Sunnymeade Astro

The Sun 13-6-09 - Large arch prominence in NE

2009-06-14T16:41:00.002+01:00

Only had a short time to image the sun today, but the brief view was worth the effort as there was a large arch prominence on the NE limb. No active regions visible in Ha light but AR11020 is over on the west limb now and extremely small. I am amazed this tiny flux area got an NOAA designation as it was very weak and had no strong spots.

The Sun 4-6-09 - AR11019 Breaking Up

2009-06-04T15:53:00.000+01:00

AR11019 appears to be dispersing with the main spots much smaller today and the group becoming widely dispersed. Seeing was terrible along with transparency and this made processing quite a chore.

The Sun 2-6-09 - AR11019 Sunspots Developing

2009-06-02T15:45:00.001+01:00

AR11019 continues to grow with the main sunspots noticeably larger now and the two polarities dividing and moving apart. There was a nice tall flame prom near the AR in the NE and another fainter group in the SE.

The Sun 1-6-09 - New AR 11019 has Sunspots!

2009-06-01T15:26:00.003+01:00

The new AR in the NE developed fast overnight and now has two large sunspots and numerous pores, it showed up partcularly well with the Herschel Wedge and stacked barlows (2x and 2.5x) and also in CaK. Proms were in the N and SE.

The Sun 31-5-09 - Spectacular tall prominence in NW!

2009-05-31T15:10:00.000+01:00

Set up for imaging at 9.55UT and was amazed to see a tall hook shaped prominence in the NW. It looked like a cloud capped spike to start with then the "cloud" slowly curved over to re-connect with the surface. It had faded rapidly by 11.00UT and was gone by 15.00UT. The new AR in the NE still has only one main spot and about 3-4 pores. Tried the Herschel wedge today for the first time imaging and was very pleased with the results, clear granulation, sunspots and pores.

The Sun 30-5-09 - Small new AR in NE

2009-05-30T18:33:00.001+01:00

The returning AR 11016 has finally decayed along with the small AR seen last on the 24th. Now there is a new SC24 spot in the NE which already shows one spot. Only three very small proms on show.

The Sun 24-5-09 - AR's and Proms

2009-05-24T18:23:00.001+01:00

AR11016 is still present with its AR filament. The small new AR in the east still has no spots. Small proms only in N, S , E, and W.

The Sun 23-5-09 - New small AR in east

2009-05-23T18:03:00.002+01:00

A small new AR has appeared in the east which is currently un-numbered by NOAA but appears to have two fledgling spots forming. The returned AR 11016 is still viisble with its AR filament. Proms are in the west, east and south. The western group has a complex hedgerow of multiple arches.

The Sun 21-5-09 - AR11016 and 11017

2009-05-21T18:15:00.001+01:00

The returning AR11016 is on the central meridian now and sports a nice dark active region filament with obvious barbs connecting to the surface. AR11017 is over on the west limb now and about to vanish over the limb. Two fairly insignificant proms in the west.

The Sun 17-5-08 - 3 Active Regions still visible

2009-05-17T16:19:00.007+01:00

A lucky break in the cloud at midday allowed me to grab a few quick images in CaK and Ha of the active regions. All three are still visible with the new one (11016 returning) in the east now visible in Ha too and showing some flux detail, but no spots so far. There is still a spot in 11017 along with some small pores and the AR to the west of 11017 continues to disperse and decay. There is a tall spike prominence on the west limb. All images with north at top and east to left.

The Sun 16-5-09 - 3 active regions on the sun

2009-05-16T23:07:00.003+01:00

For the first time in around a year there are now three active regions on the sun. The two SC24 regions are now in the north west and include 11017 which still displays a couple of small spots and the decaying companion active region further west which is very dispersed. The new active region which has just appeared in the north east is actually a repeat showing for AR 11016 according to the NOAA - this is an SC23 AR. Prominences are generally small today. The Ha view of 11017 and its companion is still quite impressive with lots of fibrils and small AR filaments.

The Sun 12-5-09 - Last views before the rain and cloud!

