Solar Imaging Session - February 7, 2010 (New AR 11045 Sunspot Group and Large Eruptive Prominences !!!)

Hello:

I was able to wake up early this morning and saw the sky is clear. Seeing is fair and when I looked through the PST-Ha, I was able to saw new large sunspot group AR 11045 near the middle of the solar disk. Adding to the great view was a beautiful dark filament near the group as well as a beautiful large eruptive prominence all. The trio fit beautifully in the Ha image that I took afterwards.

After the Ha imaging, I switch to whitelight wavelength to observe and image the AR11045. Seeing was still bad but I nevertheless image the group as well as in close up shot.

Solar Imaging Session - February 5, 2010 (Another Huge Prominence!)

Hello:

The sky this morning was a bit hazy and seeing was bad. Nevertheless, I still proceeded with imaging the Sun both on Ha and white light. With the PST-Ha, there was a huge eruptive prominence visible on the SE limb. AR11043 continue to deteriorate and its appearance both on Ha and PST is unsatisfactory with added burden of poor seeing.

As I was imaging AR11043, I think I was able to see a small spot on the groups lower left and I presume this will be designated 11044. Another interesting observation is a possible active region emerging from the NE limb. Looks active. Let's see in the days tom come if this will materialize into a sunspot group.

Solar Imaging Session - February 3, 2010 (Huge Eruptive Prominences!!!)

Hello:

I wake up a bit late this morning was a bit groggy but still manage to set myself for another solar imaging session. Seeing was fair this morning though. As I point the PST toward the Sun, I was surprised to see a very bright and large eruptive prominence giving me a good morning greeting! Since Im running out of time already, I quickly image the bright eruptive prominence asap. Afterwards, I scan the solar limb for more prominences, I was able to see another fainter huge looped prominence as well and managed to image it as well. The boring AR11043 sunspot group is still not beautiful in Ha light but has a better photo appeal through the white light wavelength. Unfortunately, the small components of the group are all gone and only the main component of the group is still visible. I estimate the group will decay even more tomorrow .... :(

Solar Imaging Session - February 2, 2010

Hello:

The sky this morning was a bit hazy but nevertheless, I was able to image the Sun as well as new sunspot group, AR 11043. The group was not that impressive like AR 11041 in faculae structure. Maybe it is still too early to say that activity inside the group will not increase int he days to come which I hope it will....

In white light, AR 11043 shows good possibility of getting bigger in the days come. Some granulation can be seen in the solar surface.

Solar Imaging Session - January 30, 2010

Hello:

The sky this morning is a bit hazy but since i can still see the Sun. I proceeded to check out AR 11041 if it is still there. The sunspot group had undergone tremendous reduction in size from a nice looking group to almost a speck yesterday. Well, I had to hard timing locating first the group as I thought it had disappeared already. But careful inspection and patience help me locate it!

My golly, it is almost a small dot already at closeup shot :) LOL Although I could still see a small speck feature. I'm sure tomorrow it will not be there anymore...... so goodbye AR 11041!

But in Ha light, I could easily see the group because it still possesses some small activity inside its core compare to the white light images and observation. Aside from the group, another interesting feature of the Sun this morning is a nice large eruptive prominence which resembles the famous "Horsehead Nebula". I refer to it as Horsehead Prominence :) LOL

Solar Imaging Session - January 29, 2010

Hello:

The sky this morning was a bit hazy and seeing is poor. Nevertheless I manage to take some shots of the decaying AR 11041 sunspot group which is now very very small compare to the last image I took of it last January 23 :( But in Ha light, I can still see some activities in the group.

2 nice prominences can also be viewed near the western limb.

Solar Imaging Session - January 23, 2010 (New AR 11042 and Large Prominences !!!)

Hello:

The sky this morning is a bit hazy with some passing small clouds. As I check the Sun through the PST-Ha , I notice there was a new sunspot group that pops out which I presumed will be designated AR11042 because it has some umbra and penumbra structure already. On the other hand, AR 11041 continues to grow in size and structure. For today, I concentrated on the ATK-1HS II webcam this morning to try to get better results than what I did yesterday which was done IMHO in a fast way. With more frames for me to acquire with the webcam than my Canon 500D single frames and shutter vibration, it seems the webcam images are promising as well as I was able to get some granulations despite fair seeing condition.

Starting today, my Ha images through the PST-Ha will be oriented north up and east to the left. In Ha light, AR11041 exhibits more activity inside its group. New AR 11042, although a bit smaller also exhibit some activity already as well. There are also several large eruptive prominences as well and a joy to look at too.

Unfortunately, I wont be able to monitor the 2 groups tomorrow till maybe Friday next week as I will go back to my provincial work. I'm sure AR 11042 will already be gone by them and hoping I can still catch up with AR 11041 near the western limb next week :0