Solar Imaging Session - January 31, 2017

The sky this morning is partly clear but seeing condition is still not good :( AR2629 Sunspot Group shows some mild activity inside its core while AR2630 Sunspot Group , despite its pore like structure, shows bright flaring inside its core. There is also another new AR2631 Sunspot Group coming out of the eastern limb but unfortunately, I got clouded out before3 I could capture it :( There is also a nice group of eruptive prominence visible in the NW limb. Also for this session, I retilted my T2 Tilt Adapter for my ASI120MM webcam and Quark Chromosphere configuration so the Newton Rings are gone for good. I also made a flat frame to eliminate the dust motes that seems to be stubborn on my ASI120MM webcam sensor! I'm having a hard time removing the dust motes despite several attempts so the flat frame did help a bit to clean my image. The 60mm really is having a hard time giving justice to the Quark Chromosphere as its juicing out its limited resolution. I hope to be able to get some better resolution when I can do some solar work with the TV-101 refractor at the roof deck at the new place instead of my current window imaging. Also all my scopes had been transferred so I'm left with the portable 60mm to image as well as a lightweight nexstar mount :( Also noted that I had a hard time getting contrast on my AVIs this session. I suspect I had a light leak in the tilt adapter. Need to cover the tilted plate spacing with more layers of electrical tape to prevent light leak I hope. True enough, I found the culprit for my low contrast matter. The black electric tape I wrap around the tilt adapter spacing is not thick so the CCD sensitivity picks up light leaks from it so I circle the tilt adapter more than 5x along the tilt open space and solves it. Now for crucial test again tomorrow. Sigh! The life of an astro imager :) LOL

Solar Imaging Session - January 29, 2017

The sky this morning is partly cloudy and I have run after small holes in the sky to image the Sun this morning and due to my frustration, I forgot to return the T2 tilt adapter position back to its normal position for my ASI120MM webcam thus I suffered from severe Newton Rings this session !!! :(====== Anyway, AR2629 and 2626 Sunspot Groups are very quiet but at least a nice large eruptive prominence in the SW limb add a little spice to the failed session .

Reprocessed January 17, 2017 AR2626 & 2625 Sunspot Groups

I was able to reprocess my previous image of AR2626 & 2625 Sunspot Groups taken last January 17, 2017 with show severe Newton Ring distortion. I retweet my image and one can see it is gone now :)LOL Previous Image

New Reprocessed Image

Solar Imaging Session - January 27, 2017

Happy Chinese New Year! The sky this morning is very cloudy and hazy. I thought it was an impossibility to get any shots of the Sun. But at around 9:45am, there was some small breaks in the clouds for me to test the 0.5x reducer if it is ok but I'm disappointed as I see bean effect at the middle of the Sun disk! :( So I revert back to image without the reducer. Seeing condition is poor as expected but I was able to get a shot of the large group of eruptive prominence in the NE limb as well as AR2629 Sunspot Group before I got obstructed by our roof. Images are not that good but I'm still happy on it as it's been very cloudy the past few days already .

Solar Imaging Session - January 17, 2017

The sky this morning is partly cloudy and seeing condition is initially fair. AR2626 and 2625 Sunspot Groups are very quiet while there is a large faint eruptive prominence in the NE limb. Seeing condition worsens after I was imaging the faint prominence. I use a very portable setup this session only with Kenko 60mm f/9 refractor on Nexstar mount. A bit shaky when focusing but I was able to get some decent image of the 2 groups I guess despite the handicap.

Solar Imaging Session - January 14, 2017

The sky this morning is partly clear and seeing condition is fair. There are 2 active sunspot regions now visible in the eastern limb namely AR2626 and 2625 Sunspot Group. Although small in size, it is still better than nothing for the past 2 weeks if I remember it right. There are also 3 large prominences on the solar limb which makes the session a bit fun :) I use once again my trusty TV-101 refractor once again to see if I can get some decent images out of it while fighting seeing conditions which has been very bad last 2 weeks. Anyway, I have to alter a little bit my solar processing technique from my previous technique with the Coronado PST-Ha before and looks like I'm starting to learn bit by bit on how tame this beast.

Solar Imaging Session - January 13, 2017

The sky this morning is very hazy and party cloudy. I had a hard time getting contrast on both prominence and surface details due to passing clouds. Nevertheless, I was able to capture the NE large hedgerow prominence as well as small AR2625 Sunspot Group coming out of the eastern limb. I'm planning to revert back to my TV-101 refractor imaging tomorrow as I feel I'm starting to get a hang of the Quark a bit. Hopefully I can get some good data tomorrow with it.

