Solar Imaging Session - January 31, 2015

I wake up late this morning due to tiredness from my provincial trip. But I still manage to get 2 white light high res shots of AR2268 and AR2277 Sunspot Groups before I got obstructed by our damn roof :( While AR2268 main sunspot core is intact, the rest of its clusters of small sunspots are deteriorating fast. Incoming AR2277 Sunspot Group is a group to be monitored in the days to come as the group's growth looks promising.

Solar Imaging Session - January 30, 2015

The sky this morning is partly cloudy but seeing is fair. I can feel that I have maybe a a few weeks left for me to do solar imaging before the darn tall building in my eastern horizon will block me for several months before I could do again any solar except on weekends lunchtime :( AR2268 Sunspot Group is enormous in the aspect of its length as it almost fill the horizontal frame of my camera! But in general, the main umbral core of this group is not that big though. There is also another big group coming out of the NE limb designated AR2277 Sunspot Group. Unfortunately, clouds rolled in before I could image 2 more groups as well as full disk :( Anyway, it's good to be back doing solar imaging again after 2 weeks of cloudy skies!

Comet and Lunar Imaging Session - January 23, 2015

I had a chance to image Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy once again under polluted city light. Although the sky was cloudy, I tried to image the comet through cloud openings with my Canon EOS 500D DSLR on TV-101 refractor at prime focus mounted on Vixen GP-DX mount.I also was able to image the Crescent Moon as well as Earthshine through thicker clouds low in the western horizon. Images are fair IMHO but who am I to complain :)

Comet Imaging Session - January 16, 2015

Despite not so good weather condition, ALPers James Kevin Ty, Christopher Louie Lu, Edgar Ang and Edge Lat proceeded to PAGASA Observatory at UP Diliman to try to observe Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy under a light polluted area. When they arrived at the site , the sky was partly clear with lots of fast passing clouds. James brought along his Canon EOS 500D DSLR with Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS Lens set at 400mm f/5.6 mounted on Kenko Sky Memo-R star tracker. Edgar also brought along his Vixen Polarie star tracker mounted on Edge's Canon 60D DSLR. They were able to image a few shots before clouds finally rolled in to hamper their imaging efforts. Nevertheless, I was able to do away with 3 x 1min exposure of the comet. Aside from observing the comet, they were also able to observe Jupiter with its 4 Jovian moons using PAGASA's 7" f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope.

Solar Imaging Session - January 15, 2015

After 4 days of self constrain to make my flu recovery fast, I finally was able to do solar imaging again this morning. Only AR2259 Sunspot Group is large and impressive while the rest are small. In Ha wavelength, there is a huge dark filament that is visible beside AR2259 as well as several large eruptive prominences visible in the eastern and western limb.

Comet Imaging Session - January 10, 2015

Last January 10, ALPers James Kevin Ty, Christopher Louie Lu, Ronald Sison, Andrew Ian Chan, Iah Serna, Arnel Campos, Shubhashish Banerjee and Saju Pillai went to JohnDel Beach Resort to try to image Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy. I used a Canon EOS 500D DSLR on Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set to 400mm f/5.6 mounted on Vixen GP-DX mount to capture the comet.

Solar Imaging Session - January 10, 2015

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is very good. AR2257 Sunspot Group is large and nice core structure much like AR2253 before. Another new sunspot group AR2259 coming out of the SE limb shows good prospect to becoming a large sunspot in the days to come. In Ha wavelength, there is a huge dark filament beside AR2259 Sunspot Group. AR2257 Sunspot Group is also showing some activity inside its core as well.

Comet Imaging Session - January 9, 2015

The sky this evening is hazy with some passing clouds. I had to wait for a clearing around 9:45pm to setup my portable Vixen Polarie mount with Canon EOS 500D DSLR with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens. With the severe light pollution in my place. It was very difficult to even see the comet with a pair of 10x50 binoculars. I slide back to 100mm and was able to locate the comet which is about to be block by our roof so I made some quicky shots before I got obstructed. Not that good but still ok for me. I also had a chance to observe with my son KC and also teach him some bright stars visible like Sirius, Rigel and Betelgeuse and Orion's belt.

Comet Imaging Session - January 7, 2015

The sky this evening is partly cloudy but lots of sky openings for me and my son KC to try to observe and image Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy. It was hard to image the comet as the city lights and Waning Gibbous Moon is interfering a bit so I was only able to image a 20 second exposure of the comet at ISO 3200 at prime focus of WO Megrez 90FD refractor through Canon EOS 500D DSLR. It was a good father and son quality time as I explain the difference of comet and stars to him in layman terms and he was excited as well to get a view of the comet through the finderscope as well as through the camera live view screen. :)

Solar Imaging Session - January 7, 2015

The sky this morning is cloudy and seeing condition is one of the worst that I had experienced! Image seems not to snap into focus and jumping around. I nevertheless proceeded to still image AR2253 Sunspot Group for the purpose of sharing how much the group has deteriorated in the last 2 days. :( Oh well. Better luck again tomorrow.

Solar Imaging Session - January 6, 2015

The sky this morning is a bit cloudy but seeing condition is surprisingly again very good. AR2253 Sunspot Group has grown in length but its main umbra core has deteriorated greatly :( With cramping time to go to office, I was only able to image another wide shot before calling it a day so no Ha imaging this morning :( Sigh!

Solar Imaging Session - January 5, 2015

The sky this morning is clear and seeing is also good. I was able to get decent shots of AR2253 and 2255 Sunspot Groups in white light as well as in Ha wavelength. in Ha, AR2253 Sunspot Group is again quiet with some small flaring activities only while the region near AR2255 near the SE limb has more activity with several nice prominences visible as well as dark filaments.

Solar Imaging Session - January 4, 2015

The sky this morning is clear but seeing condition is again not so good. I got to do my usual white light close up and full disk of the Sun before I switch to Ha wavelength. AR2253 Sunspot Group is almost very quiet with only some small flaring visible in its core. After I concluded my solar imaging session. I thought of testing the WO Megrez 90FD refractor's focuser once again if it is ok. As I was testing it out. I was surprised to see that I had an almost perfect seeing that moment so I quickly image 2 AVIs on AR2253 Sunspot Group again before I see the seeing condition deteriorates after I image the big group. I would say that maybe some plain luck that I tested out the new scope thus was able to get a lucky shot IMHO :) LOL