Solar Imaging Session - February 1, 2012

The sky this morning is partly cloudy and hazy :( Seeing condition is also not that good. I was only able to grab 2 frames which centers on the AR11410 / AR11413 Sunspot Group as well as the active southern hemisphere solar activities before I got clouded out totally. Only small prominences are visible on the solar disk.

Solar Imaging Session - January 31, 2012

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is also very good. AR11413 Sunspot Groups continues to grow in structure while AR11410 Sunspot Group continues to show good umbral structure inside its core. AR11408 Sunspot Group continues to decay as it nears the NW limb. The huge dark filament in the northern hemisphere is now starting to decay and lose its solid form. There are lots of small solar activities in the southern hemisphere. Small groups of eruptive prominences can be seen in the NE and NW limb.

Deep Sky Imaging Session - January 28-29, 2012

Last Jan 28, I went with some members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines went to Caliraya, Laguna to do some observations as well as try to recover Comet Garrad & Asteroid 433 Eros.

We arrive at the site at around 7:00 pm. I brought along my usual portable setup with Canon EOS 500D DSLR on Canon EF100-400mm IS L lens on Kenko Sky Memo-R tracker.
As the sky started to open up late in the evening, I was finally able to polar align my mount and together with ALPer Christopher Louie Lu worked together to locate and image asteroid 433 Eros in the constellation of Sextan so that we can submit our images for parallax measurement to the Eros Parallax Project.

Before morning break, I was also able to image Comet 2009 P1 Garrad as well as M13 Hercules globular cluster in the constellation of Hercules before we head back home with a contended heart that we had a great time together!

Solar Imaging Session - January 30, 2012

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition was good. AR11410 Sunspot Group is the main group that is visible on the Sun's disk with a new AR11413 Sunspot Group emerging near AR11410 group while AR11408 continues to deteriorate in size as it nears the NW limb. Several small pores sunspot group are also visible on the Sun's disk namely AR11411 and AR11412 Sunspot Groups.

A Dark Filament in the Northern hemisphere is huge and looks like a straight wall. A jot to look at :) As for prominences, only small to moderate prominences are visible on the Sun's limb.

I also was able to image AR11410 and AR11413 Sunspot Group in white light wavelength. Overall, the Sun is very quiet.

Solar Imaging Session - January 27, 2012 (2 Large Eruptive Prominences & New AR11409 Sunspot Group!)

I wake up late this morning as I was so tired last night. I quickly setup to observe the Sun and follow yesterday's NE large eruptive prominence. It has grown in size a bit and also starts to expand. A very nice prominence to observe indeed! There is also another beautiful eruptive prominence in the SW limb as well as several large dark filament in the NE and SE quadrant.

Another new sunspot group has emerged from the NE limb and this will probably be designated as AR11410. It also looks promising to grow a little bigger in the days to come.

After I image the Sun in Ha, clouds started to interfere with my white light imaging and seeing condition also drop significantly so images in white light are very poor today but I still proceeded to processed them to give an idea for solar viewers on what to expect when observing AR11408 and AR11410 Sunspot Groups :0

Solar Imaging Session - January 26, 2012 (Huge NE Eruptive Prominence!)

The sky this morning is slightly hazy and seeing condition is again not good. I was still able to get an anti-climatic observation of the large AR11402 Sunspot Group which shows its high activity last Jan 23 which it was able to erupt a M9 flare. The group is already nearing the edge of the NW limb but it showed a farewell show for me with a nice arch flare from the group! Another nice sunspot group, AR11408 Sunspot Group is small and quiet but nice in structure.

What captures today's observation was a huge eruptive prominences as well as a huge dark filament in the NE limb! Quite beautiful pair :) The SE quadrant also shows a nice huge dark filament as well.

Solar Imaging Session - January 12, 2012 (Solar Caterpillar On The Loose !!!)

