Solar Imaging Session - November 2, 2014 (Huge SW Hedgerow Prominence !)

The sky this morning is partly clear but I was able to snap a huge SW hedgerow prominence before clouds started to interfere on my second shot for the Sun in Ha thus increasing again Newton Ring effect on the second image. Its good the closeup hedgerow prominence doesn't have that effect. Darn! My T2 tilt adapter hasn't arrive yet till now!!! Its been almost a month now since shipped from US! Crappy local postal service! Probably need to go to the post office and double check tomorrow! :(

M81 / M82 / NGC3077 Trial Image Processing

I had nothing to do this evening and thus wanted to practice my deep sky image processing. I got to download free deep sky image data provided by AstroBert of AstroBin and try to practice LRGB processing of his free data. The LRGB data are still the property of AstroBert of AstroBin and are not mine so my only contribution on this image is to try processing it to practice my skills. With the onslaught of cloudy skies and bad weather, this gave me some time to practice image processing on the sideline while waiting for clear skies in the days to come. :)

Solar Imaging Session - October 26, 2014

The sky this morning is very cloudy. But I proceeded to setup to try to image AR2192 Sunspot Group at around 10:00am. Clouds continue to pour in and getting darker and darker and I had already decided to pack up because of unending dark clouds. As midway from my pack up time. Suddenly surprised to see clouds opening up from nowhere and I had to scramble all the equipment back asap for me to get a shot of AR2192 Sunspot Group both in white light and Ha wavelength. But seeing condition worsens after less than 30 minutes and later got clouded out and rained. As I was imaging, I got a sad message from my friend Francia Avila that our ALP honorary director Father Victor L. Badillo, SJ had passed away this morning at the age of 84 :( I had to paused a while for a minute of silence to pray for him as he is one of my mentors during my early stage of astronomy. Philippines loses another great man in the field of astronomy. He is also our wedding priest when I got married with my wife Charito back in 2000.

ALP Honorary Director Father Victor L. Badillo SJ (1930-2014)

ALP Honorary Director Father Victor L. Badillo , S.J. passed away this morning , October 26, 2014 at the age of 84. He is one of the foremost icon in Philippine Astronomy and his works is recognized worldwide particularly IAU by designating Asteroid 4866 as 4866 Badillo. According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), minor planet No. 4866 measuring some 13 to 30 kilometers across is now officially known as "Badillo," in honor of the Filipino priest who popularized astronomy in the Philippines. He was born in January 23, 1930. Philippines once again loses an icon in the field of Astronomy. Father Victor L. Badillo, is also the Chairman Emeritus of the Philippine Astronomical Society. Related articles: Father Victor Badillo, S.J. : A Giant Among Men by M Aleah Taboclaon (astronomy.com.ph) http://www.astroleaguephils.org/archive/news/051201badillo.html Asteroid 1988 VB3 named Asteroid 4866 BADILLO by Edwin L. Aguirre and Imelda B. Joson http://www.astroleaguephils.org/archive/news/050602asteroid_badillo.html

Solar Imaging Session - October 25, 2014

The sky this morning is partly cloudy but I was able to image the Sun both in white light and Ha wavelength. Seeing condition is good but I have to contend myself to wait patiently and image through cloud openings. AR2192 Sunspot Group is still huge in size and I almost fill the full image frame of my close up shot of AR2192 Sunspot Group in white light. I was also able to snap a few full disk white light image of the Sun as well. In Ha wavelength, AR2192 Sunspot Group still shows lots of solar activity inside its core. The huge , long dark filament continue to stretch in length as it cross the central meridian of the Sun. Lots of other small sunspot group are emerging from the eastern limb but has minimal solar activity for now. Small to moderate prominences can also be seen around the solar limb.

Solar Imaging Session - October 24, 2014

After a failed attempt yesterday to observe and image the Sun together with fellow ALPer John Nassr. We were able finally to get some good clear sky in the early morning to do some solar imaging session together! Seeing condition was pretty steady and good. AR2192 is still impressive after I miss imaging it last 3 days. For this session , we use John's AP127 refractor with Baader Herschel Wedge and TV 2.5x Powermate on DragonFly 2 webcam to image the giant group in white light wavelength. We then shifted to Ha imaging afterwards to image the same group as well as a huge long dark filament and 2 more nice sunspot groups AR2195 and 2194 with nice group of eruptive prominences! Ha imaging was done with AP127 refractor with DragonFly 2 webcam on Coronado SM60 and BF30 filter. It was a very nice solar imaging collaboration between me and John as we also both exchange solar imaging ideas and techniques after the imaging session. John and his wife Mae also invited me to Pizza Volante to have a hearty breakfast as well as more astro chat :) We hope to do more astro imaging collaboration in the months to come!

Solar Imaging Session - October 20, 2014 (Very Active Sun!)

The sky this morning is a bit erratic once again with lots of clouds passing by the Sun. I quickly setup and waited for a while before I was able to capture 2 video clips of giant AR12192 Sunspot Group before I got clouded out again! But seeing there are several clouds openings moving toward where the Sun is located, I waited a while before I could snap full disk image of the Sun in white light. After full disk shot, I thought the sky won't let me do Ha wavelength anymore as Ha imaging needs better sky as well as more stable seeing conditions. Since I was eager to get the most images I could before I go to my week long provincial work trip, I waited for another hour or so before I could see another small cloud clearing approaching the Sun again! I'm glad that I did so because I was stunned to see numerous solar activities in Ha wavelength! Aside from the remnants of the X-flare the other day, another beautiful feature on the Sun was a very beautiful Huge Fila-Prom in the NE limb! Wow! According to Spaceweather.com, "the AT12192 sunspot yesterday produced a long-duration X1-flare and a strong HF radio blackout over Asia and Australia. The next X-flare, if one occurs, will be even more geoeffective as the sunspot turns toward Earth." The double stacked combination of my Coronado PST-Ha coupled with my friend's SolarMax 40 front filter with T-Max tuner shows a 3-D effect of the Fila-Prom! A Fila-Prom is actually a limb prominence that erupts toward the Sun's surface instead of the usual prominence that ejects out of the Sun disk. Numerous dark filaments are also visible on the Sun's surface and I'm glad that I waited with patience for today's solar imaging session :) See you again this weekend!