Solar Imaging Session - September 30, 2015

With the observing window getting narrower and narrower each day with the Sun rising toward the SE as the days goes by, I have to test a new time session never tested by me before as first time that I will be imaging in the 22:30-22:50 UT time frame. Difficulty is the fact the Sun will just be about 14 degrees high above the eastern horizon :( Nevertheless, I did try it and was blessed with the effort of being able to image a super huge tall eruptive prominence in the SW limb near the very active AR2422 Sunspot Group! AR2422 Sunspot Group is also very active in its core. I couldn't image further any white light or Ha images as I already got obstructed by the tall building. :(

At around 10:30am, the Sun is still shining brightly and I can't resist the temptation to double check how the prominence is doing so I setup again and try to image the prominence again after 4 hours and the result is the prominence is still quite huge but one can see it is starting to deteriorate a bit already... hopefully, there is still some good size prominence left of this great feature today. As for white light imaging. I had to struggle to get a shot of the huge AR2422 Sunspot Group to no avail as the best that I could get is a very poor muddy image and add insult to injury is the fact that it even rain after I capture it while packing up. Oh well.... can't get the best of everything :) LOL Nevertheless, I'm still happy with the Ha imaging session.

Solar Imaging Session - September 29, 2015

The sky before lunchtime is clear and seeing condition is not bad as well. AR2422 Sunspot Group obviously is the dominating object on the Sun right now both in white light and Ha wavelength. There is a nice dark filament coming out from AR2420 Sunspot Group as well as a large eruptive prominence visible on the western limb. The rest of the sunspot groups are small to moderate size only. I try to play around with my white light processing in close up shot and looks like a found something that is worth testing out further specially if under good seeing. My granulation this morning is obviously much clearer a bit than my previous granulation shots which is very soft but noticeable nevertheless. Filamentary structures on the main sunspot groups are also now more prominent than before even under fair seeing condition. Hopefully this is the correct processing or maybe perhaps it is just the seeing conditions only :) Anyway, we will see int he days to come.

Solar Imaging Session - September 22, 2015

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is very good as well. I started off early this morning so I can get as much images before I get obstructed by the building. In Ha wavelength, the huge wide dark filament is the biggest feature on the Sun's disk now. New sunspots AR2420 and 2421 Sunspot Groups are very active, AR2418 and departing 2415 Sunspot Groups are very silent. In white light wavelength, AR2420 Sunspot is huge as it comes out of the NE limb. AR2418 Sunspot Group is very nice in details that I was tempted to even image it with almost 7x magnification with TV 5x Powermate and 2x barlow lens. AR2415 Sunspot Group is saying good bye to us as it continues to decay as it starts to exit the SW limb.

Solar Imaging Session - September 21, 2015

The sky this morning is fair and seeing condition is good. Unfortunately, I got into trouble as the Image Capture and Sharp Cap software as both freezes and don't let me fire any shots after my first capture. I wasn't able to do further imaging as trouble persist till I got obstructed b the tall building at 8:00am :( What a great way t start the week :( ==== Anyway, the only image I got was an image of the wide large dark filament with numerous large eruptive prominence plus a new AR2420 Sunspot Group on the NE limb. I hope I will be able to fix the problem asap later.

UPDATES: I finally was able to detect the problem that I encountered this morning. I somehow got to adjust the FPS Adjust set to Auto on my ASI120MM thus my old laptop couldn't handle the higher frame rates. I always set this is manual settings but I think I forgot to revert it back from AUTO to Manual thus the problem I encountered. Anyway... At least problem SOLVED !

Solar Imaging Session - September 20, 2015

After a very exhausting but enjoyable International Observe the Moon Night last night, I wake up late in the morning I had very limited time left for me to do solar imaging thus I was only able to acquire Ha wavelength only. For this session, I also change some imaging parameters from what I'm regularly using over the years. I lost some frame rate but the contrast of my images are clearer and more details from what I observed. I will try to use this new parameters for the moment and see if it is consistent over a span of several sessions. The huge SE hedgerow prominence visible past few days had already collapse toward the Sun's surface as it also rotated a bit toward the Sun's surface. Thus it is now a huge wide dark filament at the moment. AR2419 Sunspot Group is undergoing a lot of flaring activity inside its core. AR2418 Sunspot Group, on the other hand, shows a nice large dark filament coming out from its core. Same as AR2415 Sunspot Group which is starting to decay as it moves closer to the SW limb.

