The Sun on June 30, 2024

The Sun continues to be peaceful today.

A Quiet Sun--June 29, 2024

 The Sun on June 29, 2024 is quiet. All of the spots on the disk have stable magnetic fields and are unlikely to produce strong flares.

A Blast From The Past!

 This image popped into my newsfeed and I thought I would repost it. It was taken 12 years ago in Cape Cod under excellent seeing conditions. This is Copernicus taken with a 125mm MAK and a Mallincam camera (not sure which one).

The Sun on June 28, 2024--Some Lovely Archipelagoes

There are some lovely archipelagoes of sunspots on the Sun today...

Today's Sun--June 26, 2024

 Today's Sun (June 26, 2024). AR3723 continues to harbor the threat of X-Class flares. I've also included a crop of the main, active spots (including AR3723).

The Sun on June 25, 2024

 The Sun on June 25. AR3723 continues to advance onto the disk...this is likely it's third passage across the solar disk...

A Monster's Return? The Sun on June 24, 2024.

 A Monster's Return? The Sun on June 24, 2024. The brighter area to the left of the two larger spots on the left of this image is AR3723. This appears to be the return of AR3664, which caused a geomagnetic superstorm on May 10. It still poses a threat of X-Class flares.

The Sun on June 23, 2024.

 The Sun on June 23, 2014. The classic-looking single spot is so large that the Earth would fit quite comfortably in its umbra.

The Sun on June 20, 2024.

 The Sun on June 20, 2024. AR3712, the spot group closest to the Sun's limb, continues to have the potential to produce X-Class flares.

The Sun on June 19, 2024. Significant Evolution in Spot Groups!

 What a difference a day makes! The Sun on June 19, 2024. Notice the evolution of the spot groups as compared to my image of June 18.

The Sun from Hilton Head island on June 18, 2024--Exceptional Seeing!

June 18 produced some exceptional seeing conditions on Hilton Head Island. Here is an image of the Sun taken that day, plus a more processed crop of some of the sunspots. The largest group is AR3712, which harbors energy to produce X-Class flares.

The Sun on June 17, 2024 from Hilton Head Island

 I spent last week at Hilton Head Island, off the coast of South Carolina. The laminar air flow off the sea produced some exceptional seeing. Here is an full disk and a crop of a solar image I took on 6/17. It is a stack of the best 10% of 2000 frames. Wavelets in Registax.

NGC 3718 with the Seestar

 This was a tough object to image: NGC3718. At 10.6 apparent magnitude, it was a challenge under my Bortle 8/9 skies. This is arounf 3.5 hours of integration, stacked in the Seestar (over 1284 x 10 seconc frames). I tried stacking in Siril, but it threw away more than half the captured frames, so the image was very noisy. I'm not sure why so many were rejected, because the Seestar stack was much better. This image also shows NGC3729. There are several faint galaxies in the background, but neith Siril nor Astometry.net identifies them.

The Moon from Hilton Head Island, June 16, 2024

 The Moon on June 16, 2024 from Hilton Head Island. Seeing was very good and the Seestar captured details in Copernicus (terraced walls) very well ( click to zoom in).

The Moon from Hilton Head Island, June 15, 2024

 

The Sun on June 15, 2024

 The Sun on June 15, 2024. The seeing was excellent and the detail captured is just superb for such a small scope! The large spot group right of center is AR3712. It has the potential to produce X-Class flares.

Tonight's Moon. June 14, 2024

 

A More Active Sun--June 14, 2024.

 Seeing was superb in NC today--despite the heat. Here's a couple of solar images. The two spot groups at the bottom of the disk, ARs3712 and 3713, have the potential to produce M-class flares.

Blue Moon

 Here's the Moon captured in a daylight sky with the Seestar.

A Quiet Sun--June 13, 2024

 Today's Sun is in a quiet mood...

