This and that

I am still around,just in case you were wondering. I Have been extremely busy for the past month or so. The electronics for my mount have been repaired ,so I have a fully functional scope again…WOOT WOOT !!.
The gardens have been planted,although I am in need of re seeding the corn field since the crows have feasted on the first plantings. Gotta love fresh veggies!!
On a sour note, While at work building a stone wall,I managed to crush my pinky finger. People asked when I was all cast up,what had happened. I just told them ,I got my hand caught between a rock and a hard place….literally !. The tip was broken into 3 pieces,and it is still up in the air if they will amputate. I am in a plastic splint for the next 4-6 weeks….ugh!!!!!.
Luckily, I can still use my scope,since it will goto whatever I want to see,and track the object. Big plus!!!
I did manage a few images from a couple days ago. I see a huge,and long prominence on the sun!.

Sunspot # 1734

It has been a very busy few weeks. With Spring finally arriving,it means yard work,gardening,and money making work.These activities are the normal for this time of year…ugh!.
The other hold up on posting here is,I have been having some hardware issues with my scope.I install a updated firmware version for Losmandy Gemini 2.and all hell broke loose. The dlitch seems to have shut down two major ports on the main unit. I now have the scope functioning,but I have had to adjust the baudrate on a different port,which has totally shut down my GPS unit. I will be sending the main unit,and HC back to Losmandy for repair. This makes me nervous for a couple reasons.
A). Past experiences with telescope manufacturers have been less than satisfying. I don’t want to wait months for the unit to be returned.
B). Cost!. The potential for spending hundreds of dollars for a repair makes me nervous. IMHO, for the amount of money invested.I should think that they would do the right thing and fix the issue with only a shipping cost!.
I guess the first step is to send a email to Scott Losmandy to tell him my issues?!.
Luckily,I still have my LXD75 to fall back on!
We have had a string of incredible weather lately. The sky has been clear and transparent. Again,I couldn’t take advantage due to the ….well…. see above.
I did have the scope out a few times,and was treated to a big sunspot #1734. The image below shows Sunspot #1734 ,which also features two dark filaments. One of which appears to have extended from the sunspot. Much like a rubber band,the filament closest to the sunspot has apparently broken away due to the magnetic field becoming unstable. A filament is actually a prominence,and the reason they look dark is due to being cooler than the surrounding areas. A sunspot has the same effect.

Sinus Iridum and the Neximage 5

Here is a image of the moon from earlier in the week. It shows what is called the Sinus Iridum which is located on the lower left of the moon. The darker crater just North of Sinus iridum is called “Plato”. Most of the large craters seen in this image can easily be seen with binoculars. Plato is quite large at 61 miles across!.
This is without question the most detailed shot of the Sinus Iridum I have ever taken!!.

Our busy sun

I am still cleaning the yards,which is why I haven’t posted lately. Ugh…never ending raking…lol
We had a clear day yesterday with good transparency. Which makes a huge difference when observing or imaging. Those of you with telescopes will know what I mean.Picture looking down a paved road on a really hot day. That is what bad transparency looks like. It makes it almost impossible to achieve a decent focus.
So anyway, in between raking,and other cleaning, I kept sneaking out to the observatory to do some imaging….hehehehehe!.
During my seemingly back and forth trips to the scope.I was treated to actually seeing a difference in prominence shape.I see a time lapse vid of a prominence in full breathing action!.

Waahaa……WILSON

While looking through some of the images I have taken in the past few weeks. I came across Sunspot # 1711 that could easily fit 5 Earths inside with room to spare. It also looks remarkably like the volley ball Tom Hanks named Wilson, on the movie “Castaway” ..
What are your thoughts?.

Big looping prominence yesterday

Been a busy few days cleaning up after the Winter season. We had a lot of wind this Winter,which brought down branches. The lawn is covered in a floating mattress of willow,and other assorted species of tree. The other messes are from snow plows. They have either stripped the lawn of sod,and deposited them along the driveway in large scattered clumps,or thrown large amounts of gravel ,and stone onto the lawn. Time to rent a sweeper as the area to rake is at least 400 ft long!.
Well,in between raking,and playing the role of “Ax man” ,I managed to sneak out to the observatory for some daytime viewing. As suspected,the sun is currently riddled with sunspots,with a few prominence’s on the Western limb.
Sorry the orientation is wrong

Neximage 5 and Saturn

Last night was a pretty good night for star gazing. The sky was clear ,and the transparency was good as well. I was close to calling it a early night,but in my better judgment took the opportunity to image Saturn with the new camera. Having great success with Jupiter,Moon,and our sun I couldn’t wait to unleash the cam on a new target. I have taken images of Saturn before. However,never have I taken images with such nice detail!. More Saturn to come in the future. Below is the result of shooting 140 avi frames. It was stacked with Registax 6 and processed with PS cs6 with levels, and curves.