Lunar Imaging Session - December 30, 2017

The sky was clear so KC and I went up the roof deck to observe the Waxing Gibbous Moon. Seeing condition is fair. I use my ZWO ASI120MM webcam on Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens with 2x barlow lens and mounted on Celestron Nexstar mount to image the full disk as well as closeups of Tycho Crater and Mare Serenitatis Regions.

Super Full Moon (Perigee Full Moon) - December 3, 2017

The last Super Full Moon or Perigee Full Moon for 2017 brings up some hype again but for me, this is just a normal lunar imaging session for me to capture it using Canon EOS 500D DSLR with Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/11 on sturdy tripod. Exposure of 1/500 sec exposure at ISO 200. Both me and my son had some bonding moment to image the Moon together at our condo's roof deck.

Solar Imaging Session - November 20, 2017

The sky today is partly cloudy but I still proceeded to image the Sun to see how the huge, long dark filament is developing. The filament has rotated inside the disk today compare to yesterday which shows a nice FilaProm. Seeing is fair but unfortunately, after I took this shot, I got rained out! Good thing I was able to anticipate possible rain and started to packup before it totally poured!!!

Solar Imaging Session - November 19, 2017 ( Huge Long FilaProm !)

The sky this morning is cloudy so I thought no solar observation for today but late in the afternoon, I saw some sunlight peeping out of the cloudy sky so I thought of setting up at the roof deck to try to image the Sun in Ha wavelength. As I setup, clouds are starting to cover up the sky again and I almost gave up due to frustration but nevertheless, I still keep my patience as I got top see a beautiful long FilaProm on the SE limb! Took me to wait for more than an hour before I could take a quickie shot of the prominence before it got clouded again :( I waited for another 30 minutes before I could shot another large eruptive prominence in the NE limb under very poor seeing condition now as the Sun is very low already and is about to get obstructed by the roof deck fence. Despite the not so favorable condition, I'm still happy to capture the FilaProm nevertheless.

Solar Imaging Session - November 15, 2017

The sky this morning is partly clear and we have no work today so I use this opportunity to do some solar imaging with my old reliable TV-101 refractor / GPDX setup. Its been a very long time since I have reuse this setup since January 14, 2017 , almost 10 months ago, so I'm pretty they are very happy that I opted to bring them out to the roof deck to be bathed under the Sun :) LOL After I setup my system, I had a hard time getting focus because I forgot already its best configuration for the TV-101 refractor and Daystar Quark to reached focus, I tried several configurations before I got the correct one and that wasted a lot of my solar imaging time :( My first shot with the TV-101 refractor was on new AR2687 Sunspot Group. Its obvious that aperture wins in resolution compare to my more portable Canon EF100-400mm IS L lens setup but the seeing is a bit more catchy on the TV-101 refractor as I'm also magnifying the bad seeing which was obvious today. After I snatch AR2687 Sunspot Group with TV-101 refractor, I reverted back to my Canon EF100-400mm setup and hoping to get a slightly more forgiving image with it. I also re-image AR2687 Sunspot Group with the Canon lens as well as a nice large FilaProm through the Daystar as well as a close up white light shot of the sunspot group. I packed up after 2 hours of solar imaging session exhausted but still happy. I might do further more imaging with the TV-101 refractor on Ha wavelength in the future with the Canon L lens as backup if seeing sucks.

Solar Imaging Session - October 22, 2017

The sky this morning is clear so after my brunch, I had a quickle imaging of the Sun in Ha wavelength. It's almost more than 1.5 months since I got to image the Sun again so despite low solar activity, I forced myself to do some solar works to image the new AR2685 Sunspot Group as well as a large dark filament coming out of the NE limb. This filament was a huge eruptive prominence past 2 days but unfortunately, weather is not cooperating :( I also modify my solar processing and it now shows spicules on the solar limb. :) Hope to hone further my image processing skills more.

Solar Imaging Session - September 7, 2017

The sky this afternoon is clear but seeing condition is fair. In Ha wavelength, AR2674 and 2673 Sunspot Groups are nearing the western limb and still producing some active flaring activities on its cores. In white light, AR2674 and 2673 are still a joy to look at and image. Hopefully , I can still get another chance to image them both again tomorrow before they exit the western limb.

