The Dutch Observatory

I setup twice today to image. The morning yielded no useable image, the afternoon gave me 2 out of 12 runs. Clouds all over the place.  The solar activity is dropping today. A Medium with 4 C-class flares in the last two days.  AR2529 has changed from an Eho yesterday to an Eko today.  Also, its size is dropping as it went from 820 to 780 millionths.  We have three Areas with a total of 810 millionths and 11 spots. I am glad to have at least two images today.

A Year’s project comes to an end.

Over a year ago I started on the Astronomical League’s Analemma program.  Now, this program asks not only for you to record the position of the Sun over the duration of a year at your local noon, but it also asks you to calculate your latitude on Earth, the Equation of Time over the year, and even asks you to calculate the eccentricity of Earth’s orbit around the Sun based only using the data you recorded over the year.. Well, I am glad the year is over and I believe I did not do too bad….  We’ll have to wait what the coordinator from AL tells me.  Anyway, simultaneous to this, I made two more Analemmas using pin-hole cameras.  One tilted about 15 degrees, the other around 33.  The exposure times for these cameras was 2 minute exposure at Local Noon – 5 and -3 minutes.  On the 15 degree image you can also see the tree line behind the house as well as a one day arc of the Sun.

Cloudy morning with a brief clearance around midday.  However two layers of clouds moving through, one moving East the second moving North East, made if hard to find the open spots.  Seeing 5/10 and transparency 3/10.  Active Region 2529 has still the same size as yesterday, bur AR2528 has disappeared.  A new, not named region AR2530?), is starting to show.  Total spots today at 16 and AR2529 produced 10 C-class flares in the last two days making the activity Medium.  Three full disk images as well as close ups of AR2529 in the three wavelengths.  The not named area is shown at the bottom.

Cloudy this morning, but some openings in the late afternoon, So I imaged at the same time as Monty Leventhal in Australia was observing. I had to break off the session as clouds obscured the Sun again.  Today, AR2529 has grown from 350  to a size of 820 millionths!  That makes you alert to flares and the Sun’s activity today is Medium with 11 C-class flares in the last 2 days.  AR2528 has been reduced to 10 millionths so the total Active Region area today is at 830 millionths, with two regions and 9 sunspots.  Today I also made the mistake by trying to short cut my capture process.  I focus at 2x magnification and than did not go back to the full view, resulting in the WL image being shifted.  Anyway I hope the four images show what’s happening.

The session started with good transparency and seeing, but deteriorated fast with wind gusts up to 27mph.  With the arrival of AR2529 the Sun has picked up on activity to Medium with 9 C-class flares in the last two days and all from AR2529.  The area has spread and has changed from a Hkx to a Dhi on the McIntosh scale. Total active region area today has decreased to 360 millionths with one more sunspot than yesterday.  Today full disk images in the three wavelengths as well as close ups of the regions.

Clear Skies again this morning with seeing at 8/10.  Just as one might think that the Sun would go silent, we saw in yesterday’s image of the Eastern limb the announcement of a new active region, and today AR2529 shows up great at 330 millionths.  It produced already 5 C-class flares bringing the total for Solar activity to 7 flares in the last 2 days, listing the solar activity as Medium.  Total Active Region area today is 370 millionths and a total of 6 sunspots.  Images today from the two active regions as well as the full disk images in all three wavelengths.

Clear Skies after the rain.  Seeing 8/10.  Yesterday AR2526 still showed up with 150 millionths, but today AR2528 is the only Active Region visible and its size is 20 millionths, however, the Sun produced two C-class flares in the last 24 hours, making the solar activity Low.  The total Active Region size for the hemisphere is 20 millionths, three spots, and AR2528 has gone from a Cro to a Dro on the McIntosh scale.  Today three full disk images and close ups of the only active region, as well as a close up of the Eastern Limb.

Clear and good seeing 9/10.  However, the Sun was kind of quiet today.  It now has been over a week since we had a C-class flare, so the activity is Very Low.  AR2526 is getting ready to disappear to the far side of the Sun and although it is still nicely seen in white light, in Ha it is another case and the prominences from the previous days are mostly gone.  Also, AR2527 was very short lived.  Today two Regions with a total active region size of 160 millionths and only three sunspots.  Full disk images today in the three wavelengths as well as close ups in various wavelengths.

Clear stable Skies!!  Seeing 8/10.  The Sun shows some more spot activity.  Three Active Regions today, AR2526, 27 and 28.  While AR2526 still is an Hsx, the new AR2528 shows some very small spots and with a size of 10 millionths is a Bxo on the McIntosh scale.  Total Active Region size today is 170 and the sunspots count today 7.  However, no C-class flares in the last two days. Today again full disk images in three wavelengths as well as close ups of the regions proms and filaments.

Clear Skies, but at times wind gusts caused some instability.  Seeing about 7/10. The Sun’s activity is Very Low with no flares in the last two days.  Only one Hsx sunspot on the solardisk measuring 190 millionths.  However, the filaments and prominences make up for the lack of solar activity.  Today a full disk image in three wavelengths as well as close ups of AR2526 and the proms and filaments.