#solarobserving — Public Fediverse posts

My favorite image from this morning’s observing run is actually a screenshot made during processing. It seems every time we attempted to finalize edits, the software essentially threw up! So before finalizing this one, we made a screen capture and I’m glad! Numerous spicules can be seen along the rim, and the prominence itself has an unexpected dynamical look. Three cone-shaped filament segments add to the scene. #solarobserving #solarastronomy #sun

A thready filament was visible in Sun's southeastern chromosphere March 9, and we were pleased to be able to record it in detail! #Astronomy #sun #solarobserving

I took a picture of a busy Sun through my office window at lunch today. The views through the eyepiece are actually sharper than this, but still I am pleased to be able to do any observing this winter! Obviously I can't do any critical or high power observing, but using my 30mm GSO SuperView eyepiece through my 4" refractor, I get 22x. See ALT tag for image details.

#Astrophotography #Astronomy #Celestron #Canon #PrimeFocus #Sun #Solar #SolarObserving #Space #Photography #Telescope #SolarSystem

I took a picture of a busy Sun through my office window at lunch today. The views through the eyepiece are actually sharper than this, but still I am pleased to be able to do any observing this winter! Obviously I can't do any critical or high power observing, but using my 30mm GSO SuperView eyepiece through my 4" refractor, I get 22x. See ALT tag for image details.

#Astrophotography #Astronomy #Celestron #Canon #PrimeFocus #Sun #Solar #SolarObserving #Space #Photography #Telescope #SolarSystem

I took a picture of a busy Sun through my office window at lunch today. The views through the eyepiece are actually sharper than this, but still I am pleased to be able to do any observing this winter! Obviously I can't do any critical or high power observing, but using my 30mm GSO SuperView eyepiece through my 4" refractor, I get 22x. See ALT tag for image details.

#Astrophotography #Astronomy #Celestron #Canon #PrimeFocus #Sun #Solar #SolarObserving #Space #Photography #Telescope #SolarSystem

I took a picture of a busy Sun through my office window at lunch today. The views through the eyepiece are actually sharper than this, but still I am pleased to be able to do any observing this winter! Obviously I can't do any critical or high power observing, but using my 30mm GSO SuperView eyepiece through my 4" refractor, I get 22x. See ALT tag for image details.

#Astrophotography #Astronomy #Celestron #Canon #PrimeFocus #Sun #Solar #SolarObserving #Space #Photography #Telescope #SolarSystem

I took a picture of a busy Sun through my office window at lunch today. The views through the eyepiece are actually sharper than this, but still I am pleased to be able to do any observing this winter! Obviously I can't do any critical or high power observing, but using my 30mm GSO SuperView eyepiece through my 4" refractor, I get 22x. See ALT tag for image details.

#Astrophotography #Astronomy #Celestron #Canon #PrimeFocus #Sun #Solar #SolarObserving #Space #Photography #Telescope #SolarSystem

Solar activity went high this week with, especially, AR4274 firing off a powerful X1.8 flare with a partial halo CME. A wind-roiled atmosphere at our site reduced imaging quality for us but Sun’s northeast rim was still an impressive sight. This view via our Herschel wedge. #sun #solarobserving #sunspots #astronomy

Our local star was putting on quite a show, yesterday, with prominences large and small to gaze upon. The full disk image, here, records some of what was seen, including a smudge visible to the right of the disk — a prominence high above the solar surface.

#sun #solarobserving #astronomy

Woah! Really cool new videos from the Goode Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory show timelapse adaptive optics views of the Sun's corona. This one is of a solar prominence being shaped by the Sun’s magnetism.

I like the choice to color hydrogen-alpha light pink.

You should check out all of the videos (the Sun is so fluffy!):
https://nso.edu/press-release/new-adaptive-optics-shows-stunning-details-of-our-stars-atmosphere/

#Space #Astronomy #SolarObserving

Using the Askar 103 APO scope and Spectrum Telescope filter, we are likely saying goodbye to active region 4079 and its large sunspot. A few other spots dot Sun's face but hold a bit less interest. May try again tomorrow to catch 4079 on the western limb.

#sunspots #sun #astronomy #solarobserving

The Sun Endures. The partly-cloudy sky today offered plenty of openings to deep blue sky, 26℉, and light winds produced good seeing for an interesting cluster of active regions!

AR3976 was reportedly the source of a powerful, sub X-Class flare January 31. The resulting CME is expected to narrowly miss Earth on February 3.

#sunspots #sun #solarobserving #solarimaging #spaceweather #astronomy

The Sun Endures. The partly-cloudy sky today offered plenty of openings to deep blue sky, 26℉, and light winds produced good seeing for an interesting cluster of active regions!