2009-05-12T18:53:00.000+01:00

Its forecast for solid rain and cloud over at least the next four days so I was happy to get a final view of the active regions today after work. AR1 continues to decay while AR2 is hanging in there with a single spot on view in CaK. A nice spiky prom close to the AR's on the east limb.

The Sun 11-5-09 - Active Regions and filaments

2009-05-11T18:37:00.001+01:00

Lovely clear blue sky today after work although the seeing was a bit turbulent. The two active regions continue their trek westward across the disk and AR1 is now breaking up quite a bit as it decays. AR2 continues to spread and there is still a definite single sunspot present when viewed in CaK. There is a nice dark filament separating the two AR's and some good proms in the east, west and south. A great day's activity !

The Sun 10-5-09 - New sunspot in second AR

2009-05-10T20:11:00.004+01:00

Just had a single five minute break in the cloud today which let enough sun through to get an image although I was still shooting through thin cloud to capture the footage. This is 300 of 1200 frames stacked. The detail is surprisingly good with very well defined plage and a sunspot can clearly be seen in the plage of the second AR that is just rounding the limb. Flare activity continued today with most in the A Class range and one reaching B0 Class. DMK41 and Lunt CaK 100mm

The Sun 9-5-09 - A Class Flare seen in CaK

2009-05-10T00:27:00.002+01:00

Had to image in two separate sessions today due to intervening cloud and rain. Caught the Ha and CaK disks this morning at 11.30BST then imaged the active regions in more detail between 17.10 and 18.10 BST. The new AR is further round in the NE quarter now and the second can just be seen right on the limb. The first AR (nominally 11017 if it forms a sunspot) consists of two primary S- shaped strands of plage. While watching the active regions at 17.15 BST (16.15 UT) I noticed an area brightening rapidly in the plage. I dashed inside to confirm it was a flare on the GOES X-Ray flux monitor and it was peaking at A-Class, this was a first for me watching a flare brighten live! This second AR has been a hot bed of activity over the last 24 hours with many small eruptive prominences. The A-Class flare was subsequently confirmed by Thomas Ashcraft in Mexico who caught it as a radio burst at 16.14 UT.

Solar Radio Burst Image courtesy of Thomas Ashcraft, Mexico

The Sun 8-5-09 - New Active Region - 11017 ?

2009-05-09T16:35:00.003+01:00

A new active region has rounded the NE limb and its an SC24 cycle region! Actually there will be two on the earth side of the sun soon as we have been following their progress from the far side via the Stereo Behind satellite. The second one looks like it will be brighter and more active. Two linear stripes of plage make up the new AR but no sunspot has been seen so far.

Th Sun 6-5-09 - Disk and Proms

2009-05-09T16:25:00.002+01:00

Just managed to catch these late and low on the horizon at 17.50 UT. Nice set of small wispy proms in the west with some detailed structure plus another set of low arches in the east - west is at bottom of images.

The Sun 3-5-09

2009-05-09T16:20:00.002+01:00

Grabbed some late images after the cloud cleared tonight. Not much to see except the main prom and a couple of faint small filaments.

The Sun 2-5-09 - Impressive Loop Prom!

2009-05-09T15:36:00.004+01:00

Had some better than average seeing this morning at 8.30 UT and I couldn't believe the great view via the PST with very sharp and large proms in each quarter of the disk. There was a perfect double loop in the north west, the best of its type that I have seen so far. I took a series of disk and prom shots between 8.34 - 9.15 UT.

Later on I made a short 25 frame animation of the main loop between 10.34 and 11.10 running at 1/15th sec. This was a slow burning prom with very little change in shape except at the apex of the arch where the plasma curls over. It looks like the prom changed shape and got more active after I was imaging judging by later images and animations posted on the Cloud Nights Solar Forum. Lots of cloud after 10.45 caused some brightness changes in the animation as a few of the frames were shot through a thin cloud layer.

The Sun 29-4-09 - Sunspots!!

