The Dutch Observatory

I gave a presentation at the Peach State Star Gaze about observing and imaging the Sun as part of the Solar System Symposium.  The session was well attended and I do appreciate the comments I received.  In the morning I was able to make this image.  Not much activity as far as prominences is concerned but 5 active regions made a nice line up .

A brilliant display of Active Regions AR1301, 02, 04, 05, 06, 07.  AR1302 is still a very nice area and AR1305 starts to show some nice growth in its sunspot, so it is worth watching over the next few days  

The flare activity on the sun is increasing.  Today a lot of ‘hot” spots just north of 1302.  The closeup of 1302 shows more detail today, because of the better seeing this morning and no transparency issues at the time when I was imaging. today’s disk contains AR1301,02,04,05 and 06, while 1295 has turned to the backside.

It started cloudy this morning, but in the late morning the clouds started breaking.  I had troubles finding holes big enough to image.  In fact, I had to do the whole disk image over and process it in Registax5 since the clouds made the background image impossible in R6.  Today a very nice sun with Activer Regions growing everywhere. AR1295, 1301,02,03,04,05.

A very nice Sun again today.  Active Region 1302 is bursting with active flares today.  Lots of activity.  I wanted to image a sequence of the group, but I didn’t notice it when the shadow of my roll off roof started covering the telescope.  When I noticed it, I decided to stop instead of starting over again.  Today a full disk image and a close up of AR1302 again.

Clear Skies today.  A full disk image of the Sun with AR1295 which soon will turn to the backside, and AR1301 and 02.  A closeup of 1302 again today with some very nice sunspots.

Finally the skies broke this morning after several days of rain.  Sufficient time between clouds to make a few images before I had to leave for an outreach event.  Today the ful disk of the sun with AR1295, 99, 1301 and 02 with some nice C-class flares, as well a close up of AR1301 and 02.

It was solid clouds this morning, but around noon it started to clear a bit. However there were clouds everywhere. The two different wind directions were still there, which made it hard to knwo when to be ready for an image. I have included today a movie clip of what I am talking about. You can see the two different layers moving in different directions. I processed the data which I captured in Registax5 since version 6 had problems with the moving clouds. Today a whole disk image only with active regions AR1289,94,95,96,98 and 99.

   Movie of bi-directional clouds of yesterday and today

Today’s imaging session was a real challenge.  The forcast called for real bad transparency which it was!  I had to deal with a high altetude stream of thin clouds moving from West to East and a thin layer of low level clouds moving from East to West causing a lot of wind shear impacting the image.  So today’s image reflects the bad conditions, but the 7 active regions 1289,90,92,95,96,98,99 are still pretty good visible but it misses the detail.

Today it was supposed to rain, but I found a hole between the clouds, just big enough to make this image  
Today a heavily scarred sun.  Still seven active regions although the numbers have changed.  I was not able to do much with the prominences because of the transparency.