Today's Sol in Ha light.

March 7th 2022 ~ 12h26mUT

Lots of Ha activity today. Plus as a bonus a beautiful prominence  around the 240 degree area!

Sky blue a plenty this afternoon. 

SFI hovering around 120 - SN about 77 

With the K Index currently hovering around  five  it's a good time  to keep a look out for possible aurorae! 

The Sun has definitely woken up!

Sol image - March 5th 2022.

Scudding clouds this morning, cleared up around midday, a beautiful afternoon for solar observing.

PST working well today, it revealed several good prominences and two big sunspot groups, and a few filaments. 

Still processing the filament pictures, will post them and a white light image tomorrow.

Sol image ~ 05/03/22

Here's a Sol white image from today's observing session. 

The afocal method seems fine for quick solar shots.

Sol Ha light - 22/02/2022.

"The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. 

We are a way for the universe to know itself."

 Carl Sagan.

Through the kitchen window.

Blue sky, scudding clouds and COLD outside.

A quick morning image of Sol.

Considering the photo was taken through the closed kitchen window I'm happy with the results.

Hydrogen Alpha - 17/2/22.

With a quick break in the clouds this morning, I managed to capture a few prominence shots. 

I placed a black cloth over the telescope and my head. There was a marked improvement in prominence contrast.

Sat in the garden with a black sheet over my head, on a windy dull day... 

I wonder what the neighbours thought!

Eiffel Tower on the Sun - 06/02/22

Rained heavily this morning, but around 2.30pm the clouds parted, and out came the Sun.

Old Sol wasn't the only object to be seen.. Helen noticed that the large prominence on view looked like the Eiffel Tower!

Eiffel Tower Prominence

White light Sol observation January 30th.

Clouded out for most of the day, though did manage to capture a quick image. 

Orion 90mm Maksutov - White light filter - Afocal Samsung S6. 

Tried a bit of copy and paste with the supplied Android app. Here is the rough result.

Active Region 2936

Still cold out there today, but really glad to see the days are now noticeably longer.

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I've just had a go at cleaning up the above picture with IrfanView software.  

I'll let you decide which is better.

Irfan View software

Android phone App

Solar Prominence: Saturday January 29th.

Not a very strong diplay this afternoon, the sky was blue from around 1.00 p.m.

At least I was able to capture this image. 

My "Coronograph filter" enabled a bit more contrast to be seen on the final picture.

Coronado PST 40mm/ f10 afocal 12.5mm Kellner and S6 camera phone.

Hydrogen Alpha - Home made Coronograph.

Recently I decided to have a go at making my own "Coronograph" images.

Well almost; I cheated.

I simply took one of my hydrogen alpha images and opened it a Windows Paint Shop program. 

Then, after a bit of editing, here are the results.

Paint Shop allowed me to easily make a black disc that fitted over the solar centre.

So far it looks promising.

Clear Sol Skies 

First Ha light of 2022

Just a quick post of today's hydrogen alpha image, my first solar image of the year.

Not much white light activity today, very little in the way of visual sun spots. 

Though there was one interesting grouping, but with little detail, as seen through the Ha 40mm PST.

Pretty quiet as regards prominence activity, but I did manage this image, taken through our bedroom (closed) window. 

January 6th 2022 - 15h15m UT : SFI 84 - SN 24

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda - Happy New Year

Clear Skies 

Anyone remember this catalogue?  Fullerscope reflectors from the 1980's ...proper Old School.

N.B  I must get those bedroom windows cleaned!