR on his trusty Skywatcher 80ED refractor on Vixen GP mount with Sky Sensor 2000 system.

We initially use naked eye as well as 10x50 binoculars to try to see if we can see it. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see it thus we employ imaging technique we used before during our tandem recovery of Comet McNaught at Caliraya before.

After double checking the comet position through James' StarMap Pro software in Iphone 3G, they aimed their scope and lens to the predicted position and we finally got to recover the elusive comet :) LOL

Some slight haze were present during the session thus they weren't able to expose longer exposure to get better image of the comet. The comet was a bit dim through 1-2 minute exposure as they had to contend with fighting the Moonlight glow as the Moon was still present in the western sky. Nevertheless, after 2 days of numerous mosquito bites, they finally got to image the comet! As James told Andrew, on their first night, he was bitten by mosquito more than 46 times on the first try :) LOL But it was still worth the itch :) LOL





After imaging the comet, they decided to stay a little longer to test their mount tracking as well use the opportunity to image the Waxing Gibbous Moon as well as some deep sky object (DSO) such as M42 Orion Nebula as well as M45 Pleiades star cluster. It was Andrew's first attempt on the DSOs so his results were quite satisfactory and is looking forward to go to dark skies again in Caliraya maybe next month to get better sky conditions for him to be able to get his favorite DSO images for keeps.

At around 1:30am, they packed up and have a group shot to have a souvenir image of their successful recovery of the comet under sub-urban condition :)

Solar Imaging Session - October 15, 2010 ( Huge Dark Filament & Eruptive Prominence !!! )

Hello:

After overcoming several days of bad weather conditions, I was surprised to see a small window of opportunity for me to observe and image the Sun through small openings in the sky near the Sun. As I focus on the Sun through the PST-Ha, I was was delighted to see a large dark filament arching almost 1/4 the diameter of the Sun! I wasted no time and setup my imaging equipment asap so that I can image it before a large band of clouds trying to cover up the sky!

The very long dark filament was a joy to look at as seems to be connected to nearby AR 11112 Sunspot Group. Adding spice to the filament shot was a huge eruptive prominence that was visible in the SSW limb area.

AR11113 Sunspot Group is also visible now near the NE limb as well as several nice group of eruptive prominences that are visible around the solar limb.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to image new small AR11114 Sunspot Group as clouds finally catch up on me :(

Jupiter Imaging Session - October 11, 2010

Hello:

I was planning to go to PAGASA Observatory this evening to try to image Comet 103/P Hartley 2 but the sky condition was very hazy and further confirmation from fellow ALPers Christopher Louie Lu and Henry So who live in Mandaluyong City and Quezon City area respectively that the sky in their area was very hazy and can see Jupiter and Moon. I decided to cancel my plan trip to PAGASA Observatory and instead stayed home and try to observe and image planet Jupiter.

Since this is my second time to try imaging Jupiter with my modest sized scope, I quickly get to center the planet in my camera field of view easily this time com[pared to my last session. Jupiter was nice to view this time as the Great Red Spot (GRS) is near the central meridian and both Jovian satellites Europa and Io are also captured int he same field with Jupiter. Jovian satellites Ganymede and Callisto are much farther out of the field of view of the camera thus were not included in the final image. Oval BA or Red Spot Jr. can also be seen at lower right of GRS as well.

I do hope to improve my skills in planetary imaging in the days to come and get some decent image for my own collection :)



Based on fellow ALPer John Nassr's recommendation and advise that I add more frames into my initial image above which only has around 300+ stacked frames compare to the one I reprocessed with around 900 frames out of 1200 frames. Result can be seen below:




Which is better final image??? initial or the reprocessed image??? :)

Solar Imaging Session - October 11, 2010

Hello:

The sky this morning was cloudy and hazy but I still try to force myself to image old Sol despite the bad condition. AR 11112 Sunspot Group is still very small in size but its complex structure is nice to view in Ha light. Adding to its beauty is a long dark filament that is trailing the group near the limb and a small prominence is also visible in the SE limb.

On the other hand, there is a nice large eruptive prominence visible in the NW limb that add spice to the solar appearance today :)

Solar Imaging Session - October 10, 2010

Hello:

The sky this morning was fair and some clouds are present near the Sun so I didn't waste much time and started to observe and image the Sun asap. AR 11112 Sunspot Groups is starting to emerge from the SE limb now and I can see a few small sunspots in this group. A small loop prominence can also be seen near the group.

Aside from the group, there are 2 large eruptive prominences that are visible in the solar limb as well as 2 small group of prominences.

Solar Imaging Session - October 9, 2010

Hello:

The sky this morning is quite hazy but I proceeded with my solar observation and imaging nevertheless. Careful observation of the south eastern limb reveals a small bright active region that might developed into AR 11112 Sunspot Group in the days to come. Beside this group is also the presence of a nice looped prominence.

There is also a large eruptive prominence visible in the NW limb that adds spice to today's solar observation and imaging.

Jupiter Imaging Session - October 7, 2010

Hello:

I got a chance to setup and observe the planet Jupiter for quite a long time. As I focus Jupiter on the eyepiece, it rekindle my interest to try imaging it with my small setup. But with Jupiter already nearing my roof obstruction, I scamper to quickly setup my basic imaging equipment. With almost 5to 6 years of planetary imaging hiatus, I had a hard time foc using and centering Jupiter in the small field of view of the camera sensor. But after 10 minutes of trial and centering, I got to image it under bad seeing and before it got obstructed by the roof!

I plan to image it again tomorrow if weather is ok and will do the imaging session maybe around 7:00pm instead of around 7:45pm! That way, I will get some more imaging time to spare for me to practice and honing my planetary imaging skills again........

Nevertheless, the initial imaging result is ok for me but not that great as I want to be, but at least its a great start for me to again to do planetary imaging again once in a while :)

Solar Imaging Session - October 7, 2010

Hello:

The sky this morning is fair and seeing is moderate as well. With the departure of AR11109 over the NW limb, the Sun is blank again for the second day :( Nevertheless, there is a nice large eruptive prominence visible in the eastern limb that ignites some interest on a rather boring Sun today :)

I'm hoping that there will be more large eruptive prominences that will be visible tomorrow as we wait for another new active region to develop...........

Solar Imaging Session - October 5, 2010

Hello:
Today's solar image is quite low with the departure of AR11109 Sunspot Group :( Small traces of minute activity though can still be seen on AR11111 Sunspot Group (center). Small group of prominences can also be seen across the limb but of not much interest.

Hope the Sun show us some large eruptive prominences tomorrow..........

Solar Imaging Session - October 4, 2010

Hello:

The sky this morning is a little hazy as well as cloudy . But there are some cloud openings for me to do a short solar imaging session to image departing AR11109 which is now in the NW limb.

Aside from AR11109, AR11111 can still be seen but shows small activity only as well as several small to moderate sized eruptive prominences.

Solar Imaging Session - October 3, 2010

Hello:

I got to wake up a little late this morning because I was very tired last night from fiddling and installation of important software to my computer :( Nevertheless, I managed to still do a quick image of the the Sun with AR 11109 Sunspot Group nearing the NW limb. Several nice dark filaments are also present near AR 11109.



I wasn't able to image through white light anymore because my roof obstructed the view already for me to do further imaging. With cloudy sky hovering the sky much of the way, i doubt i would be able to image in white light at lunchtime but we'll see........... :0