Solar Imaging Session - April 29, 2015

The sky this morning is cloudy so I wasn't able to image the Sun. But I got a short break early afternoon through haze and clouds for me to image the Sun in a quickie. The huge NE FilaProm is gone and I missed its greatest ejection stage last night :( But as a consolation , I was given a short window for me to capture a Super Huge Long Dark FilaProm snaking its way from SE limb toward the center of the Sun's disk! It is very photogenic and beautiful as well! Nice consolation indeed for me!

Solar Imaging Session - April 28, 2015

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is good. Huge FilaProm continues to show its beauty today as it stretches further inside the solar disk. A real 3D beauty indeed!!!

Solar Imaging Session - April 27, 2015

I wake up late this morning as my son had a hard time sleeping because of gas pain and vomiting thus me and my wife had sleepless night trying to take care of him. Good thing he is better now this morning. I try to catch up whatever time I have to capture the Sun before it gets obstructed. Weather this morning is clear and seeing condition is ok. There is a huge Filaprom visible in the NE limb as well as smaller one in the SW limb. AR2331 Sunspot Group shows nice solar activity inside its core.

Solar Imaging Session - April 25, 2015

The sky this morning is very cloudy and I can only try to squeeze a short AVI out from the cloud openings for me to image the remnants of the super huge hedgerow prominence that was visible since Wednesday but unfortunately, I'm out of town :( Nevertheless the remnants is still quite large but it had flattened out and looks like a caterpillar attaching herself on the Sun's limb :) Despite the poor weather, I'm still glad to get a chance to still image it :)

Solar Imaging Session - April 20, 2015

The sky this morning is partly clear and seeing condition is not that good. AR2325 Sunspot Group is growing in size and is now as beautiful as AR2324 Sunspot Group. AR2321 Sunspot Group has started to decay a lot with only one main umbra section left :( Will be going out of town so it's solar rest week for me till Saturday more or less :0

Deep Sky Imaging Session - April 18-19, 2015

The weather was very unstable and we are reluctant to proceed for a stargazing session in Caliraya. But after getting info that the predicted mild to moderate rain expected that morning didn't materialize. I together with some members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines proceeded to go to Caliraya, Laguna to conduct their stargazing session there. members who were present were ALP President James Kevin Ty, directors Ronald Sison and Peter Benedict Tubalinal and her daughter Stephanie ; Edward Legaspi. Some friends and office mates of Ronald Sison also join the group. They arrived at the site at around 6:00pm more or less. The sky was partly cloudy and they even had some short light burst of rain as they are about to arrive at the site. But after an hour, clouds started to break up and they were able to see some stars near the zenith. Polaris was visible so they quickly polar align their mount and waited. James brought along his Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens on Kenko Sky Memo star tracker as well as Canon EFS10-22mm f.3.5-5.6 wide angle lens on Vixen Polarie Star Tracker. Peter brought along a 12x50 binoculars mounted on sturdy tripod ; Edward brought his Polarie Star Tracker with various lenses to do some wide field astro imaging ; Ronald brought his WO GT81 FD refractor on Skywatcher EQ5 mount and Various lenses on Vixen Polarie Star Tracker. The sky that evening has some long spell of clear skies and short cloudy periods as well. The sky totally opened up at around 2am-4am before totally clouded out. During that time period, I was able to image single exposures of Summer Milky Way and NGC 3372 Eta Carina Nebula and stacked image of Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex in Scorpius. Peter also used that evening to teach her daughter the night sky as well as teach Ronald's office mates how to navigate the night sky :) After taking the traditional group shot, they left at around 8:30am feeling wonderful that they were still blessed with some good night skies to enjoy the beauty of the heavens.

Solar Imaging Session - April 18, 2015

The sky this morning is clear and seeing is ok. AR2324 Sunspot Groups shows a lot of flaring activity while Huge AR2321 Sunspot Group is very quiet. Not much large prominence present on the disk except one in the NE limb.

Solar Imaging Session - April 16, 2015

The sky this morning is clear and seeing is very good. The NE huge eruptive prominence has grown even bigger. AR2324 Sunspot Group is very photogenic now while AR2321 Sunspot Group is almost the same but shows a lot of details today because of good seeing! Not sure if the prominence will still be there tomorrow..... let's wait and see :)

Solar Imaging Session - April 15, 2015

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is good. But I notice that Sun is starting to shift NE each day it rises. That means my solar observing session is starting to get shorter again until I will get obstructed by our roof again :( So I think I need to get the most out of my remaining solar imaging days before I get obstructed :0 AR2321 and AR2324 Sunspot Groups continue to grow in size as it comes out of the NE limb due to Wilson Effect. There is also a huge eruptive prominence in the NE limb as well as the beautiful wide large dark filament in the northern limb. Overall, I'm happy as I was able to do both Ha and white light imaging :)

Solar Imaging Session - April 14, 2015

I was able to get a quick shot of the Sun in Ha wavelength this before lunchtime showing an active AR2321 Sunspot Group which shows a lot of flaring activity inside its core. AR2322 Sunspot Group on the other hand is very quiet. There are 2 new sunspot groups coming out of the NE limb and may possibly be designated as AR2324 and 2325 Sunspot Groups in the days to come as it emerges out of the NE limb. The wide large dark filament near the northern limb is still visible and shows a nice structure as well.

Solar Imaging Session - April 13, 2015

The sky this morning is slightly cloudy but seeing condition is surprisingly still a bit ok. AR2320 Sunspot Group is a bit quiet now but its surrounding dark filament is brightening and looks sort of flaring up! AR2321 Sunspot Group continues to come out of Wilson's Effect while AR2322 Sunspot Group is also quiet. The Nice large FilaProm near the northern limb yesterday has emerged out of the limb but is still nice :) There is a small hint of a new sunspot group coming out behind AR2321 Sunspot Group and might probably be designated AR2324 in the days to come. IMHO. There is also a nice large eruptive prominence in the SE limb as well as in the SW limb.

Solar Imaging Session - April 12, 2015

The sky this morning is again clear. Seeing condition is also ok. 2 new sunspot groups namely big AR2321 and AR2322 Sunspot Groups are visible in the NE limb while AR2320 Sunspot Group is still visible in the SW limb and still produce a small spot flare. There is also a nice Filaprom in the NE limb. Numerous large dark filaments are surrounding AR2320 Sunspot Groups and looks nice :)

Jupiter Imaging Session - April 11, 2015

I was very curious this evening after I arrived home from work and miss imaging Jupiter. Somehow, I force myself to haul down my entire imaging setup from 3rd floor toward our laundry area. I was all sweat up after bringing everything down :) LOL Nevertheless, I was able to image Jupiter under moderate to fair seeing. Not the best of my attempt but I'm still happy as this is my first image of Jupiter again since last February :)

Solar Imaging Session - April 11, 2015

The sky this morning is fair and seeing condition is ok. The NE huge hedgerow prominence has simmered down a bit in size but is still large. A new huge hedgerow prominence has emerge on the SW limb near AR2320 Sunspot Group. Numerous group of huge long dark filaments are surrounding the vicinity of AR2320 Sunspot Group area.

Solar Imaging Session - April 10, 2015

The sky this morning is clear again and seeing condition is again good. The NE eruptive prominence has now grown further into a huge hedgerow prominence now. Also visible is a huge wide hedgerow prominence in the NW limb which continues to widen a bit! Looks like a caterpillar crawling on the limb :) AR2320 Sunspot Group flares up brightly inside its core this morning while the huge long dark filament south of AR2320 Sunspot Group continues to rotate slightly out to the SW limb.