AUGUST 17, 2008 PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE

Hello:

Amid a very bad rainy evening last August 16th. I went to PAGASA Observatory in UP-Diliman to observe the August 17th partial lunar eclipse. I was joined by fellow ALPers Edgar Ang, Vincent Lao, Peter Benedict Tubalinal and Jett Aguilar. We arrived at the site at around 1:45am and I quickly setup my TV-101 refractor on Vixen GP-D mount. I also brought along an Orion ST-80 refractor on sturdy tripod for use by rest of the gang :) A little later, Jett arrive and also started to setup his telescope.

The sky western horizon where the Moon is situated was clear at the start of the event from 2:15am til around 3:30am wherein thick clouds started to ruin the event :( Although the eclipse can still be easily seen, it was a nightmare for us imagers as exposures was thrown off by more than several stops!!! Nevertheless, I still took patience and waited for some open window for me to shoot the eclipse. The weather would come in thick at times and then suddenly thinned out for us to be able to image the eclipse at maximum eclipse through thin haze.
At around 5:15am, the sky was becoming bright already and harder for us to shoot the eclipse Moon any further and we called it a day! We were all very happy that the sky did give us some breaks for us to document the event. We took a group shot before packing up. Below are some images that I took of the event and one can see how bad the sky as during the imaging session as seen through my composite image.

Solar Ha Imaging Session - August 15, 2008

Hello:

The weather this afternoon was good so I quickly setup my Coronado PST-Ha to take a peek at my old friend Sol. Wow! There is a nice bright eruptive prominence at the Sun's limb! I quickly image the prominence and after 3o minutes of observation, the sky clouded out again :( Seeing was good at 2/5. Image was taken using ATK-1HS II webcam on Coronado PST-Ha and 2x barlow lens.

Solar Ha Imaging Session - August 9, 2008

Hello:

I was able to get a small break for me to image the Sun with my PST-Ha this afternoon. I was able to see a nice projection (bar) prominence in the Sun's limb. The sky was not good (1/5 scale) though as there was some haze in the sky that make the image a bit soft. Nevertheless, better than nothing. IMHO.

Solar Ha Imaging Session - July 18, 2008

Hello:

After almost a week of bad weather , I was again able to observe the Sun again. Today's solar view was not bad as I was able to see 3 prominences through the PST. Seeing was fair. Below are the images that I took this afternoon.

Solar Ha Imaging Session - July 11, 2008

Hello:

I was again blessed with some good skies this afternoon for me to shoot the Sun. I setup the PST-Ha right away even without checking the Sun as I was still having some hangover from yesterday's view of the Prominences. :) True enough, there was a nice loop prominence and I was able to finish imaging it in less than 15 minutes because the seeing was good (2/5) so focusing was much easier today. Below is the image that I took of the prominence. Enjoy!

Solar Imaging Session - July 10, 2008

Hello:

The sky this afternoon was partly clear so I setup my PST-Ha and scan the solar limb for some nice promnences. Initially, I wasnt able to see any prominences so I was about to packup but hesitated a bit and rescan the Sun again and guess what? I almost miss out a nice loop prominence which was a bit faint because of haze and thin clouds perhaps. As I setup for imaging, I was able to see another eruptive prominence just beside the loop prominence! So I quicikly image them both in one frame before clouds startr covering the Sun again :( The image quality is not that god but nevertheless, the 2 nice prominences are a good way to encourage me to image the Sun again :)

Clear day for Solar Imaging

Wow! Its been quite a while already (almost a month) that I was able to image the Sun! But today's solar view in H-Alpha light was boring as there were only 2 small prominences that were visible in the Sun's limb. Nevertheless, I stll find time to image both of them and they can be seen below: