Bin scanned the sun in the morning but didn't see any sunspots. However,
a later bin scan revealed the sunspot I'd seen 2 days previously:
At 15:10 local time (13:10 GMT) I managed to picture part of the solar
disc and a prominence with the borrowed camera:
Apart from the prominence and the sunspot, there wasn't much activity.
Another viewing at half time of the England v Portugal match showed that
the prominence had grown a bit but I was unable to catch it on camera.
Bin scanned the moon at 19:40 GMT. It showed well, with Mare Crisium prominent
and lots of craters on the terminator.
I went for a further bin scan at 23:40 local time (21:40 GMT). The city
lights made the difficult objects impossible, even though the sky was quite
clear. Jupiter showed 3 moons but was quite loow down. Melotte 111 showed
the main asterism only but the binocular doubles Alcor/Mizar, Albeiro, Delta
and Epsilon Lyrae and 16/17 and Nu Draconi showed. I also saw M13 in Hercules.
The Milky Way around Cygnus showed well, whilst I had an early summer sighting
of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) in the north east.
July 2nd
At 07:35 GMT, I did a hydrogen alpha viewing of the sun using my PST.
There was thin cloud about, so I was only able to use 33x magnification.
Visually, I was able to see a sunspot surrounded by faculae and a small
prominence near the bottom edge. Photographically, I was able to capture
some cell granularity, which I was unable to see visually, and the sunspot.
The sunspot was visible in normal light, too, as I did a bin scan at 12:30
GMT:
I was unable to use the PST on the camera tripod that I use when away
on business while the sun was high but at 16:50 local time (14:50 GMT),
it was low enough to try. The faculae surrounding the sunspot had become
more prominent and the prominence had grown. However, all I was able
to capture was more cell structure:
My final observation of the day came at 19:05 GMT when I saw the 6-day
old moon from my hotel room window. Mare Imbrium was, indeed, a fine sight
being near the lunar terminator and Walter and Albategnius (craters) looked
good having just emerged into lunar daylight. How I missed my Maksutov telescope,
which is too heavy to take on business trips.
July 3rd
It may be a solar minimum but the sun is more than capable of throwing
up surprises. I was actually able to see umbral/penumbral shading through
binoculars. The sunspot was growing.
The class and I checked the sun through the PST from 14:00 GMT to 15:00
GMT. The sunspsot was more prominent than the day before and there was a prominence
that was chaging shapoe, even though it was rather small. I returned the
camera, so didn't take any pictures.
July 4th
An early morning bin scan revealed that the sunspot had rotated and was
still as large.
Jul 5th
A morning bin scan showed that the sunspot had rotated and elongated,
although it was getting closer to the limb:
Jul 6th
The sunspot had rotated and apparently "shrunk" but this was due to solar
rotation effects.
July 7th
An early morning bin scan revealed that the sunspot had rotated again.
July 8th
Bin scanned the sun at 12:35 GMT but didn't see the sunspot I'd seen the
days previously.
July 9th
Bin scanned the sun at 12:40 GMT but didn't see any sunspots.
At 13:20 GMT, I looked through the sun using a borrowed 8 Angstrom Calcium
K filter. I could vaguely make out a disc but the photos showed some granularity.
The second photo shows a hint of the sunspot to the right.
There was no detail visible in hydrogen alpha.
I tried a hydrogen alpha shoot at 13:40 GMT. There were 2 prominences
on the right but they didn't photograph.
I repeated the attempt at 15:50 GMT but still couldn't capture anything.
At 16:40, I finally managed to catch the prominences, although it needed
false colour to bring it out.
The prominences changed shape later in the day but I didn't capture them.
July 11th
Bin scanned the sun in very clear conditions at 05:50 GMT but didn't
see any sunspots.
July 12th
Bin scanned the sun in clear conditions at 05:40 GMT but didn't
see any sunspots. I also tried Calcium K photography using my Maksutov but
the Baader filter was too thick and I couldn't obtain an image.
July 14th
Went for a bin scan at 22:50 GMT.
It was just about dark and the Milky Way was just visible to the unaided
eye. Jupiter was very low but I managed to see 3 moons. The Usual Suspects
were visible and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) belied its low elevation. I could
also pick out the globular clusters M13 and M15, although the planetary nebulae
M27 and M57 were barely visible as faint patches. The area of the Milky
Way around Cygnus was just truly outstanding.
