The Dutch Observatory

The seeing a little better and was able to capture one half way decent visible light close up.  Also caught AR1897 in the act when it released an M 1.4 flare while it has grown very rapidly to over 600 millionth in size. 

Another day where the seeing is not good enough to capture visible light close ups of the sunspots, so I made some comparison images between the ASI120MM and the DMKs.  The top two images with the ASI120MM the next two with the DMK41AU02.AS.  The first two close ups with the ASI120MM the last one with the DMK21AU04.AS.  You be the judge which you feel are more detailed.

The largest sunspot in AR1890 has broken up in two and the active region is rapidly decaying and is now less than half the size of what it was a few days ago.  Here an H-alpha image of the still large region, as well as an image of the new regions coming around at the eastern limb, AR1893, 96 and 97.

Am catching up with my images from November 8th.  Did not have much time so today a full disk image and two images of AR1890.  One taken with a 1.25 barlow the second with a 2x barlow.  AR1890 has grown to 950 millionth and is crackling with flares even X flares.  This is the largest sunspot group I have seen in this solar cycle.  In addition to having little time, it was way too windy and the jet stream was terrible also for images with the C11.  So no green/red filtered images with the C11.

Today something different.  I imaged the sun through different optical paths.  The telescope is the same on the Ha images, my SolarMax40.  Four images with the ASI120MM camera, notably the close up of AR1884 and 85 through a 2x Meade 140 barlow, next a close up through a 1.25 Williams Optics barlow (used in binos), the third one is the camera at prime focus and the last one is through an Antares 0.5 focal reducer. All images were taken with the camera resolution set at 640×480 to maintain the size comparison.  Finally I added two green filtered images in addition to the Baader 3.8u white light filter made with the Stellarvue  SVC8o.  Seeing was terrible so the granulation is not as distinct as it could be, but still nice to see the relative sizes. 

Imaging session 2013-11-03. Full disk image and Ha close ups through the SM40 with a 2x barlow of AR1884/5 and 1890. The last is a green filtered image taken with the C11, Baader 3.8u WL filter and a 2x barlow. Today the regions were very large.

My imaging software malfunctioned today and recorded the full disk images interleaved I think.  I cannot process the files, so today Ha close ups of some active regions.  We have three regions over 300 milionst in size!!  A lot more activity than a few weeks ago.  Two images of AR1884, 85 and on one 1882.

Had time Saturday morning to image Jupiter.  Transparency was OK but seeing was not very good.  Here the best run with Io approaching Jupiter and its shadow just touching “Following”  limb, while the GRS is ready to leave the planetary disk.

Another sunny and very quiet morning.   Images today with the DMK and the ASI120, but I am posting only the images made with the ASI120MM.  I like the results. The sun is very busy at the time and many small flares are being erupted.  I need to stay away from the ASI and the Klee 3x barlow.  The image looks too soft.  The full disk image with the focal reducer looks fine.

I started this morning different than normally and made some white light close up images first.  When I went back to my SolarMax40 for the full disk images I saw a big flare in action and was able to capture it.  This was an X2.1 flare which I caught at maximum in the full disk image.  I followed up with changing the camera and making an animation of the rest of the flare as it subsided.  The animation spans a time frame of 18 minutes starting 10 minutes after maximum.