The sky this morning is slightly hazy and seeing condition continues to be poor. AR11393 Sunspot Group is now on the edge of NW limb while AR11391 Sunspot Groups is behind it as well in the NW quadrant. AR11395 Sunspot Group is small but shows some small solar activity inside its core. Lots of Dark Filaments can be seen in the northern hemisphere. A faint large eruptive prominence can be seen in the SE limb. Lastly, the only eye catching solar event today is a very long eruptive prominence which looks like a caterpillar slowly moving along the NE limb :) LOL

Solar Imaging Session - January 10, 2012 (Huge NW Eruptive Prominence !)

The Sun this morning is very cloudy and I got a small window of time to get a shot of the NW quadrant to image the huge eruptive prominence as well as large AR11391 and AR11393 Sunspot Groups. A nice bar prominence can also be seen in the SE limb.

Jupiter Imaging Session - January 7, 2012

After I return home from work, I saw Jupiter quite high already and near zenith so I talked myself into doing some Jupiter imaging and observation. Seeing condition is not good in the early part of my session and after about an hour of cooling down the scope, seeing condition improves a little for me to image the giant planet.

Great Red Spot (GRS) is visible and quite easy to see even under 80x but employing a 2x barlow shows the GRS well. The GRS plume is still visible as well as 2 red barge visible on the North Equatorial Belt (NEB) region .

Solar Imaging Session - January 6, 2012 (Huge NE Eruptive Prominence Simmers Down !!!)

The sky this morning is again very hazy and seeing condition again is very poor. The Huge NE eruptive prominence that was visible yesterday is still visible but had simmered down a bit in size so I guess very small remnant of this prominence is expected tomorrow morning IMHO. There is a new small AR11393 Sunspot Group that has emerge between AR11392 and AR11391 Sunspot Group. AR11386 Sunspot Group made one last farewell show in the SW limb with a bright flare in the limb. AR11389 and AR11388 Sunspot Group also gave a good solar activity view in the SW quadrant with a nice twirled dark filament.

In white light wavelength, I manage to image AR11391 , AR11389 and AR11388 Sunspot Groups as well as full disk shot amid bad seeing condition. Lastly, I want to bid my fellow solar imager friend Jan Timmermans good bye as I heard from fellow list members in PST Group of his death on January 4th :( With a sad heart, I will miss our friendship since 2007 when I joined the PST Group and we had been in constant communication and sharing notes of our regular solar observations and images. We both rely on each other's observation and images as we are almost +8 time zone difference and this give each other a head start on what to expect when we are setting up for our solar sessions. I would like to extend my sincere condolences to his wife and family. I'm sure Jan will still continue to look up to the sky in heaven with a perfect seeing condition than we here have. Good bye and rest in peace Jan. Will miss your solar images and communications...........

Solar Imaging Session - January 5, 2012 (Huge NE Eruptive Prominence !!!)

The sky this morning is very hazy and seeing condition is also not very good. But I still proceeded to monitor the Sun nevertheless and got to see a huge eruptive prominence in the NE limb near AR11391 Sunspot Group! Amid the poor seeing, the prominence still stands out well than I expected. It surprised me this morning amid my expectation of a quiet Sun today. This just let us know that the Sun is a very dynamic object that can give us a lot of surprises when monitored on a regular basis! New AR11392 Sunspot Group contains small pores only while the quiet AR11390 eventually started to get active today as it nears the western limb. AR11389 continues to show some small solar activity inside its core while AR11388 Sunspot Group is quiet and low in solar activity.

An white light wavelength, AR11391 Sunspot Group now is the group to monitor as it grows a little larger now while AR11389 Sunspot Group continues to decay more and almost lost all its bigger umbral cores except for the main core which still shows nice structure. AR11388 Sunspot Group continues to be quiet in solar activity.

Solar Imaging Session - January 3, 2012

The sky this morning is partly cloudy and hazy and seeing is also not that good but I still proceeded to observe and image the Sun in Ha wavelength. There is a new AR11391 Sunspot Group that is coming out from the NE limb. AR11389 and AR11388 Sunspot Groups continues to be very active in its core but large AR11389 Sunspot Group is now starting to decay and is losing some of its larger umbral core structures :( AR11390 and AR11386 Sunspot Groups shows very minimal solar activity inside their cores.

I wasn't able to do white light observation and imaging as clouds eventually covered the Sun thus ending my solar session this morning :(