The Dutch Observatory

Today the entire sky was covered with a thin cloud deck. Transparency was probably around 3-4.  However, I was able to get enough detail for a low quality of a full disk H-a Image.  AR2381’s growth is slowing down and increased only 100 to 450 millionth while its spots increased from 14 to 25.  Because of the activity slowdown, the Sun produced only 6 C-class flares in the last two days, and all in 2381.  Total sunspot area today 700 millionths and 48 spots.

Its been 5 days since the last session.  AR2381 is the dominant active region today and pretty active. Today the sun shows medium flare activity with 15- C-class flares and two M-class flares and yes, all coming from AR2381.  The six regions contain 38 spots with a total of 630 millionths.  AR2381  itself is responsible for 350 of them, and has increased by 250 during the last day, adding to the chance for some more flares.  Today a  full disk in H-a as well as WL/Continuum and close ups of AR2381 with the same filters.

Variable clouds today, but I found a clear spot for some images. Three active regions again today with a total of 380 millionths of Sun spot area. Flare activity is medium with 6 C-class flares in the last two days. Todays images show the full solar disk in H-alpha as well as White-light/continuum and close ups of Active regions AR2373, 75 and 76 with the same filters.

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.