When the east wind blows.

The last day of February was cold and mostly clouded out; the biting wind from the East was letting us know who was the boss!

Had to be quick to make the most of the solar viewing window. Luck was on my side and I managed to capture the above shot.

These past few days my thoughts have been directed to the unseen astronomy of the Sun, in particular the radio waves and magnetic fields that the Sun produces.  

Time to get back into the science books.

As an amateur radio operator I'm confident I will be able to set up a solar radio listening station, albeit a small one. It should add a further colour to my solar astronomy palette.

Sol - 27/02/23 - The Aurora is lurking.

Today I managed a quick observe, unfortunately the blue sky didn't last long, maybe ten minutes. 

Then it was back to the Pembrokeshire grey.

It's been a good month for Hydrogen alpha solar observing. 

Next month I might invest sometime drawing white light observations to compliment the Ha images.

There was a sizeable aurora display last night, typically I knew nothing about it until this morning!!

Will have to keep a look out for the K- index, which at the moment is at 7 on the scale. 

Maybe tonight I will be lucky enough to glimpse an aurora show, if so it will be the first decent one I would have witnessed since June of 1990!

Fingers crossed.

Sol - 25/02/23 - Alexander Graham Bell

 Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. 

The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

Alexander Graham Bell

Sol - 23/02/23 - Albert Einstein

"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits"

Albert Einstein

Sol imaging in January

Considering all those cloudy days of January, I was more than pleased to capture the following Hydrogen alpha images.

Typewriter astro experiment

Just trying out one of my astronomy typewriter journal entries. 

Was wondering what it would look like on my Blog site.

Solar wash out - Setting Sun.

So far this month the Seeing** and Transparency  have been awful. 

I've had a few clear blue skies, but the transparency problem has left the prominences washed out and lacking in contrast. 

No doubt the Sol imaging will better itself as the weeks go by.

Yesterday evening, the sunset from our village looked amazing.

I wondered if I could catch an image of old Sol as he sank into the nearby hills. 

Here is the result:

You can just make out a large prominence at about the 350 degree position on the Sun's edge.

Through the Ha telescope it looks amazing to witness the Sun dropping out of sight behind a foreground of man made objects, in this instance some hilltop sheep fencing.

** For a great article about Seeing, have a look at Damian Peach's online page:

http://www.damianpeach.com/seeing1.htm

Sol - 09/02/23 - Victor Hugo.

 Today's Sol image:

"Astronomy, that micrography of heaven, is the most magnificent of the sciences ... Astronomy has its clear side and its luminous side; on its clear side it is tinctured with algebra, on its luminous side with poetry".

Victor Hugo

Sol - 01/02/23 - Sir James Jeans

 Today's Sol image:

"Put three grains of sand inside a vast cathedral, and the cathedral will be more closely packed with sand than space is with stars"

James Jeans.

Last Night's Luna - with a touch of Mars.

The skies were wonderfully clear last night at about 6.00 p.m.

It was a cold evening, with not even a breeze. Perfect conditions to train the telescope onto the heavens.

The obvious first target was the bright gibbous Moon, high above to the south west.

The Newtonian returned some lovely views of shadow formations in the crater Plato, and there was a long pointed shadow emanating from Mons Pico.

The seeing wasn't that good last night, but the f8 Newtonian did deliver several steady moments of clarity. 

No doubt had it been a larger aperature telescope the lunar landscape would probably have had a  slight case of the "wobbles".

Sitting quietly close to Selene was Barsoom, or as us earthlings call it Mars!

The telescope had its work cut out resolving any detail on this quickly shrinking planet. 

Though credit to the Newtonian, it did return a fair decent image of the Syrtis Major. 

Considering that Mars is now only 10.8 " in size I was surprised I saw anything at all.

With the nearby street lights and the Moon glow above I decided to pack up the telescope and get back to the warmth of the house. 

Though not before I had my last look at the Gibbous Moon.

 

How much I desire! Inside my little satchel, the Moon, and flowers

Matsuo Basho

Sol - 30/01/23 - Awaiting Venus.

Today's Sol imaging. 

Beautiful skies this morning and early afternoon.  

The little coronado PST returned some excellent eyepiece images of a large wispy prominence at the 7 oclock position. 

About 12 pictures were taken in total.

Later I corrected the rotation and did a bit of photoshop editing. Here are the results:

As I write this, the Sun has set over the nearby hill. 

The sky now has that clear familiar Pembrokeshire shade of twilight... towards the west I await the promise of Venus.