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