The Dutch Observatory

I got tired of waiting for Solar or Lunar transits of the ISS, so I tried a direct image again like I used to do in 2008-2010. This was the first time without an Alt/Az mount with the C11 on the EQ6. A lot more challenging, but I managed to get a half decent frame. The pass was on the west side of my location, so the main solar panels stayed in the shadow. Never the less I am happy with the result.

The activity on the Sun remains very low.  Two Active Regions with a total of three spots.  Total spot area today is 70 millionths and no flares in the last two days.  The large filament starts to reach the western edge of the Sun and the SW limb shows a very nice prominence.  So overall the Sun is still very nice to observe.  The skies were pretty stable so I took my SVC80 back out again to image AR2356 through the Baader 0.3u photographic filter combined with the continuum filter. Today also close ups in H-a, CaK in addition to the whole disk image.

This is the lowest activity I have seen the Sun in a long time and a great contrast in what it was 7 months ago.  Yesterday only two Active Regions with two sunspots each covering 40 millionths total.  Today even less: 1 Active Region with one sunspot only covering 60 millionths and no flares in the last two days.  Now that’s low!   However the filaments make up for this.  The huge filament that we have been seeing for over a week is still very nice as it approaches the western limb of the Sun.  Today a full disk image as well as a close up of the filament.

A beautiful day with a low activity Sun.  The number of named Active Regions has increased to 6 with 4 C-class flares in the last two days.  Sunspot area has increased to 160 millionths.  The filaments are very nice and large.  The three filaments in the NE quadrant stretch out for at least 170,000 miles.  The Eastern limb also shows some nice prom activity.  Today a full disk Sun in Ha and two close ups.  One of the area around 2353 and the second one shows the three active regions 2349, 50 and 53.

Yesterday we did start a new Carington Rotation.  The Sun is real calm today with three named Active Regions which produced only 2 C-class flares in the last two days.  Six spots only, with a size of only 70 millionths.  That however does not mean that the sun does not look great!  Filaments and a beautiful FilaProm make up for the low activity.  Today a full disk image with a close up of the filaprom at the NE limb.

The Sun’s activity is getting low again with only 5 C-class flares in the last two days.  Sunspot area has also gone down dramatically and is now only 220 millionths between the 7 named Active Regions.  I got the mounting bracket back for my PST-CaK, so today, the Calcium-K PST came out again in addition to the Ha SolarMax40.  Today’s images a full disk image of the full Solar Disk with some beautiful prominences everywhere in Ha, and a close up of AR2348 in CaK.

The Sun on 2015-05-17 in moderate seeing.   Activity on the Sun is very low with no flares in the last two days, although there are a good number of active regions.  33 Sunspots today with a total Sunspot area of 590 millionths.  The nice prom from the 13th is gone but you can see it a s a filament (dark curved sliver) on the surface of the North Eastern Limb of the Sun.  Very cool !!

Medium activity today on the Sun  with 10 Active Regions, and 69 spots covering 910 millionths. 10 C-class flares were reported in the last 24 hours.  AR2339, although decaying, is still big at 670 and its 51 sunspots only created 2 flares.  The new firecracker is probably going to be 2345 which showed today 4 C-class flares of which one was a C-9.2.  A very nice prominence showed at the NE limb, 53,000 miles high and 152,000 miles wide as seen from Earth.

The Sun is pretty active today.  18 C-class flares in the last two days, 8 active regions with 51 spots covering 1060 millionth.  AR2339 is decaying from its max on the 9th.  However it is still very interesting.  Today a full disk image and a close up of AR2339.

Another clear morning with stable skies.  The Sun has been gaining activity and shows 7 Active Regions with 61 Sun spots.  Total sunspot area today is 1080 millionth, a big difference from last week.  Total C-flares in the last two days 18 of which 14 originated in AR2339.  A great Sun to look at.  Today a full disk image and close ups in Ha and white light/Continuum of AR2339.