AR3976 was reportedly the source of a powerful, sub X-Class flare January 31. The resulting CME is expected to narrowly miss Earth on February 3.

#sunspots #sun #solarobserving #solarimaging #spaceweather #astronomy

The Sun Endures. The partly-cloudy sky today offered plenty of openings to deep blue sky, 26℉, and light winds produced good seeing for an interesting cluster of active regions!

AR3976 was reportedly the source of a powerful, sub X-Class flare January 31. The resulting CME is expected to narrowly miss Earth on February 3.

#sunspots #sun #solarobserving #solarimaging #spaceweather #astronomy

The Sun Endures. The partly-cloudy sky today offered plenty of openings to deep blue sky, 26℉, and light winds produced good seeing for an interesting cluster of active regions!

AR3976 was reportedly the source of a powerful, sub X-Class flare January 31. The resulting CME is expected to narrowly miss Earth on February 3.

#sunspots #sun #solarobserving #solarimaging #spaceweather #astronomy

The Sun Endures. The partly-cloudy sky today offered plenty of openings to deep blue sky, 26℉, and light winds produced good seeing for an interesting cluster of active regions!

AR3976 was reportedly the source of a powerful, sub X-Class flare January 31. The resulting CME is expected to narrowly miss Earth on February 3.

#sunspots #sun #solarobserving #solarimaging #spaceweather #astronomy

The complete solar disk as recorded in hydrogen-alpha light. The “worm-shaped” shadows seen in several areas are filaments. The dark spots are, yes, sunspots. And around the rim or limb of the solar disk are seen prominences — geysers of solar plasma riding magnetic field lines before crashing back into the sun. False color applied.
#sunspots #sun #astronomy #solar #solarobserving #astronomy

In addition to photographing Earth’s Sun in white light nearly every clear day, we occasionally set up the heavy telescope mount and bring out the new hydrogen-alpha (Ha) telescope for a bit of visual observing and unique imaging. It’s a bit of work since, without an observatory building we usually feel we need to take down and store away the mount after each session, so we don’t do that every day.

On November 8 we had clear skies, good atmospheric conditions, and the inclination to do the Ha setup and were rewarded with splendid views plus our best Sun images yet.

Across the solar disk were visible large and distinct filaments — prominence loops seen from “above” — as well as sunspots and swirling patterns in the solar atmosphere around them. All around the Sun’s limb could be seen prominences glowing against a background of black space. Some of the prominences, which are fountain-like sprays and loops of magnetically-charged plasma, were quite large.

A major part of producing good images is what happens away from the telescope. Our usual practice is to record video of the telescope view and use software, in the office, to sort through thousands of video image frames, then stack the best few hundred to form a single still image. The still image is then edited to bring out as much detail and tonal range as possible. This process, which is common in astrophotography, produces a sharper image than what might be acquired via any single photographic “snapshot” owing largely to atmospheric turbulence.

There’s room for improvement, and we’re seeing excellent progress, but the images shown here are our best yet of Sun in hydrogen-alpha light.

Note: H-a light is that which Sun is producing in its chromosphere — the solar atmospheric layer between the outer corona and the lower photosphere — and is invisible even to protected human vision and white light cameras. Specialized optics are required to block other wavelengths found in white light and allow observation of Ha. When we observe or image in white light, we’re actually viewing features such as sunspots while looking through both the corona and the chromosphere!

Safety Note: It is not safe to look directly at the sun without specialized eye protection for solar viewing, and safe solar filters for telescope, binocular, or camera use. Permanent damage to vision can result from improper viewing of the sun.

https://stellalunaobservatory.space/2024/11/10/our-best-sun-images-yet/

#astronomy #astrophotography #solar #solarimaging #solarobserving #sun #sunspots

In addition to photographing Earth’s Sun in white light nearly every clear day, we occasionally set up the heavy telescope mount and bring out the new hydrogen-alpha (Ha) telescope for a bit of visual observing and unique imaging. It’s a bit of work since, without an observatory building we usually feel we need to take down and store away the mount after each session, so we don’t do that every day.

On November 8 we had clear skies, good atmospheric conditions, and the inclination to do the Ha setup and were rewarded with splendid views plus our best Sun images yet.

Across the solar disk were visible large and distinct filaments — prominence loops seen from “above” — as well as sunspots and swirling patterns in the solar atmosphere around them. All around the Sun’s limb could be seen prominences glowing against a background of black space. Some of the prominences, which are fountain-like sprays and loops of magnetically-charged plasma, were quite large.