The Sun on June 12, 2024

The Sun is quiet today, but more spots are emerging onto the disk. Today's image was taken through high cloud and haze, which made stacking difficult due to cloud artifacts. But seeing was excellent and here are two unprocessed, single frames from today's capture.

M 101--2.5 hours with the Seestar

 Here's 2.5 hours on M 101. The first has some very basic processing; the second is a little "overcooked" to show more color. The image needs about 5 hours of data to really take shape, but I have so many other objects I want to image :). The linear artifact on the first image is due to a glitch in one of the software packages I used to process the image. It is minor and I decided not to fix it for this post.

Messier 105 with a Seestar 50mm APO

 Messier 106 is a tough object to image. Good processing is crucial and it is very challenging to preserve both details in the core and the outer, faint shell of stars. This image moves a little closer to that ideal. The total integration time is 4.9 hours with an f/5 APO.

The Sun on June 11, 2024

 Today's Sun (June 11, 2024). AR3709 (the largest group), continues to harbor energy for M-Class flares.

The Sun on June 10, 2024

AR3709 (largest group in the cropped image) has energy for M-Class flares.

The Sun on June 9, 2024

 The Sun on June 9 continues a quieter spell. with AR3697 moving off the solar disk.

The Sun on June 8, 2024

The Sun's disk looks significantly less active today. However, AR 3697, which is the group disappearing over the limb on the right of this image, has the potential to produce X-Class flares.

Today's Sun--June 7, 2024.

 Today's Sun (6/7/24). This is the best 30% of a 2,000 frame AVI, captured with the Seestar/Baader, stacked in Autostakkert with wavelets in Registax. A greast deal of detail is visible, inlcuding granulation and faculae (bright "clouds" on the edges of the Sun's disk). The crop (no enlargement or drizzle) shows AR 3703 (on the left) and AR 3697 (on the right). AR 3793 has the potential to produce M-Class flares.

Today's Sun taken with the Baader Filter June 6, 2024

 Here's a full disk and cropped image of the Sun today taken with the Baader filter. The full disk is the best 30% of a 2,000 image AVI capture. Wavelets in Registax. The crop is from a 4x enlargement of the original full disk image in Topaz Gigapixel AI (High Fidelity Mode). I'm impressed with the detail this filter captures.

The Sun on June 5, 2024 and a filter comparison

 Today’s sun and a comparison: Baader vs Thousand Oaks solar filters. I followed the advice of wiser heads and swapped out the supplied Seestar TO filter for a Baader 5.0 film. Of course, we’re expecting clouds for the next couple of days. Today it it wall-to- wall low, grey clouds. But there were a couple a 2-3 minute slight clearings, and I thought I’d put the Baader to the test. Luckily, the scope found the sun in less than a minute. Unluckily, the clear sky periods were no more than a few seconds long, so I had to settle for a single image rather than a stackable video. The single TO images I have were all taken under much better conditions of clear skies and steadier seeing. Below are two comparison cropped images to compare the filters. The TO is orange. Of course, everyone should make up their own minds, but to me the Baader is significantly superior, with much better contrast and detail, despite the poor conditions. All that I did here was crop the images. I did no other processing. To me, the Baader single capture looks better than the stacks I captured and processed with the TO.

The Sun on June 4, 2024

 The Seestar did a very nice job today of capturing spot groups and solar granulation. Here are two images: cropped and full disk. AR 3697--the largest group, has the potrential to produce X-Class flares.

The Sun on June 3, 2024

 Imaged low in the morning sky before clouds rolled in, here is today's Sun (June 3, 2024). AR 3697 (close to the center of the disk), has the potential to create X-Class flares.

The Sun on June 1, 2024

 I accidentally permanently deleted my full disk white light AVIs today before processing,, so I just have a single, record shot taken throught haze. However, I did manage to get some decent video in H-Alpha mode, and I have included those images and crops. As Spaceweather reports: "Sunspots AR3691 and 3697 have 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic fields that harbor energy for X-class solar flares." The white light image is deceptively peaceful; the HA images tella very different story!