Sunday, May 8, 2016

Solar Imaging Session - May 9, 2016

The sky this morning is partly cloudy and seeing condition is fair. There are 3 sunspot group on the disk with AR2542 being the biggest of the 3 with AR2543 being the newest and 2541 Sunspot Group the most active :) There are also lots of twisting dark filaments around the sunspot groups. No big prominence present except for small one only.

Mars Imaging Session - May 9, 2016

Initially , I thought I would be able to image Mars just before midnight time at our laundry area but unfortunately, I was only able to see Mars coming out from the building obstruction at around 12:45am already :( I can see South polar cap region as well as Cimmerium region at the Central Meridian. Seeing condition is fair once again. I don't think I would be able to image Saturn anymore as I'm so tired already :( At least I was able to image 2 out of the 3 planets that was planned. RGB image taken using Meade 8" f/10 SCT on ZWO ASI120MM webcam with 2x barlow lens.

Jupiter Imaging Session - May 8, 2016

The sky this early evening is clear and I force myself to do some planetary imaging which i plan top image Jupiter , Mars and Saturn this evening. I'm not a real planetary imager but as a novice, I'm eager to try some planetary imaging once in a while. For this early evening, I started to image the gas giant Jupiter which is already high in the early evening and I was able to cool down my scope as well. Seeing condition is fair and I was able to see the Great Red Spot (GRS) nearing the limb. A great feeling indeed to be able to image the great planet Jupiter once again :)RGB image taken using Meade 8" f/10 SCT with ZWO ASI120MM webcam with 2x barlow lens.

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Solar Imaging Session - May 8, 2016

The sky this morning is partly cloudy and seeing condition is fair. AR2542 Sunspot Group is moderate in size but is somewhat quiet in Ha wavelength. Smaller AR2541 Sunspot Group is very active though in Ha wavelength with lots of flaring activity inside its core as well as numerous large twisting dark filaments surrounding both sunspot groups.