Above the clouds

Jupiter and a washed out sky

Andrew — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:20:43 +0000

My main goal was to see and capture images of the NEO 2005 YU55 last night.Sadly,due to it’s quick appearance, lack of accurate coordinates and a rather washed out sky.I was unable to get a glimpse of this tiny (compared to other NEO’s) asteroid.I know I was in the correct area but,since the moon’s brightness managed to reduce the my seeing to probably around +4 mag.Meaning,I was barely able to see Alberio with the naked eye.After spending some time searching in vain I decided to call it quits and set my sights on a more familiar target which was Jupiter.
Jupiter seemed quite proud as it followed the moon in it’s endless trek across the sky.Despite the ground fog that began rolling in at 10pm the seeing was good enough to capture a few images of this gas giant.

Proud Jupiter

Sunspot 1339

Andrew — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:39:59 +0000

Just a quick post.Our sun is really picking up in activity now in it’s journey to solar maximum.If you have the proper equipment,I would suggest taking a look.NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN WITHOUT PROPER EYE PROTECTION OR BLINDNESS WILL OCCUR!.
Here is a image of the sun that I took yesterday.Our home planet could easily fit inside each spot and 5 of our planets could fit in the largest,which is designated Sunspot #1339.

A lot has happened but,I am still here

Andrew — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:47:54 +0000

Hi all,just wanted to let everyone know that i am still here and contributing to the blog.A lot has happened in my absence.Some personal and some not.I have acquired a dome observatory from my good friend Michael and I am making full use of it.
Aside from a few cosmetic repairs, it is suiting me very well.I also made a few new purchases including a shiny new Losmandy G11 mount with Gemini 2.This mount is a gorilla of sorts and carries my 10"Meade sn reflector and Meade Ds90 without problem.I also acquired a Orion imager and autoguider,I haven't had a chance to test out the autoguider yet.Lol...I am still in a big learning curve with the new mount.It is a lot different from my Meade LXD75 which wasn't up to snuff with astrophotography.

Here is my new mount (I haven't quite figured it all out yet)

It took quite a bit of work getting the site prepared for the observatory.I had a lot of digging to do,not only for the concrete pad but,also the trench I needed to run electricity.Hard work pays off and I even have internet which gave my old desktop Pc a new lease on life.
Like I said,the new mount is VERY different from my Meade LXD75 and isn't exactly a plug and play mount.Criminy,I have about 50lbs of counter weights lol!.The LXD75 is pretty much cast aluminum and the G11 is welded steel.One thing I am not so sure I like about the G11 G2 is the HC.It is has a touch screen display which seems kind of jittery at times.The goto's seem to be quite accurate and the tracking is great.I was able to get 35-40 seconds of tracking from the LXD75 before I got star trails.The new mount is good (so far) for up to 2 and a half minutes before I begin to see star trailing.Keep in mind folks,I haven't got the mount tweaked yet and am VERY confident that I can get 5-8 min of good tracking.Plus,once the auto guider is up and running smoothly,my tracking will become almost unlimited.

Uranus

Sunspot #1093 and a large solar flare

Andrew — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 01:08:17 +0000

I guess it is time to say hello to the new solar cycle!.Having seen sunspot #1093 emerge on the eastern limb,I made plans to have the scope out for a day of imaging.The newest sunspot is/was almost identical to sunspot #1092.Both in size and in approximate latitude on the suns northern hemisphere.With clear skies and seasonal temps I set up my equipment and waited for the scope to cool down and it wasn’t long before I took my first image of the new sunspot in white light and was pleasantly surprised to see a small sunspot (designated #1095) almost directly below ss #1093 in the southern hemisphere.Both massive sunspots are round in shape with obvious structure.This is both caused from sheer size and clean skies.Having clean skies around here is a novelty given the humidity this time of year and just like clock work…the skies started to become a bit soupy by the end of the session.

Below is sunspot #1092 as it approaches the western limb.

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Below is sunspot #1093 and just below that is sunspot #1095

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After 20 minutes of imaging in white light I decided to get some images of a enormous prominence on the eastern limb using a Coronado PST.The prominence was massive and with a bit of tweaking managed to a few smaller prominences as well as the sunspots.

