Solar Imaging Session - November 11, 2011 (Shrinking AR11339 Sunspot Group , Large Dark Filaments & Large Eruptive Prominences ! )

The sky this morning is clear and seeing condition is ok as well. AR11339 Sunspot Group has deteriorate further and almost loses its end part with small pores left on it :( Its front and central penumbral region is still intact though. AR11344 and AR11345 Sunspot Groups continues to grow fast while AR11342 also loses its end part thus making it almost a single symmetrical disk :0 AR11338 & AR11340 sunspot groups are still the same as before with not much changes in structure.

In Ha. this is where the action is right now with 2 huge eruptive prominences lording it over in the NE and SE limb! There are also walls of large dark filament in the NE quadrant as well! AR11339 Sunspot Group is quietly moving out of the Sun in a timid way :) LOL

Solar Imaging Session - November 10, 2011 (AR11339 Sunspot Group & Large Eruptive Prominences ! )

The sky this morning is good and seeing is also not bad. AR11339 Sunspot Groups continues to be the darling of the crowd on the Sun's disk amid its deterioration. The end part of the group continues to decay and very small trace of small penumbra can now be seen in that area. The central part continues to maintain its size as well as the front part of the group.

AR11338 Sunspot Group is still stable but it seems AR11341 and AR11342 Sunspot Group are now starting to get some attention as its main core structure continues to grow in size. Newly designated small AR11344 and AR11345 Sunspot Groups are starting to grow as well although still mostly pore structure for now. There are a total of 8 sunspot groups visible on the Sun's disk today.

In Ha wavelength, small AR11345 Sunspot Groups shows a good sign of solar activity inside its core as well as AR11338 Sunspot Group. Giant AR11339 Sunspot Group is very silent past 2 days. There are 2 huge eruptive prominences both in NE and NW limb while moderate and small prominences are scattered around the solar limb.

Solar Imaging Session - November 9, 2011 (AR11339 Sunspot Group shrinks a bit in size & Large Eruptive Prominences ! )

The sky this morning is slightly clear and I started to image at 7:30am. Seeing condition was ok as well. But at around 7:40am, clouds started to cover where the Sun is and I had to wait till almost 8:20am before I could resume my session. AR11339 has shrunk a bit in size today and the central penumbral region has started to converge into a big structure while the end part of this group has decayed considerably :(

As expected, AR11339 Sunspot Group didn't beat AR11302 in length :( Although the difference is that that big but clearly AR11302 still wins in length by a small margin still :) From my point of view, the size of AR11339 Sunspot Group was slightly over hyped but its width is definitely wider than AR11302 Group. I think maximum length of AR11339 was achieved yesterday. Nevertheless, seeing these types of big sunspot groups never fail to impress not only me but to everyone :) AR11338 Sunspot Group doesn't change that much in size but AR11341 and AR11342 Has decayed a lot and almost about to lose some of its small pore parts :(

In Ha wavelength, there is a large wide eruptive prominence in the NE limb as well as several beautiful dark filaments in the NE quadrant. In SE quadrant, a large dark filament as well as a nice large eruptive prominence can be seen near AR11340 Sunspot Group. AR11339 Sunspot Groups has only small solar activities inside its core. In the SW limb, a nice large eruptive prominence is still visible since yesterday.

Solar Imaging Session - November 8, 2011 (AR11339 Sunspot Group & Large Eruptive Prominence ! )

The sky this morning was again initially cloudy and but at around 7:30am, sky partly clear again but seeing condition is not that good. I quickly image the Sun through Ha wavelength first and the NE quadrant is a beautiful area to observe as lot of activities and dark filaments near the AR11341, AR11342 and AR11343 region. Adding a large eruptive prominence and huge AR11339 sunspot group in the view was a sight to behold! AR11338 Sunspot Group is in the SW quadrant already and can be seen with a nice moderate sized eruptive prominence.

As I setup for white light wavelength, I started to image AR11339 Sunspot Group and I notice it has stretched in length as expected and the width of the group has also narrowed down a bit. So far, I can estimate that AR11339 Sunspot Group is just about the same length only as previous large AR11302 Sunspot Group. But I think the best time for me to estimate AR11339 Sunspot Group's maximum length and size is to compare today's image as well as tomorrow's image to get the average size of the group.

After I image the group, skies started to deteriorate and it affected most of the white light images I image afterwards. But I try to salvage and extract the most out of what I can squeezed out from the AVIs.

As I was trying to take full disk shot of the Sun, thick clouds rolled in before I can prepare and was only able to take a single frame which include small part of the Sun's disk getting clip off :(

Solar Imaging Session - November 7, 2011 (9 Sunspot Groups & Numerous Dark Filaments !)

The sky this early morning was cloudy and I thought this will be another frustrating day for me to image huge AR11339 Sunspot Group in high res again! As I went back to bed to get more rest, I saw some sunlight finally coming through the window at around 8:00am and i quickly jump out of my bed and quickly setup the PST-Ha and start imaging the Sun. AR11339 Sunspot Group, although huge in size is not that super active in its core group in Ha light although one can see some small flares inside the group though. Overshadowed by AR11339 in attention is AR11338 Sunspot Group which shows more solar activity inside its core than AR11339. AR11337 is very silent and small AR11334 Sunspot Group is already departing near the western limb. 3 new sunspot groups namely AR11341,11342 and 11343 Sunspot Groups are coming out from the NNE limb and shows some promising activity in the region. Several beautiful small dark filaments surround the new groups in the NNE limb while another thick dark filament can be seen above AR11337 Sunspot Group. A long fainter dark filament can also be seen in the SE limb near AR11340 Sunspot Group. A moderate sized looped eruptive prominence can be seen near eastern limb near AR11340 as well.

In white light wavelength, of course the center of attraction is on huge AR11339 Sunspot groups which is more or less around 100,000kms end to end in length. I'm looking forward to observing this group the next 2-3 days so I can compare its length to recent big groups AR11302 and AR11330. IMHO, I think the only advantages of AR11339 compared to the 2 mentioned groups is its large penumbra; region. In length, I think it is not that far off from the 2 said groups but since it haven't yet cross the central meridian of the Sun yet, we can't still determine the full length of this group till the next 2 days. I know trying to compare it to the said groups this early is unfair :) LOL

Anyway, as for the rest of the other sunspot groups, there are 9 sunspot groups on the solar disk now! A small undesignated sunspot group east of AR11338 sunspot group will probably be designated AR11344 if it continues to develop IMHO. New AR11341 and AR11342 Sunspot Groups are also big in size and I feel it will be at least as big as AR11338 Sunspot Groups in the days to come as it comes out of the NNE limb :0

Overall, I'm happy today with the results of my solar imaging session as I was able to get both white light and Ha wavelength images :)