A major part of producing good images is what happens away from the telescope. Our usual practice is to record video of the telescope view and use software, in the office, to sort through thousands of video image frames, then stack the best few hundred to form a single still image. The still image is then edited to bring out as much detail and tonal range as possible. This process, which is common in astrophotography, produces a sharper image than what might be acquired via any single photographic “snapshot” owing largely to atmospheric turbulence.

There’s room for improvement, and we’re seeing excellent progress, but the images shown here are our best yet of Sun in hydrogen-alpha light.

Note: H-a light is that which Sun is producing in its chromosphere — the solar atmospheric layer between the outer corona and the lower photosphere — and is invisible even to protected human vision and white light cameras. Specialized optics are required to block other wavelengths found in white light and allow observation of Ha. When we observe or image in white light, we’re actually viewing features such as sunspots while looking through both the corona and the chromosphere!

Safety Note: It is not safe to look directly at the sun without specialized eye protection for solar viewing, and safe solar filters for telescope, binocular, or camera use. Permanent damage to vision can result from improper viewing of the sun.

https://stellalunaobservatory.space/2024/11/10/our-best-sun-images-yet/

#astronomy #astrophotography #solar #solarimaging #solarobserving #sun #sunspots

In addition to photographing Earth’s Sun in white light nearly every clear day, we occasionally set up the heavy telescope mount and bring out the new hydrogen-alpha (Ha) telescope for a bit of visual observing and unique imaging. It’s a bit of work since, without an observatory building we usually feel we need to take down and store away the mount after each session, so we don’t do that every day.

On November 8 we had clear skies, good atmospheric conditions, and the inclination to do the Ha setup and were rewarded with splendid views plus our best Sun images yet.

Across the solar disk were visible large and distinct filaments — prominence loops seen from “above” — as well as sunspots and swirling patterns in the solar atmosphere around them. All around the Sun’s limb could be seen prominences glowing against a background of black space. Some of the prominences, which are fountain-like sprays and loops of magnetically-charged plasma, were quite large.

A major part of producing good images is what happens away from the telescope. Our usual practice is to record video of the telescope view and use software, in the office, to sort through thousands of video image frames, then stack the best few hundred to form a single still image. The still image is then edited to bring out as much detail and tonal range as possible. This process, which is common in astrophotography, produces a sharper image than what might be acquired via any single photographic “snapshot” owing largely to atmospheric turbulence.

There’s room for improvement, and we’re seeing excellent progress, but the images shown here are our best yet of Sun in hydrogen-alpha light.

Note: H-a light is that which Sun is producing in its chromosphere — the solar atmospheric layer between the outer corona and the lower photosphere — and is invisible even to protected human vision and white light cameras. Specialized optics are required to block other wavelengths found in white light and allow observation of Ha. When we observe or image in white light, we’re actually viewing features such as sunspots while looking through both the corona and the chromosphere!

Safety Note: It is not safe to look directly at the sun without specialized eye protection for solar viewing, and safe solar filters for telescope, binocular, or camera use. Permanent damage to vision can result from improper viewing of the sun.

https://stellalunaobservatory.space/2024/11/10/our-best-sun-images-yet/

#astronomy #astrophotography #solar #solarimaging #solarobserving #sun #sunspots

In addition to photographing Earth’s Sun in white light nearly every clear day, we occasionally set up the heavy telescope mount and bring out the new hydrogen-alpha (Ha) telescope for a bit of visual observing and unique imaging. It’s a bit of work since, without an observatory building we usually feel we need to take down and store away the mount after each session, so we don’t do that every day.

On November 8 we had clear skies, good atmospheric conditions, and the inclination to do the Ha setup and were rewarded with splendid views plus our best Sun images yet.

Across the solar disk were visible large and distinct filaments — prominence loops seen from “above” — as well as sunspots and swirling patterns in the solar atmosphere around them. All around the Sun’s limb could be seen prominences glowing against a background of black space. Some of the prominences, which are fountain-like sprays and loops of magnetically-charged plasma, were quite large.

A major part of producing good images is what happens away from the telescope. Our usual practice is to record video of the telescope view and use software, in the office, to sort through thousands of video image frames, then stack the best few hundred to form a single still image. The still image is then edited to bring out as much detail and tonal range as possible. This process, which is common in astrophotography, produces a sharper image than what might be acquired via any single photographic “snapshot” owing largely to atmospheric turbulence.

There’s room for improvement, and we’re seeing excellent progress, but the images shown here are our best yet of Sun in hydrogen-alpha light.

