The Dutch Observatory

International Space Station – Sun transit.  Tonight at 18:45:09 the ISS did transit the Sun.  The Center line was about 2 miles from my house, and because of the marginal seeing conditions and the cloud coverage I decided to give it a shot from my normal observing location.  Since I made my first full disk white light image this morning, I decided to give that another try.  With the ISS being 31″ arc seconds in diameter at a distance of 884 km, I figured I should be able to make out the shape of the ISS at this magnification.

As good as the seeing was yesterday, today it was the opposite.  Seeing around 6-7/10.  AR2371 at the side, not visible, as AR2373 continues to show more of itself at the Eastern limb.  Today a full disk image in H-alpha and a close up in WL/Continuum of AR2373, and a first for me, a full disk image in White Light/Continuum with the SVC80 and the ASI174MM.  The Sun shows three regions with a total of 9 spots covering 220 millionths and flare activity is medium with 7 C-Class flares in the last two days.

A beautiful day with the best transparency and seeing in a long time. 8-9/10   Because of the good seeing, Active Region 2371 is still visible a little at the Western limb. However it still shows a good spot size of 430 millionths with 15 spots. As it turns to the far side of the Sun, a new unnamed Region (2372 ?)with two spots shows up on the East side, so it does not look like we will have a spotless day. Today, a full disk image of the Sun as well a close up of a hedgerow and a anvil shaped prom at the Eastern limb in H-a. Both mentioned active regions are also shown in white light/Continuum and show the Wilson effect very nicely.

Another session getting used to the new ASI174MM.  The Sun is quieting down a bit, 1 M-class flare and 4 C-class flares in the last two days.  The only registered Active Region AR2371 is now down to 580 millionths with 23 sun spots.  The skies were unstable with thin clouds moving through.  So today a full disk image, one Ha close up of AR2371 and two White Light/Continuum images of the same region with the SVC80.  One with a 2x barlow and the second with the 3x barlow.

First Light for my new camera, an ASI174MM.  The first session was a little disappointing.  Being used to the resolution and the small pixel size of the ASI120MM, the ASI174MM needs some re-adjusting my processes, so we will see where it leads.  The Sun had an M-class flares yesterday and this morning around 5:00 UT another M7.9 flare.  Activity is medium.  One Active Region today and 2371 has decayed to 29 spots covering an area of 740 millionths.  It was hot and humid so I kept my session short with one full disk image and a close up of the AR2371 area with some nice proms at the limb.

The day after Solstice, clear skies with great seeing.  Because of the stable skies I brought the C11 out, except that Atlanta Air Traffic Control had to send a few planes my way to muddy up the stable skies  a bit.  Today’s session only with the C11 and shows hi res images of AR2371 and 67 at 2800mm and 5600mm.  The first two images show the regions with nice fibrils reaching out of the spots and nice granulation.  The following images show in hi-res the leading spot of AR2371 and the following spots.  Nice light bridges and fibrils extend every where.

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice and I did retrieve the pinhole camera to see what I recoded during the last 6 months.  Here the Solargraph at the back of my house again.

It was difficult to capture this morning because of the clouds, but did capture some H-a as well as white light/continuum images.  Active Region 2371 has broken the 1000 mark and is at 1020 millionth today.  Flare activity is also high and total sun spots are at 54.  Full disk image in H-a and Close ups of AR2367 and 71 in H-a as well as in Continuum.

Broken clouds this morning, but a few holes were big enough for some solar captures.  The Sun shows 2 Active Regions and the sunspots in AR2371 have increased to 810 millionths.  and AR2367 is still at 300.  Total sunspots today at  54.   Flare activity is high with 1 M-class and 33 C-class flares in the last two days.  Today a full disk image in H-a and white light/continuum images of AR2367 as well as AR2371

Clear Skies with good seeing before the thunderstorms.  The Sun’s flare activity is high with 4 M-Class flares and 10 C-Class flares in the last two days.  5 Active Regions today with a total of  44 Sunspots covering 940 millionths. Very few prominences, but some nice filaments show.  AR2371 seems to get pretty active by producing 2M-Class and 4 C-Class flares itself and looks impressive.  Today close up images in 3 different wavelengths as well as a full disk image in H-a.