Solar Imaging Session - November 30, 2014

The sky this morning is very cloudy but I still try to setup and hope for some few minutes of clear openings for me to image the Sun in white light. With the cloudy weather, I didn't proceed with Ha imaging. After waiting for more than 1 hour of cloudy sky, I was able to get less than 5 minutes of partly cloud opening for me to image AR2222 Sunspot before I got clouded out again :(

Solar Imaging Session - November 27, 2014

The sky this morning is mostly cloudy and I had to shoot through cloud openings most of the time. Seeing condition is slightly better than previous session. AR2216 Sunspot Group continues to grow as well as sunspot groups particularly AR2219 and 2218! There is also a new undesignated possible AR2221 Sunspot Group emerging from the NE limb. In Ha wavelength, I manage to shoot 2 short video clips before I got clouded out permanently. Most interesting is another new possible AR2222 Sunspot Group coming from the SE limb that produce a small but nice vertical bright loop flare from its core!

Wide Field Astro Imaging Session - November 23, 2014

The sky in the evening is clear but there are some hints of slight sky glow that I can still see at the roof deck of my hotel in Legaspi City. I brought along my Canon EOS 1000D (M) with a Canon EF50mm f/1.8 lens set at f/2.8 mounted on a Vixen Polarie Star Tracker to test image the constellation of Orion. In the image, one can see an over exposed Orion Nebula as well as fainter emission nebula such as Barnard's Loop, SH2-264 and Flame Nebula with Horsehead Nebula. M78 reflection nebula as well as Witch Head Nebula which is visible near Rigel can also be seen faintly. Total exposure of 60 minutes at ISO 800.

Solar Imaging Session - November 26, 2014

The sky this morning is cloudy and seeing condition is very poor. I still proceeded to image the Sun only in white light but image acquired are not good quality. Anyway, AR2209 Sunspot Group is near the western limb already while AR2216 Sunspot Group is starting to grow a bit but not as large as AR2209. AR2218 is also looking good but it is also small like AR2217. Hope to do some good session tomorrow.

Solar Imaging Session - November 18, 2014

The sky this morning is partly cloudy but seeing is good. Unfortunately because of the slow moving clouds. I was only able to image in white light as after imaging AR2209 Sunspot Group in high resolution. Clouds covered up the Sun till it gets pass roof obstruction :( Since going to my provincial work trip now. I won't be able to image the Sun till next week and hope I will still get to image AR2209 as it nears the western limb.

Solar Imaging Session - November 17, 2014

The sky this morning is hazy and seeing condition is fair. AR2209 Sunspot Group grows a little wider as expected from exiting little by little from the Wilson Effect. I was also able to jackup the magnification a bit with a 5x Powermate as seeing is a bit stable. The rest of the sunspot groups are almost small and inconspicious. In Ha wavelength, AR2209 Sunspot Group shows moderate solar flaring activity inside its core. There is also a nice large FilaProm in the NE limb as well as a large hedgerow prominence in the SE limb but both are faint because as I imaging in Ha wavelength, clouds started to cover up the Sun a bit thus the contrast is reduced as well as making the prominence images a bit noisy :( Sigh.

Solar Imaging Session - November 16, 2014

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is very good. Unfortunately, imaging gremlins is always there to make life hard. I got to discover that my 220V-12V adapter was bitten by my small Maltese dog named Crunch!!! Luckily I still have my deep cycle battery on hand for me to tap power to run my GP-DX mount. :) Anyway, Huge AR2209 Sunspot Group is now starting to show its size but honestly, I can see it is not as huge as its previous size when it was still designated AR2192 Sunspot Group. But it is still large in size and worth monitoring. AR2209 Sunspot Group has a unique appearance as it has a hole inside its core structure much like a lagoon with a hear shape umbra to make up its beautiful appearance of the group :) AR2208 Sunspot Group has almost disintegrated while AR2205 Sunspot Group is exiting the NW limb already. I was also able to do a full disk white light image this morning. In Ha wavelength, there are 2 huge hedgerow prominences visible in the NW and SE limb which add spice to this morning's solar imaging session. Once again, I wasn't able to use the SM40 to double stacked my Ha imaging session because I'm running out of time and nearing roof obstruction already brought about by the earlier obstacle. There is also a long dark filament near the meridian but unfortunately, clouds rolled in fast and prevented me from imaging it :( Nevertheless, I'm still happy with the results of this morning session.