As I fine tuned the focus,the prominences became more distinct and suddenly I noticed that the area to the left of the prominence was getting brighter.I attributed this to the earths upper atmosphere was getting a bit more stable.As time went on,this area became bright white and had a horseshoe shape to it.It became apparent that what I was seeing was a major solar flare erupting.

click image to enlarge.

Just to be sure,I checked out Spaceweather.com and they are buzzing with information about the massive flare and the peak time it occurred.It was at the exact time the image above was taken,which was about 18:35 UT (1:35EST) at my location. According to Spaceweather.com the CME will give us a glancing blow and possibly provide us with some northern lights on the 10th of August.A glancing blow and not a event that we need to be alerted to.

Sunspot # 1092

Andrew — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:30:54 +0000

Yes,I am still here although getting free time to post has become a chore. A HUGE sunspot has made its way around to the Earth side and is now blessing us with quite a object to watch.Not paying a whole lot of attention to what was happening on the suns surface I happened to take a look at the SOHO website and was amazed at the size of sunspot #1092.I have a new Coronado PST and had some time for myself so,I made plans to take it out .I didnt want to take the scope out if not much was happening.I guess I am lazy like that?!.After all,it requires setting the big scope up and piggy backing the PST for tracking.It may not seem like much but, that is no small job in its self .The sunspot is as of yesterday was about (my estimation) 3-4 earths in size.Today it is a little bigger and the structure has changed a bit as well.

Their is also lots of activity not including the sunspot which had grabbed my attention as well.Since I had bought the solar scope,I was used to seeing 3 or 4 prominences every time I had taken it out for fresh air.As of yesterday however,all that had changed.The whole outer rim was seething with prominences…..Yaaaaaaay!!

click image to enlarge

The skies were quite clear which increased the detail making it possible to see the surrounding structure on the new sunspot.

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Here is a closer look at this sunspot using a Meade LPI and a 2X barlow

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Our Sun May 21st 2010

Andrew — Sat, 22 May 2010 00:21:58 +0000

Had a beautiful clear day for the most part here.I decided to bring the scope out and take some images of the sun in H-Alpha
The image below shows a long filament which is hot gas that is suspended by magnetic field which has a tendency to be rather unstable.Also shown to the lower left of the equator is a new sunspot that has yet to be designated a number by The Solar and Heliospheric observatory.

The sun throwing a tantrum as seen on the eastern and western limbs

Image credit;Andrew

information credit;SOHO

Sunspots and CME’s on May 5,2010

Andrew — Sun, 09 May 2010 01:17:24 +0000

I have again been quite busy and when time does allow,I try to make some time to bring my scopes out.With our Sun becoming a little more active (and the weather cooperating) I take a chance and set them up.I started observing the sun on May5th at around 1pm’ish and immediately noticed some interesting areas that grabbed my attention.Through the PST these areas appeared as white blotches that indicated that sunspot formation was possible.While,I had my solar scope tuned to the sun,I decided to connect the white light filter to the big scope and noticed a small sunspot formation on the western limb of the suns northern hemisphere.

click image to enlarge

The next image in H-Alpha is oriented pretty close and matches the above image…

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I tried to show in the previous post the CME that I had images of but,I couldn’t make out the ejection to well either.I am still astounded at the idea of actually capturing this event.I just wish I had a better alignment so I could have made a real time lapse movie instead of the jumpy one I have…lol.

Their were many different prominences scattered around the disc and even see one form in the same video.The CME was rather odd to see forming.I noticed a bulge that slowly kept growing until like a bubble in a glass of soda,popped sending a huge disc of material into space. Look at the image below and you can plainly see the disc of ejected material as it was blown off into space.

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The next image shows the disc of plasma has dissipated into space but,a large prominence has also formed near the same area.My observations think of it as pulling the cork from a champagne bottle and all the built up has a recoil effect?!.

