Solar Imaging Session - October 23, 2011

The sky this morning was really bad and I had to fight with thick clouds and haze covering most of the sky :( Nevertheless trying hard to squeeze out some shots on Ha wavelength. I wasn't able to get white light images again! :( Sigh!

AR11324 Sunspot Group is still the biggest group on the disk but the new comer on the eastern limb (probably be designated AR11329) looks promising and big as well. One good interesting thing on this group is that it has 2 nice umbral structures on this group and might eclipse AR11324 in beauty in the days to come.

I was only able to get 2 ha images only through the bad weather condition this morning.

Jupiter Imaging Session - October 22, 2011 (GRS Plumes & Red Barge)

After taking my son to dinner and window shopping at SM San Lazaro, I went back home to try to image Jupiter at around 9:00pm with Great Red Spot in Central Meridian. I was quite surprised tonight to see Jupiter already nearing my roof obstruction by that time! I realized tonight that I can start imaging Jupiter at around 8:00pm more or less in the days to come. :)

I was only able to get a single AVI frame tonight because of the time constrain. As I process the image, I was quite dumb found to see 2 white streaks on both sides of the GRS! I initially thought it was some artifacts or dust that might have made the streak! Also wondered why there is a shadow in the NEB thinking it might been cast by either of the 4 main Jovian moons :0 Double checking my Iphone app Sky Safari if there is any shadow event, there is none, so best way is to check out fellow ALPer John Nassr's October 20th image which I recall had GRS visibility more or less and was able to conclude the white streaks are white plumes from the Great Red Spot and the shadow question is a red barge :) Resizing my small image concluded I did get to image both features amid a fair seeing condition. Being a casual planetary imager unlike fellow ALPers Christopher Go and John Nassr, this is what I called a learning curve for me to test out the planetary imaging field aside from my usual solar, lunar and DSO imaging fields :)

Solar Imaging Session - October 22, 2011

I arrived from Baguio early morning and the sky was not that clear. I had to fight through clouds to get some Ha images. Sigh! Couldn't image through high res white light as clouds keeps on passing in front of the main groups :( AR11324 is another huge sunspot group that may follow AR11319 in the days to come!

In Ha, several nice large eruptive prominences can be seen on the NE ,SE and SW limbs. Was also able to bid AR11314 and AR11319 farewell before they totally exit NW limb. A huge dark filament can also be seen between AR11324 and AR11328 sunspot groups.

For me, the next concentration of observation and imaging will center on the NE limb particularly AR11324 and AR11325 which show some promises of good things to come. 2 new incoming sunspot groups can also be seen in the NE limb which I think will be designated AR11329 and AR11330 respectively tomorrow I guess so more or less about 11 sunspot groups now on the disk! :) AR11327 sunspot group is also a group worth monitoring as well.

Solar Imaging Session - October 17, 2011 (10 Sunspot Groups & Nice Dark Filaments )

The sky this morning is initially clear with good seeing condition. I quickly use the opportunity to image as fast as possible as I know the good condition wont last long based from my weeks of observation. I started out with imaging the Sun in Ha wavelength and capture the interesting areas between AR11314 and AR11317 Sunspot Groups. AR11319 Sunspot Group is now the center of attraction now as it has grown in size and area and now eclipses AR11314 Sunspot Group both in Ha and in white light wavelength! AR11312 Sunspot Group is now in the NW limb and probable will exit the Sun tomorrow. Lots of suddenly appearing small sunspot groups pops out beside AR11313 Sunspot Groups near the SW limb and there are AR11320 & AR11322 :)There are some small eruptive prominences only this morning but lots of dark filaments though :)

After I image in Ha wavelength, I started to notice clouds developing near the Sun so I didn't waste any dilly dally time and image the bigger groups in white light wavelength and ended the session with a full disk white light Sun showing a total of 10 sunspot groups! :) Wow!

Solar Imaging Session - October 16, 2011 (Very Hazy Morning! )

The sky this morning was surprisingly bad and very hazy due to thick white clouds covering the sky :( Nevertheless, I proceeded to image the Sun amid expectations that the image would come out not well :( But for record purposes, I still try to image as much as I can before I gave up when I can't see any more details coming out of the sun surface anymore:( It is one of the hardest image processing session I have today due to the softness of the image brought about by the thick clouds and haze! :(

A new possible AR11321 Sunspot Group is visible in the NE limb while AR11312 Sunspot Group is now about to exit the NW limb. AR11314 Sunspot Group continues to be the sunspot to monitor because of its nice solar activity inside its core and surroundings. The huge large dark filament is still visible beside AR11314 :)
As for prominences, only a few small prominences are visible on the Sun's limb.

Solar Imaging Session - October 15, 2011

The sky this morning was partly clear but seeing is poor. The sky partly cleared up past 8:15am already and I had to scramble to get the most time out to image the Sun before I go to work. AR11314 Sunspot Group stills show a lot of solar activity inside its core and the large dark filament is still present beside it. AR11319 Sunspot Group also shows some small activity in its core. AR11312 Sunspot Group is nearing the NW limb and would probably exit the limb in 2-3 days.

I also got to image AR11312 and AR11314 Sunspot Groups in white light before I had to pack up and report for work. Hopefully, I will get some good breaks early morning so that I can get a good sets of Ha and white light images of all the sunspot groups.

Jupiter Imaging Session - October 14, 2011

The sky tonight was partly cloudy and at around 9:00pm, I saw Jupiter cleared the building obstruction and can't resist myself to image it. As I setup my scope, clouds started to cover the sky again to my frustration! But since I still got around 20 minutes before my roof will obstruct my view again so I patiently waited and after 15 minutes, clouds started to break up again and I use the small window time left to image the Jovian planet. As I observe the planet, I was also able to see Europa casting a shadow. Seeing condition though is not that good at 1/5.