Solar Imaging Session - December 28, 2016

The sky this morning is cloudy and I was only to take short quickie shot of a large hedgerow pronminence under poor seeing condition before clouds rolled in totally :(

Solar Imaging Session - December 27, 2016

The sky this morning is clear after Typhoon Nena passed through our country and mostly put some heavy damage a bit on the Bicol region but we here in Manila only got to experience moderate rains yesterday as it past South of Manila. Seeing condition this morning is fair. I was testing out the Daystar Quark Ha Chromosphere model on loan from fellow ALPer Jun Lao as I planning to get one next year and might dispose my trusty Coronado PST-Ha which has serve me well. AR12621 Sunspot Group can be seen near the NW limb but since the Quark Chromosphere model has a built in 4x telecentric barlow and when coupled with my trusty ZWO ASI120MM webcam on TV-101 refractor, magnification was high as compared to my views and images from the PST. Now the problem with this model is that I now need to crave for wider field of view to get a full disk :) LOL I can see some flaring activities inside AR12621 Sunspot Group's core. There is also a nice large eruptive prominence in the SW limb for me to test out. Not bad I think on my first good attempt on this new filter. I hope to be able to do some more test tomorrow with a DSLR I hope.

Solar Imaging Session - December 9 , 2016

The sky this morning is very cloudy and hazy, as I was checking out the solar limb for any large prominence, I saw one in the NW limb but it was very hard to image as thick clouds keeps on passing in front of the Sun! I waited for more than 1 hour deciding to pack up the session then suddenly a very small cloud opening let me image the huge hedgerow prominence through thin haze before covering it up once again. Oh well, at least I got to image it.

Solar Imaging Session - November 30, 2016

The sky this morning is partly cloudy and seeing condition is poor. AR2612 Sunspot Group continues to grow a bit as well as AR2614 and 2615 Sunspot Groups. Not much large prominence on the solar limb. There is also a nice large twisting dark filament ejecting out of AR2612 Sunspot Group.

Solar Imaging Session - November 29, 2016

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is good. AR2612 Sunspot Group is average in size but shows nice penumbral structures while AR2614 Sunspot Group is starting to grow in size as well. A new AR2615 Sunspot Group is also emerging from the SE limb. There is also a large eruptive prominence in the NE limb as well as numerous large dark filaments on the solar disk.

Solar Imaging Session - November 22, 2016

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is fair. Not much activity on the Sun right now except for a moderate sized eruptive prominence visible in the NE limb. Sun activity in white light is even more quiet with only a few pores visible.

November 14, 2016 - Lunar Imaging Session - SuperMoon (Perigee Full Moon)

The sky this evening is partly cloudy but I was able to image the SuperMoon which is actually the Perigee Full Moon , using Canon 500D DSLR with Canon EF 100-400mm f.4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/11 at 1/750sec exposure at ISO 400. Today's SuperMoon is the largest Moon size since 1948 with a close approach of only 356,509km! The next biggest SuperMoon will not be seen till November 25, 2034 with a close approach of 356,448kms.

I also compare this SuperMoon to an image of another Full Moon taken at apogee meaning the farthest distance to Earth. It is obvious there is some differences in size which is more or less about 14% larger in size for this November 14, 2016 Perigee Full Moon.

Lunar Imaging Session - November 13, 2016 (Pre SuperMoon)

I got to image the Waxing Gibbous Moon this evening with my Canon EOS 500D DSLR with Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/11 with 1/750 sec exposure at ISO 400 on sturdy tripod. Tomorrow will witness the largest SuperMoon since 1948! The peak of the SuperMoon tomorrow will be at 9:53pm PST with a close approach of 356,509km and the next biggest SuperMoon will not be seen till November 25, 2034 with a close approach of 356,448kms only. The Full Moon tomorrow is also called the Beaver Moon or Perigee Moon.

Solar Imaging Session - November 6, 2016

The sky this morning is partly cloudy and seeing condition is poor. There is not much activity on the Sun right now except for a moderate to large sized eruptive prominence visible on the NW limb.

Solar Imaging Session - October 26, 2016

The sky is mostly cloudy in the morning but I was able to see a small hole in the cloud near the Sun for me to image a large eruptive prominence through passing clouds. Image is not great but I'm still happy got to capture it.

Macro Imaging Session - September 29, 2016

With the weather not cooperating for some time already, I was able to see a small black and brown colored "lady bug" type of beetle that landed on my bed. So I quickly setup my simple macro setup with a Canon EOS 500D DSLR with a reverse Canon FD 50mm lens and get some shots of it before it flew off :0

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Imaging Session - September 17, 2016

The sky this early morning was cooperative for me to document the September 17, 2016 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse from start till end with clouds mostly passing beside the Moon. I went to fellow ALPer Andrew Ian Chan's residence around midnight and meet him at the roof deck. I used a very basic setup to image the event using a Canon EOS 500D DSLR with Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens mounted on a sturdy fluid video tripod. The sky was slightly hazy at the start and also shows a huge 22 degree Moon Halo which worries me a bit as it is a sign that bad weather is coming in a day or two. As the eclipse progresses, the haze thinned out and let both of them get a good view of the penumbral lunar eclipse specially at maximum eclipse which shows a 91% shading at around 02:54am Philippine Standard Time (PST). PST is +8 GMT. The event ended at around 04:50am PST and I packed up and went home. It was very tiring but fruitful session. Thanks to fellow ALPer Andrew Ian Chan for the accommodation and patience to stay with me till end of event.

Solar Imaging Session - September 11, 2016

The sky this morning is clear but seeing condition is fair. AR2585 Sunspot Group is starting to deteriorate while AR2589 Sunspot Group is starting to grow a bit. The huge dark filament that is on the limb also produces a beautiful Filaprom visible on the western limb.

Solar Imaging Session - September 10, 2016

The sky this morning is partly clear but seeing condition is very good. AR2585 Sunspot Group is still beautiful despite the fact it is getting closer to the western limb. The huge dark filament is still visible exiting the western limb.

Solar Imaging Session - September 9, 2016

The sky this morning is cloudy and very hazy! Nevertheless, I still force myself to take some images of AR 2585 Sunspot Group so I can get a good monitoring of the group till it exits the Sun's western limb and expecting the images to be poor due to the weather condition this morning. The huge, long dark filament is still visible as it creeps toward the western limb.

Solar Imaging Session - September 8, 2016

The sky this morning is clear but slightly hazy. Seeing condition is again very good. AR2585 Sunspot Group is starting to deteriorate a bit specially on its rear umbral section. It is also showing some flaring activity inside its core.

Solar Imaging Session - September 6, 2016

The sky this morning is partly clear but seeing condition is very good. The appearances of both AR2585 Sunspot Group and the huge long dark filament is almost quite the same except for the very good seeing condition which I missed a lot in the past few month's of observation. I also modified and tested a bit of my new processing approach.

Solar Imaging Session - September 5, 2016

The sky this morning is partly clear and seeing condition is fair. AR2585 Sunspot Group is stretching to almost its actual size as it comes out of Wilson's Effect and is beautiful both in white light as well as Ha wavelength. The huge long dark filament beside AR2585 Sunspot Group is very prominent as well. A huge wide flat hedgerow prominence is visible in the SW limb.

Solar Imaging Session - September 2, 2016

The sky this morning is partly cloudy and seeing condition is fair. New AR2585 Sunspot Group just emerged out of the eastern limb yesterday and is showing nice form and some flaring activity inside its core. It's been a while also for a large sunspot group to be visible again on the solar disk. There is also a long dark filament as well as large faint eruptive prominence that is visible on the NE quadrant.

Solar Imaging Session - August 22, 2016

The regular solar imaging session for me has now started with the Sun now visible form my observing window once again. The seeing this morning is fair and sky condition is clear and it's good to see the Sun again after several weeks of cloudy and rainy days. AR2578 Sunspot Group is so far the only sunspot group on the solar disk and is very small. I only image in Ha wavelength this morning. Aside from the group, there is also a nice moderate size eruptive prominence in the SE limb.

Solar Imaging Session - August 4, 2016

The sky this afternoon is clear and seeing condition is fair. There is a nice large eruptive prominence visible in the NW limb and well as several nice large dark filaments on the Sun's disk. Looks like there is also new active region developing in the NE quadrant possible AR2572(?)Sunspot Group. Overall, solar activity is low even in Ha wavelength more so in white light wavelength.

Solar Imaging Session - August 3, 2016

The sky this morning is partly clear and seeing condition is fair. AR2570 Sunspot Group is very small but has some mild flaring activity inside its core. There are several long dark filament in the NE and SW quadrants with a possible new AR2571 Sunspot Group developing beside the SW quadrant dark filament. There is also a long bar prominence in the eastern limb.

Solar Imaging Session - July 15, 2016

The sky this afternoon is clear and seeing condition is fair. I was able to get close up white light image of AR2565 Sunspot Group as well as Ha wavelength of AR2565 Sunspot Group and 2 large eruptive prominence that are visible in the NE and NW limbs. small AR2564 Sunspot Group shows lots of flaring activity in its core and surrounding area.