Click image to enlarge

Coronal mass ejection

Andrew — Sat, 08 May 2010 03:45:52 +0000

I caught a huge eruption on the surface of the sun while taking stills.This explains why the movie is so jumpy…lol.Take a look at the 2 O’clock area (dark spot is there too) and look very closely and you will see material being blown off into space. I apologize for the quality but,remember it is from stills and I had not planned on making a movie

This video was shot on May 5th .

This according to www.spaceweather.com

CINCO DE MAYO BLAST: With May 5th winding down, magnetic fields on the sun wound up and erupted, producing a bright coronal mass ejection (CME).

The eruption came from a spotless region near the sun’s southwestern limb.

The billion-ton cloud is not heading directly for Earth, although it could deliver a glancing blow to our planet’s magnetic field on or about May 8th.

Sol on Easter Sunday 4/4/2010

Andrew — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:48:00 +0000

I had another run of clear skies so I decided to keep the scope out for another round of observing/imaging with the Coronado PST.With the skies a little cleaner than the day before,I wanted to see if yesterdays successful imaging was a fluke or whether I had actually jumped the learning curve fence.I began the solar session by just observing the sun rather than jumping head first and getting frustrated if imaging didn’t go so well.I could easily see granulation and the obvious areas of intense activity.A couple features that stood out were of filaments and a plage that can be seen surrounding sunspot #1057 in my images.A plage is the white are seen commonly surrounding sunspots especially when using a h-alpha filter.Although I have actually seen them in regular white light filters as well.
My observing/imaging session started pretty well until I decided to try for pix.One of my big worries was the fact that I couldn’t get the (or so I thought) exposure times fast enough.After a hour of frustration I took a break and sat back to study the problem in my head.2 cups of coffee later I tweaked the imaging programs default settings and low and behold I was able to get a perfectly exposed image on the live view.I was astounded at the detail I could see and immediately started the program to take images with the LPI before I regained my sanity.All was going well and the result I was getting on my monitor was incredible….all was good or so I thought.Ummmm…..not so fast…something isn’t right when I downloaded the images to my flash card.The shots didn’t look very good as they were very pixelated and lacked detail.This was a glitch I didn’t want and again frustration set in.Getting ready to call it a day I decided to take one more look into the problem and surprise surprise….it dawned on me that I was using the imaging format for the job.After setting the format from Jpeg to BMP I tried again and….holy crap they came came out great!!!…WOOHOO !!!!!!!!! I proceeded to take as many pix as I could before the sun set behind a mountain.
I also wrote down my formula for taking images with the PST in my astronomy journal so I wouldn’t have such a tough time in the future.

Image credits; Andrew

click to enlarge

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and a blacked out version to enhance the prominences….

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Is the Solar minimum really over?

Andrew — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 03:49:19 +0000

I finally had the weather and the time to take my scopes out.Good thing too cuz they were getting cabin fever I think?! :

Having not had the scope out since November 8th ,spring suddenly came and went with temps in the 70s and 80sF for the most part.Winds were a bit breezy out of the south at 10-15 knots with slightly higher gusts.The skies were clear with the exception of some high thin clouds that made observing the sun in H-alpha a little more forgiving.I have had probs in the past with the Coronado PST as the focus is limited and the program I use doesn’t have very good imaging settings.

So….my question is; is the solar minimum really over and is the sun on the upward climb towards solar maximum?

Below are a couple images that I took yesterday with a Meade LPI and Coronado PST.I am still inside the learning curve with the PST and cant help but think I had some blind luck getting decent images.It also helps that the skies were murky cuz I think i would have been dealing with over exposures and bad focusing.I have been doing my homework about imaging with the PST and am not the only one having these probs.I think it is a matter of finding what works best and refining it?!.

Prominence;

One of many pix I took this weekend was of a massive Prominence that has been putting on a good show.I’m not sure but,I am assuming that this could be associated with a couple CME’s or Coronal Mass Ejections late last month?!.

Sunspots;

I am going out on a limb and saying were are going to start seeing much more solar activity?!. I have been watching SOHO

website for sunspot activity and their has been a marked increase in sunspots.It has been a while since I have seen one of these spots and was pleased to be finally get some images.Below is a image of the sun with spots numbers #1057 and #1059.At one point,sunspot 1059 was large enough to fit 5 earths inside with room to spare!!.