Solar Imaging Session - January 9, 2017

The sky this morning is clear but seeing condition is again not that good. I try to fight seeing turbulence by using a smaller Kenko 60mm f.9 refractor to see if I can get away with miserable seeing past few days. I also use setting 8 again . Looks a little improve I think as limb turbulence lessens a bit. I try to image a large eruptive prominence in the NW limb with the setup. I also try using my Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 100mm to see if I can get a full disk of the Sun but unfortunately, I can get a way with maybe 90% of the disk only but I'm satisfied. I only tested on the solar surface and maybe next time try to get a composite.

Solar Imaging Session - January 8, 2017

The sky this morning is very hazy again. Almost all images are trash :( I was still in testing mode and I was in setting 5 when haze thin a bit for me to capture through passing thin clouds as well :( Image is still soft as expected but I can see that tuning to clockwise indeed is correct but as I was going to take another shot at 8 setting, clouded out again. I will also try to test using the 60mm refractor again tomorrow to see if turbulence will lessen a bit with some sacrifice on resolution till my 0.5x reducer arrives.

Solar Imaging Session - January 7, 2017

The sky this morning is clear but seeing condition is poor. One of the large eruptive prominence is still visible in the NW limb. Still no sunspots on the disk right now. As for tuning settings, I set it to 8 from left to right based from onoine reports but it seems i got softer prominence as well as lost surface contrast.... It seems my previous 3 settings is better... I dont know but if sky is ok tomorrow, I will have a good time to test more settings to see which is ok.

Solar Imaging Session - January 6, 2017

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is good . I was able to use the Daystar Quark Chromosphere Ha Filter again with my trusty TV-101 refractor. I was able to see 2 huge eruptive prominences in the western limb. I'm still currently trying to tame the Daystar Quark Chromosphere tuning system but I can see there is now slight improvements over the past few day's sessions. Hopefully will be able to get better results next time around.

Solar Imaging Session - January 4, 2017

The sky this morning is hazy and partly cloudy. Seeing condition is also poor. I tried again the Daystar Quark Chromosphere Ha Filter with TV-101 refractor again after testing it on my smaller 60mm f/9 refractor yesterday. I'm still double checking if there is lot of differences on image quality using the 60mm over the 101mm refractor. So far, it is very hard to see difference because of poor seeing condition. Anyway, Today's solar views shows 2 nice large prominences both on the western limb. One shows a horn like structure while the other is a very nice large hedgerow prominence.

Solar Imaging Session - January 3, 2017

The sky this morning is very hazy and cloudy. Seeing condition is also poor. I try the Daystar Quark Chromosphere on my Kenko 60mm f/9 refractor to see if I will get a decent image out of it. But seeing condition is bad so I cant give a good judgement but of course we all know that bigger aperture should give better image resolution :) Anyway, I try to image a large hedgerow prominence to test my initial image on this small scope. Visually, the prominence is not bad on this small scope as well :)

Deep Sky Imaging Session - December 30, 2016

Before the year ends, fellow ALPers James Kevin Ty, Per Edman, Manu Goseco and Arnel Campos went to Manu's lot in Alfonso, Cavite to test out its site for possible stargazing session for 2017. They arrive at the site at around 4:00pm due to unexpected traffic condition at the South Super Highway. The site is good but one needs a big truck or SUV with 4x4 to be able to drive easily to the observing site as road is muddy and uneven :( Nevertheless, they were able to start setting up their telescopes and tents before sunset. James brought along his portable Canon EOS1000D (M) with Canon EF100-400mm f.4.5-5.6 IS L lens mounted on Kenko Sky Memo-R star tracker; Per with his 12" f/5 Truss type dobsonian reflector while Manu brought his Celestron C8 SCT on AVX mount. Per, Manu and Arnel spend the night observing deep sky objects such as M42 Orion Nebula, M45 Pleiades star cluster, M31 Andromeda Galaxy, etc. For me, I was able to image Comet 45P Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova at around 15 degrees above western horizon as well as image M42 Orion Nebula since my target Heart Nebula was clouded out whole session :( Anyway, session came out ok but I still prefer our Caliraya site as more accessible to all sorts of cars. Hope to be able to go with fellow ALPers comes February to April.