Solar Imaging Session - January 27, 2013

The sky this morning is clear but seeing condition is fair. With AR11660 Sunspot Group gone, there are only 3 sunspot group visible on the Sun with another possible new active region developing in the NW limb. There are several huge faint hedgerow prominences in the SE, SW and NW limb. I got to also image in AR11662 as well as new AR11663 Sunspot Group in white light high resolution.

Solar Imaging Session - January 25, 2013 (Huge Proms All Over !!!)

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is surprisingly good. Haven't got good seeing condition for a long while already so this morning is a blessing for me. Although not that perfect but good enough for me for now. There are several huge prominences that are visible in all 4 quadrants of the Sun's disk with the one near AR11660 Sunspot Group being the tallest and biggest than the rest of the visible prominences this morning. It looks like a dragon floating above the Sun's NW limb ! I was also able to image AR11660 and AR11662 Sunspot Group in close up white light wavelength as well.

Solar Imaging Session - January 24, 2013

The sky this morning is hazy and seeing condition is also not that good. Moderate size AR11660 Sunspot Group is the only interesting large group on the Sun's disk although there are also several small size sunspot groups that are visible in the NE and SW limb. In Ha wavelength, AR11660 Sunspot Group is beautifully group on the NW quadrant with a huge group of Hedgerow Prominences. Another large eruptive prominence is also visible in the SW limb.

Solar Imaging Session - January 15, 2013

The sky this morning is very hazy and partly cloudy. Seeing though is fair. It was a very hard imaging session today as I have to fight with passing clouds again and was able to do some imaging through the least cloud as much as possible. There are numerous huge hedgerow prominences around the Sun! They can be seen in the NE, SE and SW quadrant. AR11654 Sunspot Group shows some active activity with 2 nice large twisting flares with dark filament between its 2 main core groups. The huge large twisting dark filament in the SW quadrant near AR11655 Sunspot Group is still visible. I tried imaging full disk of the Sun but pesky fast passing clouds keep crossing the Sun and even after more than 100 frames, I couldn't still get a good image which is devoid of clouds so I had to settle with the least clouds present shot :( I took a final parting shot of AR11654 Sunspot Group through clouds. It has reach maximum stretch as it pass central meridian of the Sun and will start to undergo again Wilson Effect as it starts to exit into the western limb. I will miss it exiting the Sun as I had to go for more than a week long provincial work trip. Nevertheless, thank you AR11654 Sunspot Group for a great show.

Solar Imaging Session - January 14, 2013 (Huge AR11654 Sunspot Group Grows Larger !)

The sky this morning is cloudy and I wasn't expecting to do any imaging this morning. But deep inside me, the urge to image is still evident as I force myself to setup despite very cloudy sky as I was able to see some glimpses of the Sun peeking out of the the dark clouds once in a while :) I had to wait patiently for more than an hour and could see some thinning of the clouds in front of the Sun sop I started to turn on my setup and continue waiting. After a while, I can see the Sun's surface in Ha wavelength but lots of pesky fast moving clouds continue to pass in front of the Sun!!! Grrrr..... then I was blessed with a small opening of less than 15 minutes I guess so I started to fire away at the Sun and was able to see Giant AR11654 Sunspot Groups grow larger in length as it starts to come out of Wilson Effect. After taking a quick set of Ha images, I turn to white light high resolution and was able to get an image before I got clouded out again thus wasn't able to do full disk again!!! Sigh! Nevertheless, still happy with the results as I think seeing was slightly better than yesterday session :)

Solar Imaging Session - January 13, 2013 (Huge AR11654 Sunspot Group)

I was so tired last night after doing my paper works and I wake up late already and saw clear blue sky !!! Darn! The Sun is almost past halfway my observing window and I got less than one hour for me to observe and image the Sun. Seeing condition, by the way, is fair only despite blue sky :( Of course I started out with doing Ha wavelength imaging and I was surprised how large AR11654 Sunspot Group has become after missing the Sun for more than 3 days because of bad weather. The Sun is quite active with still more than 10 groups on the Sun's disk. A new possible AR11658 Sunspot Group is entering the Sun's eastern limb. Several large eruptive and hedgerow prominences can be seen in the NE and SW quadrant while numerous long twisting dark filaments can be seen as well specially in the SW quadrant which are a joy to look at and image! With my observing window narrowing down to less than 15 minutes, I had to quickly take an image of AR11654 Sunspot Group in high resolution white light but my usual imaging scale using 5x barlow can't fit the entire group in as it is so huge in size that I need to use my double stacked 2x barlow lens framing to fit it all in. But I still cant resist trying to image the group with my 5x barlow shot but unfortunately, our roof had started to obstruct the Sun so I was only able to get the bigger section of this group before totally getting obstructed :( Oh well....... I also wasn't able to image the Sun in full disk because of constrain time so I had to borrow a full disk image of the Sun courtesy of SOHO to illustrate how big AR11654 Sunspot Group is! It is a naked eye sunspot group already but one needs a safe solar filter to view it OR ELSE YOU RISKS PERMANENT EYE DAMAGE OR INJURY!

Solar Imaging Session - January 10, 2013 (Of 2 Huge Prominences and 2 Huge Sunspot Groups !!!)

The sky this morning is partly clear and seeing condition is fair. More than 8 Sunspot Groups are scattered around the Sun's disk with 2 huge sunspot groups namely AR11654 and AR11652 Sunspot Groups are worth observing and monitoring. In Ha wavelength, There are also 2 huge hedgerow prominences that are visible in the western and SW limb. I was also able to image in white light full disk as well as the 2 huge sunspot groups. Very photogenic specially AR11654 Sunspot Group!!!

Solar Imaging Session - January 6, 2013 (Huge AR11640 Sunspot Group)

The sky this morning is partly clear but seeing is not that good. I was able to do my usual Ha imaging routine and lots of activities on the surface of the Sun in Ha wavelength. More than 14 sunspot groups are on the Sun's disk today!!! There are lots of long dark filaments as well as huge hedgerow prominences!!! It was a very nice imaging session as I had to do several overlaps of areas just to fill in all the visible active details on the Sun. But clouds started to cover the sky after I started to do white light imaging thus I was only able to image the huge departing AR11640 Sunspot Group only :(