The Official Imaging the Sun Thread

Feb 26th, 2021

Woke up to fog, but was blessed with some good seeing and a clear sky this morning. I was able to get close to some limits with high resolution setup and after seeing deteriorated went to a moderate resolution setup for a wider field of view. I spent most of the time on AR2804 as it has evolved into a really interesting sunspot with a huge lovely penumbra with lots of fibrils and the plage around it has lots of great activity including minor flaring. Upper chromosphere and lower photosphere represented in 656nm and 600nm wavelengths to handle the seeing. Seeing was spiking to 0.8 arc-seconds this morning, so that's where I captured the 200mm data, and when seeing was closer to 1 & 1.2 arc-seconds I captured the 120mm data. I was able to piece together a short time lapse of AR2804 from the 200mm data to see how rapid the plasma was moving and represented real time of only about 4 minutes.

Time Lapse (4 minute) of AR2804 in High Res:

https://astrob.in/full​/ta0dwp/0/

Colored High Res (200mm):

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been clouded out here for quite a while

March 4th 2021,

There's two decent small active regions with some plage and filament activity around their poles. The sunspots are tiny though, no visible penumbra at this time.

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I had a feeling that you were all over these.

I grabbed a single white light shot of them yesterday, but not much to share or see. Mainly checking focus after changing out reducer.

Nice work as always. Thanks for sharing!

March 5th 2021,

The AR's are still around, great activity in them. Also a great prom and an eruptive surge prom on the limb. Imaged in moderate-high res with 120mm aperture solar scope:

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Nice images. Been clear here but with the wind steady at 15 and gusts to 30 it has been sub zero windchills so I haven't gotten out

another sunny day, the sun must cause the winds, 15 steady with gusts to 30 once again!

March 14th 2021,

AR2808 is an interesting region, in HA it has a nice extensive plage and has filaments between the poles, but in the photosphere it's a tiny pore with not much else to see. Mean while, a smaller region that is now AR809 emerged and has a much smaller HA representation with a tiny plage and the poles are close together, yet in the photosphere it has a much bigger spot that is developing rapidly this morning (maybe it will grow larger and the poles separate a bit more to become a bigger region). It's a really great representation of the difference between the chromosphere and photosphere, and how there's always something to see in HA!

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Nice shots, 17 degrees here this morning and snow yesterday plus 20 mph winds with gusts to 40 mph not good observing weather

Martin you showed a shot of and mentioned you masks for the front of the Celestron XLT120, I have the Skywatcher ED120 which I am pretty sure has the same size dew shield. Where did you get your masks or did you make or have them made?

I was thinking that your way of leaving the 120 on the mount makes sense, currently I will change between the 80mm 100mm and 120mm depending on the seeing

Jeff USN Photog 72-76 wrote in post #19209117
Martin you showed a shot of and mentioned you masks for the front of the Celestron XLT120, I have the Skywatcher ED120 which I am pretty sure has the same size dew shield. Where did you get your masks or did you make or have them made?

I was thinking that your way of leaving the 120 on the mount makes sense, currently I will change between the 80mm 100mm and 120mm depending on the seeing

Hi Jeff,

I had a friend 3D print the masks with some measurements. They're just inserts that go into the dew shield. Nothing fancy. I added some felt tape to snug them up real well. I do this for my 120/8.3 and 150/8 to generate a 60mm F16.7, 100mm F10 and 120/8.3 with the one scope, and the other is 120/10 and 150/8, together they cover a big range.

Cardboard does just as good, just doesn't last long with the humidity.

Very best,

Thank you, I will try some cardboard or something, I also have a friend at the astronomy club who does great work in aluminum and will ask if he could make be some in that.

March 17th, 2021

Happy St Patrick's Day!

AR2810 & AR2808 are still active with lots of good stuff churning about their poles.

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20-30 mph winds the last few days, today seems fine and there is a huge prom on the western limb! BUT naturally I have a covid test scheduled for 11:40 and it takes a half hour to get there and back and my son is visible from 11 to 12:30 so not sure if I will be able to get it or not

my usual luck will be no

Jeff USN Photog 72-76 wrote in post #19215827
20-30 mph winds the last few days, today seems fine and there is a huge prom on the western limb! BUT naturally I have a covid test scheduled for 11:40 and it takes a half hour to get there and back and my son is visible from 11 to 12:30 so not sure if I will be able to get it or not

my usual luck will be no

Yea I've been under a storm cloud blanket for going on two weeks now.

Very best,