The Dutch Observatory

Less than 24 hours until the Mercury Transit!!  The Sun’s activity today is Low with only one C-class flare in the last two days. Four Active Regions with a total area of 200 millionths.  The Spot count today is at 11.  Started to increase the size of the WL/540nm image because the Sun now fits on the chip of the ASI174MM!!  Lets me use 1200 pixels for the image.  The nice filaments around AR2542 are mostly gone, but the Sun still looks very nice.

Clear Skies this morning with seeing at 7/10.  Solar activity is Low today with one C-class flare.  We have the same 4 Active Regions with AR2536 moving out of sight today.  Total region area today is at 180 millionths with 16 Sunspots total.  It is quiet today, but the circular filaments around AR2542 look awesome and by Monday it will be very nice located for the Mercury transit.  The weather forecast is calling now for 90% clouds at 7 am Monday   Hope it changes.

Bob Jacobi and I did a great all day outreach event at McConnell Middle yesterday, so I  was unable to capture images.  Today clear Skies, with great seeing.  Solar activity is Very Low again with no flares.  We have four regions and the total Spot area has reduced from 370 millionths yesterday to 190 today.  Total spots reduced from 17 to 15.  Today I tried a capture the Sun using the ASI174MM and the SVC80 without focal reducer and the Sun now just seems to cover the height of the chip.  Might use that on Monday with the Mercury transit.  Today images in the three wavelengths as well as clos ups in Ha and CaK.

An early observing session with seeing at 4-5/10.  Solar activity is Low today with four Active Regions and three C-class flares in the last two days.  Total active region area is down to 160 millionths.  Total sunspot count is at 17.  We can see what I believe are the remnants of AR2533 coming around the Eastern limb today.  I caught a nice little flare off the western limb today in CaK.  Today I practiced for the Mercury transit and decided to stick with the ASI174MM instead of the DMK.  Much shorter exposure times and transfers and the resolution is also better.  So today I am posting my ususal full disk images and close ups of the regions

Had holes big enough in the clouds for my imaging session.  Seeing 8/10.  Solar activity is still Low with three C-class flares in the last two days, with the largest one a C3.5 coming from AR2540.   Five regions today with an increased total area to 380 millionths.  The regions show a total of  26 sunspots.  The largest regions are D and E classified on the McIntosh scale.  Full disk images today as well as close ups of the different regions in all wavelengths.

50% Cloud cover with Seeing at 5/10 before the clouds covered everything.  The Sun’s activity is Low today with 2 C-class flares in the last two days.  Total Sunspot area today is still at 300 millionths, but spot count is at 22 today.  6 Active Regions with 2 C-class and 1 D-class region on the McIntosh scale and  AR2536 shows some nice light bridges, while AR2533 is getting ready to get out of view on the Western limb.  Today full disk images and close ups of all regions.

Thin high cirrus clouds and con-trails streaking through during my observing session.  Seeing 5/10.  Solar activity is still classified as Low with only four C-class flares in the last two days.  We still have 6 Active Regions but the total region area has increased from 260 to 300 millionths.  Total Spots for today is still at 24.  Today’s images include full disk images and close ups of several regions in different wavelengths and the area around AR2535, 36, 38 and 39 looks great in CaK..

Cloudy morning, but it cleared up surprisingly in the afternoon.  Seeing and transparency good.  Today’s solar activity is Low with only 4 C-class flares in the last two days.  The number of active regions is on the rise as well as the sunspots.  Today’s total region area is at 280 millionths with 26 sunspots between the 6 regions.  Observing session turned out great and was able to capture the three full disk images as well as close ups of the different regions in different wavelengths.  The Sun looks great with all the plagues and B-class flares.

Clear Skies this morning before the clouds came in.  Seeing 7/10.  Solar activity is still Very Low with no C-class flares in the last two days, however the close up of AR2532 shows the end of a B5.7 flare close to the Western limb.  Flare activity is on the rise since several of the recent flares were in the high B-class.  Total Active regions today is 5 with the total active region area being 200 millionths.  Total sunspots for today is 15.  Todays images include full disk images in the three wavelengths and close ups of several regions as noted on the images.

Broken ceiling again this morning with seeing at 7/10.  Had to wait for approx. 40 min following my H-a session for a sucker hole big enough for the CaK.  AR2534 was short lived, although its location can still be seen.  Today we have only 3 Active Regions with a total area of 140 millionths.  The three regions had a total of 7 spots and Solar activity is Very Low with no flares in the last two days.  Today full disk images and close ups of several of the regions as noted on the images.