The Sun 9.28.17

The sun continues quiet. ARs 2682 and 2683 dominate today's picture, with AR2681 barely visible toward the solar rim. Clouds and trees interrupted today's imaging session, but the final image is not too bad.

A Cosmic Wizard

The Wizard Nebula is fiendishly difficult to image, and I have never been able to get more than a fuzzy blob in any image I have attempted. But last night, my luck was in and I was able to take this image with my Mallincam DSm, VRC 6 scope, MFR5-II FR and H-alpha (7nm) filter. This image is a stack of 30 x 35s integrations with very aggressive histogram stretch.  It's not perfect (there are stacking artifacts from slight mount drift), but I'm very pleased with the result. I may try an OIII image of it later.

Dark Sky Bonanza with Mallincam!

I had the opportunity to capture some images from a wonderful dark sky site in southern Indiana--the shores of Lake Patoka.  The skies were amazing, with the Milky Way clearly visible. We were blessed with Mag 6 skies and good seeing. I took the VRC6, ZEQ25, DS16c, and a somewhat indifferent 2 inch focal reducer. As I had lots of people with me, I had to set up quickly and I didn't have time to fully adjust polar alignment or to ensure the best orthogonality of the imaging train--the idea was to just get some quick captures to keep everyone happy. I've posted some of the images to my album (briansxx), and they show just how well this setup works for fast imaging for public outreach. Integrations were between 20 and 30 seconds with x2 binning and gain close to max, with just 2 or 3 frames stacked in the MC software. I took one 30-second dark, which I used for all integrations (the only exception is the image of the Lagoon, which was a single capture with nio darks). I filtered out some of the noise, but the results are quite decent. With binning and a relatively fast scope (VRC6 at about f/4.5), the DS16c really delivers, with very little tweaking needed.

The Eastern Veil Nebula

Last night, conditions were very good for narrowband imaging (specifically, 7nm hydrogen-alpha). One of the most spectacular objects for this kind of  imaging is the Veil Nebula. The Veil is an ancient supernova remnant in Cygnus, and is high in the sky at this time of year. This image was captured with a Mallincam DSm, VRC 6 Ritchey-Chretien scope, Ha filter, and Mallincam MFR 5 II-x focal reducer. The final image is a processed stack of 20 captures.

Ha Imaging of the Crescent and Wizard Nebulas

I gave Ha a try again last night--ST-80, MFR 5 II-x, Mallincam DSm, and 7nm Ha filter.  I'm not even close to duplicating some of the Ha images I have seen by others with exactly the same setup!  I can't come close to the contrast and subtle details, and I can't match the pinpoint stars--mine look distinctly more bloated, even with post-processing (I think the focal reducer contributed to the weird halos--and maybe orthogonality issues). 

But I accept the challenge--I'm going to try again tonight and see how things go.

The attached images are my captures--stacks of 10 (Crescent Nebula) and 20 (Wizard Nebula)--45-second integrations. 

What a Difference a Day Makes!--The Sun 09/09/2017

After all the excitement of X-Class flares and auroras as far south as Kentucky (but we did not see them here in Indiana, unfortunately), the sun today looked more like a sedate star in a solar minimum:

Today's image is dominated by AR2678, toward the center of the disk. ARs2673 and 2674 are close to the edge of the disk and will disappear in the next day or two.

The Sun 09/08/17

AR2673 is moving off the sun's disk, still crackling with potential X-Class flares. Folks in Northern Europe, Canada, and maybe the upper-tier US states might be in for a treat tonight as strong G-3 Class and severe G-4 Class geomagnetic storms are pummeling the Earth right now. Very bright displays have been reported in Scandinavia.

The Sun on 09/06/2017

The sun continues its active streak, with AR2673 unleashing an X9.3 Class solar flare--the strongest in over 10 years! Stay tuned for aurora reports!

Here is a full-disk image of the sun taken with the PST-DS and Mallincam DS2.3+:

Note the rapid growth in AR2673--the bright area toward the bottom of the sun's disk.  To highlight the difference of the PST with and without the DS filter, here is a full-disk image taken without the DS etalon:

As you can see, there's less visible detail, the image shows some interesting textures in AR2673.

For comparison, here's a zoomed view of the active areas through the DS filter:

Notice the complexity in AR2673, especially the blue/white arc just visible snaking through the middle to the right of the area. By comparison, here is the single stack image:

There's much less detail and texture here, but it is still a dramatic shot!

Another great day for solar observing

I did not have the opportunity to image yesterday, when conditions were ideal. Today, with severe storms some hours away, a hazy sky, and breezy conditions, I had the time to get out the PST-DS and Mallincam DS2,3+. Despite the conditions, the sun looked very good indeed when I imaged it, and I managed a 90-minute Night Skies Network broadcast.

There are a number of active areas visible on the sun:

At the top of the sun, is AR2677, an active area that is moving onto the sun's disk. The elongated area toward the center is AR2674, a extended archipelago of spots. The bright, horseshoe shaped area adjacent to it is AR2673, which is crackling with M-Class flares (M1) that are Earth-directed. ARs 2675 and 2676 are at the bottom edge of the disk.

Here is a close up of  ARs 2674 and 2673:

AR2673 is a twisted, magnetic knot: it looks very chaotic. Here is a zoomed-in image of the area:

Despite the loss of resolution, you can see the magnetic tension in the spot. No wonder it is flaring!

The Sun 9/02/17

Clear skies brought an opportunity to image a more active solar disk than we've seen in a while. The PST-DS/Mallincam DS2.3+ combination worked very well, producing some fine views of ARs 2674 and 2673 (the upper part to center of the disk) and AR2675 (the brighter area toward the bottom of the image) and AR2672 (the light area below and to the right of AR2675. AR2674 is growing rapidly and has the potential to release class M flares, which would be earth-directed, due to its position on the sun.

AR2674 and AR2673 Detail

Some prominences were visible on the lower limb of the sun (as observed)--a nice bonus!