Solar Imaging Session - November 14, 2014

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is also fair. Huge Returning Sunspot AR2192 has rotated back to the SE limb! This is the sunspot group that will probably be the center of attraction for the next 2 weeks :) AR2205 and 2208 Sunspot Groups still maintain their large size but are obviously very quiet. In Ha wavelength, there is a huge hedgerow prominence visible in the NW limb as well as a large dark filament that is visible near the eastern limb. Also noted is the fact that my Ha imaging were done only through the standard Coronado PST-Ha only. I run out of time to do double stack imaging with the SM40 as I'm running late for work. Maybe tomorrow.....

Solar Imaging Session - November 11, 2014

The sky this morning is slightly hazy but seeing condition is fair. AR2205 Sunspot Group continue to show almost structure in white light wavelength. But in Ha wavelength, AR2205 Sunspot Group is displaying active flares in its core! Also worth mentioning is the new AR2207 Sunspot Group which show bright flaring as well as eject out a circular dark filament! A joy to look at! There is also a huge faint eruptive prominence visible in the SE limb and I needed to overexpose the image a bit to show its thin filamentary structure :) Last but not the least, there is also a beautiful wide FilaProm visible in the NE limb. Overall, a productive solar imaging session despite the seeing condition :) On a side note, I was also able to use the T2 tilt adapter on the ZWO ASI120MM webcam and no Newton Rings. :)

Solar Imaging Session - November 8, 2014

The sky this morning is slightly hazy and seeing condition is fair. AR2205 Sunspot Group in white light remains almost the same in structure and appearance as yesterday :0 In Ha wavelength, I can still see some mild flaring activity inside AR2205 Group but unfortunately as I was trying to experiment with the T2 tilt adapter, thin clouds closed in on the Sun thus I was only able to image the group in noisy condition but can still show the flaring as well as a nice huge hedgerow prominence in the NE limb. Better luck again tomorrow :0

Solar Imaging Session - November 7, 2014

The sky this morning is once again clear but seeing condition is pretty bad. I'm having a hard time focusing both on white light and Ha wavelength! I also got the chance to test out the T2 tilt adapter to try to remove the Newton Rings in a more convenient way. Unfortunately, with the big casing of the ZWO ASI120MM webcam, I can't access the adjusting screws as it is partially covered by the big casing of the webcam :( So for this morning, I was just able to test the tilt adapter at 0 deg tit to see if there is a need for tilting. Unfortunately, I need to make tilting adjustment in tomorrow or Sunday's solar imaging session. I also wasn't able to do double stack Coronado PST-Ha and SM40 as the seeing virtually wont allow me to focus properly! Nevertheless, I was able to ask my machine shop friend to help me trim down my allen wrench so that it can access the narrow gap between the T2 tilt adapter and the ASI120MM webcam casing. So back to square one in learning to tame the T2 tilt adapter with the Double Stacked Coronado PST-Ha / SM40 with ZWO ASI120MM setup configuration :0

T2 Tilt Adapter Arrives!

I got a notice from post office that my wait for the T2 tilt adapter is over! Whew! I hope it helps remove the Newton Rings that I had been encountering in Ha wavelength with the ZWO ASI120MM webcam. Keeping my fingers crossed in the days to come that it will work!

Solar Imaging Session - November 6, 2014

I got to image the Sun this morning but seeing condition again is very poor. AR2205 Sunspot Group shows a nice scatter group of small sunspots that make up this large sunspot group. In Ha wavelength, the group shows some good flare inside its core. I wasn't able to do more imaging as clouds got in the way and I need to go to work.

Lunar Imaging Session - November 5, 2014

The sky this evening is clear but seeing condition is poor :( I start off imaging the Waxing Gibbous Moon full disk using the TV-101 refractor with 2x barlow and Canon EOS 500D DSLR. As I start to focus on some close up shots of the crater regions, I noticed I couldn't crank up the magnification without deteriorating the image severely :( So I just settle for a double stacked 2x barlow lens with my refractor and ZWO ASI120MM webcam. Oh well.... still better than nothing :)