Solar Imaging Session - September 19, 2015

The sky this morning is cloudy and I thought I couldn't snap anything on the Sun anymore as my observing window is now getting narrower and narrower each passing day and now I have only till 8:10am before I got obstructed again by the tall darn building on our eastern horizon :( As I was about to start packing up and call it a day, a small window comes out through a small cloud opening for me to image the remnants of the huge SE hedgerow prominence that was visible past few days before I got obstructed. Oh well, better than nothing through thin clouds.

Solar Imaging Session - September 18, 2015

Today is my birthday and the sky seems to be cooperating with me this morning and seeing condition is good. The huge SE Hedgerow Prominence is still visible but obvious is starting to settle down a bit after its peak yesterday. Another new NE eruptive prominence is also clearly visible. AR2419, 2418 and 2415 Sunspot Groups are visible on the Sun's surface. There is also nice long dark filament beside AR2418 Sunspot Group. I was only able to image AR2415 Sunspot Group in white light wavelength as I got to notice that the Sun will start to get obstructed again by the tall darn building by 8:15am so I need to start imaging early tomorrow before 7:30am. Sigh....

Solar Imaging Session - September 17, 2015

The sky this morning is slightly hazy and seeing condition is initially ok. The huge SE hedgerow prominence has grown even bigger this morning! AR2415, 2418 and 2419 Sunspot Groups continue to grow in size. Unfortunately, seeing condition worsens as I was trying to image white light. Nevertheless,I was able to got some fair images of AR2415, 2418 and 2419 Sunspot Group up close.

Solar Imaging Session - September 16, 2015

The sky this morning is clear and seeing is fair. AR2415 Sunspot Group is growing rapidly while AR2414 Sunspot Group is about to exit the SW limb. AR2418 Sunspot Group continues to grow in complexity. In Ha wavelength, AR2418 , 2415 and small 2419 Sunspot Groups show high level of solar activity inside their cores. There is a huge hedgerow prominence visible in the eastern limb while another large hedgerow prominence can also be seen in the SW limb beside departing AR2414 Sunspot Group.

Solar Imaging Session - September 15, 2015

The sky this morning is clear but seeing condition is poor. AR2414 Sunspot Group is nearing the SW limb and also deteriorating but a nice large hedgerow prominence add spice to the SW quadrant. New AR2418 and 2415 Sunspot Groups are growing in size and will be the prominent sunspot groups after AR2414 Sunspot Group exits in 2 days more or less. In Ha wavelength, AR2415 Sunspot Groups is beautiful and surrounded by twisting dark filaments.

Solar Imaging Session - September 14, 2015

The sky this morning is clear but my imaging session got cut short due to AS!2 software crash as well as mount's erratic sudden slewing due to loose RS232 connections. But I was able to get everything ok after fighting 1,5 hours of imaging gremlins but the Sun was already obstructed by the tall building :( I was only able to get 2 Ha images only before everything gone berserk :(

Solar Imaging Session - September 13, 2015

The sky this morning is cloudy but at around 11:00am, some parts of the sky opened up a bit for me to get some images done before clouds rolled up again to closed the sky :( AR2414 Sunspot Group is almost the same size as yesterday while new AR2415 Sunspot Group shows some promise to be a good group to monitor in the days to come.

Solar Imaging Session - September 12, 2015

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is very good! I was surprised to see AR2414 Sunspot Group grow so much in the past few days! In Ha wavelength, AR2414 Sunspot Group is very active and together with the remnants of the huge twisting dark filaments in the SW limb, they are very photogenic. In white light wavelength, I was able to image the large AR2414 Sunspot Group in close up shot as well as full disk showing numerous small sunspot groups 2411, 2412, 2415, 2416, 2417 with large AR2414 Sunspot Group.