The Dutch Observatory

The TRANSIT OF VENUS.
My plans were, since we were hosting the Covington event, to image the ingress of Venus from Exterior to Interior.  However, clouds made the entire event questionable.  Until about 5:45 when the clouds started parting and we could see the Sun.  So short after 6:00 I disappeared under my towel which was covering my head and my laptop which was connected to my camera and scope.  I was able to image the entry of Venus but about 6:13 I had to stop because clouds had rolled in.  The crowd kept me so busy that I did not have time afterward to make another image   But seeing it and giving the visitors the chance to see it, even up to the very little ones was well worth doing this event.  Here a link to the animation of the ingress from before the connection to 10 minutes into the transit and watch the little flare coming from the side of AR1498. (Click the image)

We have moved to Oxford GA and am getting used to the home we bought.  I will need a new observatory, but I believe I will wait until the weather gets cooler in the fall.  Here my first image after about a month.  (I still have data of two or three days in the beginninh of May which I did not process yet.  But the focuss is now on the Venus Transit.

Another sunny day today.  The sun shows about 9 active regions today and it is very nice to observe, compared to a week ago.  Today a full disk image of the sun as well as a closeup of 1459 and 65 and some very nice prominences.

It has been almost a week since my last image.  Cloudy weather and outreach.  Today the sun is showing some C and B class flares, but nothing extreme.  The number of sunspots has increased and some nice filaments pull between and below 1455, and 59.  Today a full disk image and a closeup of 1455 and 59.

We have had our house on the market for almost a year now and last week we did accept an offer.  We started looking for another house to buy and spend a lot of time doing this.  We found one and now we are scheduling the different companies to do their thing, septic and well pump letters, termite inspection, appraisals and inspections.  That plus some outreach events put imaging on the back burner.  In addition we’ve had some bad weather this week.  Here only the full disk images of the Sun on 2012-04-12,13,15,and 17.

A very quiet sun today.  AR1450 and 52 are about to turn to the backside.  A small flare can be seen on the western side in the closeup.  Waiting for action to start again.   We are supposed to be close to solar maximum….?

Today a very quiet sun.  AR 1450 and 52 are rotating toward the western limb and have shown only 4 flares today  of which only 2 were C class flares.  A new filament starts showing at the SE limb.  Today a full solar disk and a closeup of the NE prominence.

A quiet sun today with two active regions and a few small prominences but a nice filament in the NE.  Today a full solar disc image and a few closeups of the active regions AR1450 and 52, the filament and some proms.

Easter weekend, a nice Saturday to image.  Only two Active Regions today AR1450 and 52 with only two small B flares so far today.  However, some very nice prominences, one at the SW, and a nice hedgerow prom at the SE limb.  A new good sized filament in the NE quadrant and the Ar1450 and 52 areas make for a nice image also but the large filament there from earlier this week has deteriorated a lot.

This morning variable clouds, this afternoon storms are rolling in….  The sun showed a very tall but very faint prominance at the NNE limb.  I had to raise the luminence a lot to bring this out. An SM90 would probably have done a better job than my SM40….  A second image of 9 minutes later shows that the prom was rising, but I could not make an animation.  AR1450 and 52 are loosing some it their luster and AR1445 is almost on the far side  No major flare activity today.