Solar Imaging Session - November 28, 2013

The sky this morning is partly hazy with some clouds. Seeing condition is not that good as well :( AR11907 Sunspot Group so far is the largest group on the Sun but the upcoming possible AR11909 Sunspot Group that is near the SE limb is quite prominent and might surpass AR11907 Sunspot Group in size in the days to come after it exits Wilson Effect. As I was trying to image in Ha wavelength, clouds started to obstruct the Sun and I was only able to image a huge looped prominence visible in the NW limb through passing clouds before I got totally clouded out :( Nice to see the Sun again after more than a week :)

Solar Imaging Session - November 18, 2013 ( Beautiful AR11899 Sunspot Group!!!)

After resting yesterday from doing any imaging session after Caliraya due to possible stress out from sleepless nights,I was able to do solar imaging session again this morning and was greeted by AR11899 Sunspot Group by providing me an almost perfect seeing even for a short time period :) LOL Details from this group is amazing and so far the best from my previous imaging of the same group in the past few days.... How I wish it was constant daily. But after getting a fantastic view, nature told me I had enough and revert me back to regular seeing after imaging AR11899 Sunspot Group by providing me a more or less good seeing for me t image AR11896 and and 11893 Sunspot Groups. I was also able to do some decent work under good seeing in Ha wavelength for me to image AR11899 Sunspot Group as well as a nice large eruptive prominence visible in the NW limb.

Comet Imaging Session - November 17, 2013

I together with fellow ALPers Andrew Ian Chan and Iah Serna went to Caliraya, Laguna to try to image Comet 2013 R1 Lovejoy and Comet 2012 S1 ISON under dark skies. We went to the site shortly passed midnight as no point going there early as there is an almost full Moon night. The weather was partly cloudy and we had a hard time getting a good polar alignment as Polaris plays hide and seek with us the entire session.:( It was almost passed 3:45am before we got some thinning of the clouds near zenith for us to image Comet 2013 R1 Lovejoy through small clearings. Unfortunately, since there was several short instances of short burst of moderate drizzles, the soil was a bit soft and both of us had problems of star drift for longer exposure. From my several image of this comet, most are trailed bad and was only able to get a short 30 sec decent shot of the comet. :( Comet Lovejoy was imaged using Canon EOS 500D DSLR on Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f5.6 at 30 sec exposure at ISO1600 on Kenko Sky Memo-R tracker. As for Comet 2012 S1 ISON, the clouds did not cooperate with us till it was around 5:15am already thus exposure are mostly washout and useless IMHO. Nevertheless, we are still happy that we were able to still observe the 2 bright comets. We were also able to see 2 nice rainbows namely one Moonbow and another good bright full rainbow as we were heading home in the morning along the road.

Solar Imaging Session - November 16, 2013 (Photogenic AR11899 Sunspot Group)

The sky this morning is clear and seeing is very good. AR11899 Sunspot Group continues to show its beauty and maintaining its size. AR11897 Sunspot Group has here is a huge eruptive prominence visible in the NW limb! AR11899 Sunspot Group also has some flare activity inside its core with also a nice large faint eruptive prominence visible in the NE limb. Overall, today's solar session is very good indeed IMHO.

Lunar Imaging Session - November 15, 2013

After a failed attempt to do lunar imaging yesterday, I was able to get a chance to do some lunar imaging testing with the ZWO ASI120MM webcam once again. Unfortunately, seeing condition is not good as image is shimmering all through out the session :( I use both single and double stacked 2x barlow lens to do some close up shots of known crater region. I also took a full disk shot of the waxing gibbous Moon before ending my imaging session.

Solar Imaging Session - November 15, 2013

The sky this morning is partly cloudy and hazy as well. Nevertheless , I still setup and check out the Sun on the developments of huge AR11899 and 11897 Sunspot Groups. Seeing condition was a bit poor than yesterday as image is a bit shimmering but I still proceeded to try to get some decent shots before I got clouded out after imaging both of them :( Oh well, better than nothing ...

Solar Imaging Session - November 14, 2013 (Large AR11899 & AR11897 Sunspot Groups)

The sky this morning is partly hazy but seeing is not bad. There are 2 huge sunspot groups on the Sun with AR11899 Sunspot Group leading the way in the NE quadrant in terms of umbra size followed by AR11897 which is large in terms of area. Lots of nice sunspot are also visible on the Sun namely AR11895. 11896 & 11893 Sunspot groups. BTW, AR11899 Sunspot Group is now a naked eye Sunspot Group (Caution: Do not look directly at the Sun without safe solar filter or else eye damage and blindness will occur.) Once large AR11890 Sunspot Group is about to exit the SW limb today as well. I was only able to image the Sun's NE quadrant in Ha wavelength which consists of Huge AR11899 & 11896 Sunspot Groups as well as a large eruptive prominence before clouds cover the Sun :( Oh well, still a nice solar imaging session nevertheless.

Solar Imaging Session - November 10, 2013 (Nice AR11890 Sunspot Group)

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is surprisingly not bad at all. I also got to notice that the Sun is rising more SE a bit so I'm praying that it will clear much earlier from that damn building and crane obstruction that had been haunting me the past few months. I concentrated on AR11890 Sunspot Group in white light first after I got several attempts before to learn to tame the ASI120MM webcam. So I had little problem now to image smoothly in white light wavelength. I also got to image new AR11893 & possible new AR11894 Sunspot Groups near the eastern limb. I then proceeded to imaging in Ha with the Coronado PST-Ha with some concerns on the newton rings that I was able to see in my first attempt in Ha wavelength with this camera. Somehow, I think I got to override the the effects of Newton rings at least to a minimum but I hope to tame it even more with more practice needed in the days to come.

Lunar Imaging Session - November 9, 2013

After the passing of super typhoon Yolanda (International Code Haiyan), I was expecting the sky to get clear but unfortunately, it didn't materialized so I opted to went home instead of going to Caliraya as I was told it was raining there today :( As I reach home, I saw the quarter moon going to the western sky. I quickly brought out my Canon EOS 500D DSLR with Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L Lens set at 400mm f/8 to image the Moon. Well, at least I got something out for tonight's cancelled session in Caliraya :)

Solar Imaging Session - November 6, 2013 (Large AR11890 Sunspot Group)

The sky this morning is partly hazing seeing is terrible with lots of air turbulence. I nevertheless tried to nail down my solar image through the ZWO ASI120MM webcam after several attempts which were hampered with clouds as well as building obstruction. There is a very large AR11890 Sunspot Group that is visible in the SE quadrant. With little time left before I got obstructed, I was able to image 2 images before I got clouded out and obstructed as well. I hope this will break my bad spell for the past few weeks. Image is fair but I still like it. Hope to get better images in the days to come.

Deep Sky Imaging Session - November 1, 2013

I join some members of Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) for a deep sky imaging session under the dark skies of Caliraya, Laguna. The sky in the mid evening was good and I was able to setup my Canon EOS 500D DSLR on EF100-400mm IS L lens on Vixen GP-DX mount to image the Seven sisters which is also commonly called the Pleiades star cluster or M45. I exposed for a total exposure of around 45 minutes initially before the mount asked for a mount reversal thus I ended my exposure for this beautiful star cluster. It was also a very nice experience for me to be able to start imaging the DSOs once again after a long imaging drought. I hope to be able to do more in the next weekends to come.