February 16, 2014 ALP NAW Opening Sunset Sun & Moon Shots

The Astronomical League of the Philippines, Inc ( ALP ) held its National Astronomy Week 2014 opening activity celebration at Manila Planetarium with several astro lectures as well as free public solar and night time stargazing session at SM Mall of Asia By The Bay North Wing. I was able to image the Sun at sunset with several large Sunspot groups visible without any solar filter. I was also able to image the waning gibbous Moon in the evening. Both objects were taken using Canon EOS 500D DSLR with Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L Lens.

Kenko Sky Memo-R Autoguider Setup Test

I got to have time to test out the GPUSB-AH interface on my Kenko Sky Memo-R star tracker to see if everything is working ok on its connections. Success! Now waiting to test on the field in real time!

Lunar Imaging Session - February 15, 2014

The sky this evening is good. I initially try to test the 8" SCT for tomorrow use at National Astronomy Week but the collimation is real off so I opted to use my trusty TV-101 refractor again. I image the Waning Gibbous Moon (99%) through the refractor at full disk as well as test out the ZWO ASI120MM Webcam with the Televue 5x Powermate since the seeing looks ok. Although not that sharp because of average seeing, I'm still ok with it.

Lunar Imaging Session - February 13, 2014

The sky tonight is hazy with fair condition. I proceeded to image the Moon with the ZWO ASI120MM webcam on my TV-101 refractor. I imaged some impact crater ray regions such as Tycho, Copernicus and Kepler. I also took some shots of Mare Humorum & Serenitatis region as well. Well, it's still a nice feeling to image the lunar features despite fair seeing condition.

Solar Imaging Session - February 13, 2014

The sky this morning is hazy with fair seeing condition. It's now getting harder and harder for me to conduct solar imaging session as the Sun gets block by the damn tall building in front of my observing window as the Sun rising azimuth moves toward the NE horizon daily :( My estimation is that it's game over for me comes end of February instead of usual mid May . After that, I will again be able to observe the Sun around mid August :0 AR11974 Sunspot Group is very beautiful and large group while both AR11976 & 11977 Sunspot Groups continue to grow in length & size. Hope yo be able to monitor its growth in the days to come.

Lunar Imaging Session - February 12, 2014

The sky this evening is hazy and seeing condition is poor. I tested the modified Canon EOS 1000D DSLR on the Waxing Gibbous Moon through the TV-101 refractor. As expected because of the Baader filter replacement on the original Canon UV-IR filter. The image is reddish so I also posted another image of the Moon on what color it should be presented :) I also got to do 1 close up image of Schickard crater region with the ZWO ASI120MM with double stacked 2x barlow lens.

Solar Imaging Session - February 9, 2014

The sky this morning is hazy while seeing condition is fair. I had a lot of problems and frustrations this session with software glitch and freezing :( I got to fix the problem but that wasted a lot of my short precious solar observing time thus I was only able to image only AR11967 and AR11968 Sunspot Groups in white light wavelength before it exits the western limb tomorrow. I hope these 2 groups would still survive another rotation for us to observe and image again in 2 weeks more or less.

Solar Imaging Session - February 8, 2014

The sky this morning is hazy and seeing condition is fair. Both AR11967 & AR11968 Sunspot Groups continue decay further and nearing the western limb. AR11974 Sunspot Group continues to grow but I doubt it will attain the size of both AR11967 & AR11968 Sunspot Groups.

Lunar Imaging Session - February 7, 2014 (Lunar X)

The sky was clear this evening for me to image the Quarter Moon as well as the famous Lunar X marking :) It is located near the terminator area beside crater Werner.

Solar Imaging Session - February 7, 2014

The sky this morning is very good and seeing is excellent. AR11967 Sunspot Group continues to decay while AR11968 Sunspot Group continues to grow but unfortunately both are about to exit the western limb.

Solar Imaging Session - February 6, 2014

The sky this morning is hazy while seeing condition is fair. AR11967 Sunspot Group is starting to decay specially on the bridge section of this group. AR11968 Sunspot Group continues to grow and now is starting to get photogenic. But both groups are nearing the western limb and will exit maybe in 2-3 more days. A new AR11974 Sunspot Group is emerging from the eastern limb and might replace both AR11967 & 11968 next week but wont reach the size of both group. IMHO.

Solar Imaging Session - February 5, 2014

Finally! After more than 2 days of not being able to image the Sun, I go to have some clear skies for me to attempt to record AR11967 Sunspot Group's growth. After some small patches of clouds separated from the Sun, I got to image AR11967 Sunspot Group in white light wavelength. It has grown larger since my last February 2 image of this group. AR11968 Sunspot Group, on the other hand, also has grown in size based on area and is also nice to observe. I run out of time to image the Sun in full disk as well Ha wavelength :( I hope to be able to do it tomorrow.

Solar Imaging Session - February 2. 2014

The sky this morning is slightly hazy but seeing condition is very good. I'm now starting to lose observing time as the Sun is now starting to rise slightly to the NE everyday thus cutting out my imaging time to less than 30 minutes for now. Adding to this frustration is the damn tall building obstructing totally my eastern window view !!! So I have no choice to to savor as much solar imaging sessions before I get totally obstructed in a month or two instead of my usual May leeway time :( AR11967 Sunspot group is starting to get larger as well as the central region of this group has grown more complex thus making this group even more joy to observe and image! AR11968 Sunspot Group is also growing in size but does not compare much to AR11967 Sunspot in Group in beauty! Something went wrong with my full disk images this morning as I can't find the files I imaged. Maybe a software glitch :( Sheeth happens once in a while ....... :( ======= I got to only image AR11967 Sunspot Group in Ha wavelength due to my roof obstruction. But did saw some nice prominences around the Sun though. Anyway, Hope to do some tomorrow......