Note: H-a light is that which Sun is producing in its chromosphere — the solar atmospheric layer between the outer corona and the lower photosphere — and is invisible even to protected human vision and white light cameras. Specialized optics are required to block other wavelengths found in white light and allow observation of Ha. When we observe or image in white light, we’re actually viewing features such as sunspots while looking through both the corona and the chromosphere!

Safety Note: It is not safe to look directly at the sun without specialized eye protection for solar viewing, and safe solar filters for telescope, binocular, or camera use. Permanent damage to vision can result from improper viewing of the sun.

https://stellalunaobservatory.space/2024/11/10/our-best-sun-images-yet/

#astronomy #astrophotography #solar #solarimaging #solarobserving #sun #sunspots

In addition to photographing Earth’s Sun in white light nearly every clear day, we occasionally set up the heavy telescope mount and bring out the new hydrogen-alpha (Ha) telescope for a bit of visual observing and unique imaging. It’s a bit of work since, without an observatory building we usually feel we need to take down and store away the mount after each session, so we don’t do that every day.

On November 8 we had clear skies, good atmospheric conditions, and the inclination to do the Ha setup and were rewarded with splendid views plus our best Sun images yet.

Across the solar disk were visible large and distinct filaments — prominence loops seen from “above” — as well as sunspots and swirling patterns in the solar atmosphere around them. All around the Sun’s limb could be seen prominences glowing against a background of black space. Some of the prominences, which are fountain-like sprays and loops of magnetically-charged plasma, were quite large.

A major part of producing good images is what happens away from the telescope. Our usual practice is to record video of the telescope view and use software, in the office, to sort through thousands of video image frames, then stack the best few hundred to form a single still image. The still image is then edited to bring out as much detail and tonal range as possible. This process, which is common in astrophotography, produces a sharper image than what might be acquired via any single photographic “snapshot” owing largely to atmospheric turbulence.

There’s room for improvement, and we’re seeing excellent progress, but the images shown here are our best yet of Sun in hydrogen-alpha light.

Note: H-a light is that which Sun is producing in its chromosphere — the solar atmospheric layer between the outer corona and the lower photosphere — and is invisible even to protected human vision and white light cameras. Specialized optics are required to block other wavelengths found in white light and allow observation of Ha. When we observe or image in white light, we’re actually viewing features such as sunspots while looking through both the corona and the chromosphere!

Safety Note: It is not safe to look directly at the sun without specialized eye protection for solar viewing, and safe solar filters for telescope, binocular, or camera use. Permanent damage to vision can result from improper viewing of the sun.

https://stellalunaobservatory.space/2024/11/10/our-best-sun-images-yet/

#astronomy #astrophotography #science #solar #solarimaging #solarobserving #space #sun #sunspots

(Yay, fosstodon is back up!)

Today's APOD has a big prominence hanging way off the sun's limb. I was lucky enough to see that in the scope last week! Pretty amazing, never seen anything like it before. #astronomy #solarobserving

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240902.html

Today's APOD has a big prominence hanging way off the sun's limb. I was lucky enough to see that in the scope last week! Pretty amazing, never seen anything like it before. #astronomy #solarobserving

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240902.html

Wow, the h-alpha sun is spectacular right now, with a huge prominence way off the disk and disconnected from it. (Wish I could find a live h-alpha image for posts like this.) Lots of activity on the disk too: I'm sure it's also great with a white-light filter.

#astronomy #solarobserving

I haven't been posting here as often as I should but have continued to image Sun on a near daily basis. Here are two versions of today's Sun shot: 1) False color, no labels. 2) Monochrome, most Active Regions labeled. #sunspots #solarobserving

Today's h-alpha #sun is worth checking out if you're so equipped. There's a big prominence, but more interesting, there's a super-bright feature on the disk, I've never seen anything like it (in my admittedly fairly short time #solarobserving).

I never have much success photographing the PST's image, but you can get an idea of it in
https://gong2.nso.edu/HA/hag/202404/20240423/20240423174742Ch.jpg
and also in
https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_1024_0094.jpg

AR3590 is worth watching: "Giant sunspot group AR3590 is more than ten times wider than Earth and can be safely viewed through ordinary eclipse glasses..." says Spaceweather.com. "Speaking of size, this sunspot is about half as big (by surface area) as the great sunspot that caused the Carrington Event in Sept. 1859." The first is a false-color image, prettier to view; a monochrome version is included here showing more detail. 2/2 #solar #solarobserving

On Monday 8th May at 7pm I'm doing my brand new talk "A Beginner's Guide to Observing & Photographing the Sun" for Newtown AS. It's online & open to non-members for £3 but you need to book before 10pm tonight! Email [email protected] for details
#SolarAstrophotography #SolarFeatures #Sunspots #SolarObserving