Solar Imaging Session - September 3, 2017

The sky this afternoon is clear and seeing condition is very good. AR2674 Sunspot Group is impressive both in white light and in Ha wavelength. There is also a nice huge eruptive prominence in the NW limb.

Solar Imaging Session - August 10, 2017

It's been more than almost 2 months since my last solar imaging session as the weather is very bad and add to this are busy working days and compound it further with slightly high blood pressure that prevented me from taking the bigger risk to be bathe on a hot afternoon :( But since the sky was clear this afternoon, I can't help myself but to try to observe the Sun even for a short session just to be able to capture AR2670 Sunspot Group before it exits the Sun's western limb in a few days. AR2670 Sunspot Group is moderate in size and still shows some some solar activity inside its core. I also was able to see a huge slightly faint eruptive prominence in the SE limb before I called it a day as I'm getting a bit irritated and drained from the heat this afternoon.

August 7-8, 2017 Partial Lunar Eclipse

After a short rainfall in the early evening, the sky cleared up for all to observe the Partial Lunar Eclipse from start to end. The Moon enters the penumbral shadow at 11:50pm Philippine Standard Time (PST)just before midnight and it enters into the umbral shadow at 1:3am PST. Maximum eclipse of 25% occurred at 2:21 am PST. It then later exit the umbral shadow at 3:18am PST. The Moon finally exits the penumbral shadow at 4:50 am PST. I use my trusty Canon EOS 500D DSLR on Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/11 mounted on Celestron Nexstar mount.

August 7 / 8 , 2017 Partial Lunar Eclipse

Solar Imaging Session - June 25, 2017

The sky this afternoon is clear and seeing condition is good. This is the first time that I will be doing solar imaging as well as any astro imaging at the roof deck of our condominium. Since the roof deck is a bit high at 23rd floor, I was expecting to have les heat turbulence from the neighborhood roofs and true enough, the seeing is much better than what I had in my previous old place where I can only do solar imaging at the window of our house. Since I haven't totally sort out all my astro stuffs, I only use a modest solar imaging setup with my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens and a Daystar Quark Chromosphere Ha Filter mounted on a Nexstar goto altazimuth mount. Although the seeing looks better, now I had to fight strong wind which shakes the flimsy mount. I guess after I sort everything out and can use my beefier GP-DX mount, I think I can also use the larger TV-101 refractor once again hopefully in the weeks to come. I also enjoy the company of my son this session and we got the bonding time to observe and image AR2664 Sunspot Group as well as the huge hedgerow prominence visible in the western limb.

Solar Imaging Session - June 4, 2017

The sky this morning is clear after a short rainfall while seeing condition is fair. AR2661 Sunspot Group is growing in size while fading AR2660 Sunspot Group is still visible in Ha wavelength. There is also a faint large eruptive prominence in the eastern limb.

Lunar Imaging Session - June 3, 2017

The sky this evening is clear so I want to image the Moon with my portable setup. Unfortunately, after I image the full disk, clouds covered the sky for me do any further close up shot of the crater region near the terminator. :( Image taken using ZWO ASI120MM webcam on Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/5.6 .

Solar Imaging Session - June 2, 2017

The sky this afternoon is partly cloudy and seeing condition is very poor. There is a large eruptive prominence in the SW limb anda new AR2661 Sunspot Group in the eastern limb. Image quality is poor due to very bad seeing :( Anyway, as they say , better than nothing at all.

Solar Imaging Session - May 28, 2017

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is good. Unfortunately, the Sun is rising a bit to the extreme NE of my observing window and I got less than 10 mins of observing and imaging time left to shoot :( I estimate that my morning solar imaging session will come to end in a day or two as I will be totally obstructed from my observing window till maybe another 3 months except maybe on weekends where I will be imaging on the roof deck of our condominium area. Anyway, with that small imaging time left this morning, I was able to image AR2659 Sunspot Group nearing the NW limb as well as a long dark filament visible in the SE quadrant. There is some plage activity near the NE quadrant but I got obstructed already before I could take any shot. Nevertheless, I should still be happy to image at least 2 shots than nothing at all.

Solar Imaging Session - May 24, 2017

The sky this morning is cloudy and seeing condition is poor. There are 2 huge eruptive prominences visible in the eastern and NW limb. Unfortunately, I was only able to image the NW limb prominence as I got obstructed by the roof when imaging the eastern limb. I was also able to image AR2658 and 2659 Sunspot Group.