The Dutch Observatory

I imaged the sun before leaving for an outreach event today and processed this after I came back.  The active region around 1520 is growing very fast with small spots and becoming very interesting.  Today a full disk image and a close up of the region 1519, 20 and 21

A clear Sky, but the seeing was very much impacted resulting in longer exposure times.  Today AR1513,14,18, and the area around 19 and 20 is getting more interesting by the day with flares on the increase.  A full disk image today and a closeup of AR1519 and 20.

Another sunny day.  Today AR1519 and 20 are rotating more into view.  Looking at the structure of this region, this might get as active as AR1515 has been.  Although 1515 has been most active so far today.  the filament in the south has developped in a very high/wide structure.  Today I included the inverse images of the Active regions 1515 and the new region around AR1519.

Well the sun did it again.  A little after 23:00 UT AR1514 erupted with an X1.1  flare, while  AR1515 has kept busy with C and M class flares.  Keep checking for auroras for tomorrow.  Two regions have become visible on the eastern side of the sun.  And don’t forget to check out the filaments in the southern hemisphere.  Today includes an image of AR1519 which seems to be pretty active also.

I managed to create an animated movie of the solar activity around AR1514, and 15 from yesterday.  Somehow jpg’s created on one of my PCs creates a file which is incompatible with Registax that’s why i had so much trouble yesterday.  The animation is a 60 minute activity compressed in a few seconds.  This sequence is repeated 5 times to let you better observe what’s happening.  The opening scene is the end of an M-class flare west of  1514.  Than the activity shifts over to between 1514 and 1515 for a small flare.  Finally a larger flare erupts to the south of 1515.  Also, look at the nice filament in the south east of the region.  Very nice movement! Click the image below to go to the movie, and wait a minute or so to let it load.

Today has been again a great day for solar activity.  So far, 11 M-class flares have been reported 9 of which were in 1515 and 2 in 1514.  Not to mention the number of total flares.  Despite the heat, I decided to spend an hour imaging from 13:28 till 14:28 UT and imaged three flares, of which only one was included in the offical tally.  I had terrible problems creating the movie in Registax, so decided to at least publish a few images, including a set of four images of the one hour session.  The movie will follow later.

July 4th!!  Independance Day!  today the sun continued to produce some nice flares and particularily 1515 has been producung them at a rapid rate.  Including some M class flares.  three very nice filaments in the SE quadrant and the areas in the northern hemisphere also have not done bad.  A number of prominences today all around the solar disk.

Early this morning the sky was clear. AR1515 has been very active over the last 24 hours with a few M class flares, the largest being an M5.6. In addition many C class flares. A very active sun. My attempt to make an animation again did not work, since clouds started to interfere. today a full disk image with some nice active regions, filaments and prominences. In addition a closeup of the group in the northern hemisphere of AR1513, 14, 15 and 17.

I have been “borrowing” the Clear Sky Chart from Hard Labor Creek Observatory for my blog site, since my location was so close to theirs.  Now after the move, its different, and since yesterday I have my own Clear Sky Chart for the location of The Dutch Observatory.  Thanks to Attilla Danko, A. Rahill and the Canadian Meteorological Center to make this possible

The forecast for today is 104 degrees.  And the Sun knows it, because it is showing a beautiful prominence on the SE limb.  The prom that was there yesterday has developped (?) in a massive structure.  Despite the heat, I made a 45 minute animation of it and am processing the images.  In addition, AR1512 and 15 released several C class flares, while 1513 showed a M 2.2 flare this morning.  The sun shows activity again