2009-04-29T22:46:00.004+01:00

For the first time in a long while a decent set of sunspots (NOAA 11016) appeared this morning on the south west limb. The polarity suggests this is another SC23 sunspot group, so we are not really seeing a rise in SC24 activity yet but rather the last gasps of SC23. The plage was very bright visually in the PST and the active region developed quickly in size and shape. The sunspot group is Zurich Cao class. I was imaging at 16.20UT through high white cloud and the seeing was unbelievably bad with the surface in constant fluid motion and haze crossing at all times. It was very difficult to compensate for the constantly changing brightness levels and most video runs came out over or underexposed. High magnification imaging was basically pointless!

The Sun 26-4-09 - Low activity again!

2009-04-26T23:02:00.002+01:00

Its been a dull week with almost no surface activity and only very small prominences, solar minimum strikes again! Just one fairly fast changing prom in the north and a needle like spike prom in the south which was very short lived. The weak flux in the north east continues to decline and I expect it will have vanished altogether by tomorrow. DMK21/DMK41/PST

The Sun 25-4-09 - Small proms and weak AR

2009-04-26T22:50:00.002+01:00

Cloudy all day today with quite poor seeing. These images were shot through gaps in the cloud between 12.43 and 14.47 BST. The proms were all extremely small as you can see on the full disk shot. The small active flux area in the NE is still there, but I expect it to fade fast now as it is a very weak feature. DMK41/DMK21/PST/Lunt Cak B1200.

The Sun 23-4-09 - First light for the Lunt B1200 CaK

2009-04-24T00:08:00.005+01:00

I had just 15 minutes of sun this afternoon to test the new filter and that was shooting through thin hazy cloud low on the horizon too! I was amazed when the image popped up on the laptop and revealed a relatively sharp and detailed surface. I had always thought large apertures played a big part in letting more light and resolution come through in bad seeing and this test proved my theory immediately. The filter was attached to my Vixen 115s APO stopped down to 100mm. With no activity on the suns surface at the moment I wasn't expecting a lot, but even so two areas of plage are showing up, the one on the right clearly has two tiny pores in it and the one on the left may be a new AR rounding the NE limb. The scale of magnification was large to start with due to the 890mm focal length of the Vixen and I doubt I will be needing a barlow very often when solar maximum arrives.

Lunt CaK B1200 - New addition to the Imaging Family

2009-04-21T16:09:00.002+01:00

As the first part of the general upgrade to my solar imaging equipment I took delivery today of the Lunt CaK B1200 solar diagonal. The Euro price for this unit is currently £977 without shipping while the US price is £603 with shipping - guess where I went shopping! I ordered direct from Lunt in Tucson, Arizona and the unit was in the UK three days later!! The diagonal will be used on my Equinox ED80 and the Vixen 115s (stopped down to 100mm) refractors. Typically, just as the diagonal arrived, the sky clouded over almost immediately so no chance to test it today. There was very little to test it on anyway with just a tiny area of plage in the NW and no proms at all.

The next part of the upgrade will be a Solarscope SF-70 70mm Ha filter unit or the new Lunt 100mm Ha telescope. Not too sure which to go for yet. The Solarscope optical quality is renowned and well tested by the likes of Pete Lawrence, it is clearly a pedigree solar unit. The Lunts have got off to a shaky start with the LS60T and LS50 filters which do not appear to show much more than you can see in a PST and the tuners are certainly far less responsive. They have also failed so far to get rid of the uneven illumination effects unlike the Solarscope filters which have totally even illumination and full-size etalons. Unless the Lunt 100's get rave reviews and I see some stunning images I will be getting a Solarscope SF-70 in September or October.

The Sun 19-4-09 - Emerging Flux Region in NE and a few Proms

2009-04-19T22:29:00.004+01:00

The sky was deceptively blue and cloud free today, but the seeing on the suns surface was a shimmering mess most of the time. Even so, the emerging flux region in the NE was a lot clearer today and appeared to have a very dark core - sunspot forming ? The proms were very faint with the slender spike in the SW being the best to view. There was a persistent small bright plage area at the center of the disk which has lasted two days now, but it has no related flux or filaments forming. Images taken between 13.37 and 15.22 GMT. DMK41/DMK21/PST.