July 15th
Bin scanned the sun through thin cloud at 08:00 GMT but didn't
see any sunspots.
July 16th
Arrived in Brazil and
went out for a solar viewing session at 15:00 (18:00 GMT). I had brought my
Startravel 80 with solar filters and a borrowed Calcium K filter and my PST.
I had to view the sun in "white light" to find it anyway but it was a
complete blank disc under near-perfect conditions. The wobbliness of the
Startravel 80 on the camera tripod prevented me from photographing the entire
disc in calcium K but I managed to catch part of it with no real detail
apart from the usual solar cell granularity, which showed up better than
in hydrogen alpha.
I managed to see some prominences and took a full disc shot. A facula
was visible visually but I couldn't snap it:
I managed close-up shots of two of the prominences visible but didn't
catch the third:
I returned outside at 19:00 local time (16:00 GMT). Jupiter was well placed
near the zenith but I needed an equatorial mount and not a camera tripod
to see it. Never mind, I was in the southern hemisphere. There were double
stars on view and I was able to capture Alpha Centauri, which was my best
ever:
It just split at 33x magnification, split well at 133x magnification but
the best result (67x) was as shown in the photo and was enjoyed by a group
of visiting physics students.
Acrux (brightest star in the Southern Cross split into 2 (but not 3).
Gamma Crucis (Gacrux) also split:
We were able to see the Jewel Box visually but it was too faint to photograph.
July 17th
I woke up early and managed to snap Venus using the same setup as for
Alpha Centauri the evening before at 06:10 local time (09:10 GMT).
At 17:00 local time (20:00 GMT), I checked the sun in hydrogen alpha.
Only some granularity and a facula were visible, with no prominences, possibly
due to low elevation. It was not worth taking a photo.
At 21:00 GMT, I looked at Jupiter. I could see all four moons (2 each
side) and 3 equatorial belts, clearest at 67x magnification but the Startravel
80 was unable to capture the moons or any planetary detail on "film". Shame
I couldn't bring my Mak with me as the planet was far better placed than
it will be for years from the UK.
July 18th
I went out with the Startravel at 20:50 local time (23:50 GMT). I'd looked
up the position of the famous star cluster Omega Centauri from the star
atlas and saw it for the first time. I'd never been in the southern hemisphere
at the right time of year before. Had I not known what I was looking at or
for, I would have said it was a small elliptical galaxy or a comet without
a tail. I used 20x magnification to get it into the field of view. I tried
photographing it more in hope than expectancy but didn't manage to see anything.
Jupiter showed all four moons clearly but I couldn't see any surface detail.
July 19th
I went out about the same time as the night before and checked out Jupiter
and Alpha Centauri. None of the photos came out but I noticedx much sharper
images with the CEMAX eyepiece than the Moonfish ones. I could see the cloud
belts on Jupiter.
July 21st
I had a look at 13:00 local time with the class (16:00 GMT). The sunspot
didn't appear on the photo but the prominences came out well, including
one I'd missed visually:
4 hours later I had another try and found that a sunspot and facula showed
up. Unfortunately, the change in prominences wasn't captured so well on
the photo:
In the evening, many hotel guests from 7 to 40-ish saw me with the telescope
and witnessed Jupiter. The highlight was the re-emergence of Io from eclipse.
July 22nd
Went out for a hydrogen alpha shoot at 10:00 local time (13:00 GMT). There
was very little solar activity but for some prominences. I tried some webcam
shots but there was just not enough there to get anything bar a bland image.
I just took some digital camera shots of the main disc in hydrogen alpha
and calcium K:
A repeat visit at 15:00 local time (18:00 GMT) was more productive, with
more prominences visible both visually and photographically:
July 23rd
The sun appeared quiet in hydrogen alpha at 12:00 local time (15:00 GMT)
but I captured some small prominences that I missed visually and managed
a nice close-up of some prominences, too. The disc was very quiet.
In the evening, a visit to Observatorio Capricorno, saw me capture these
photos through a 500mm reflector of Jupiter and the Jewel Box:
It is worth noting that the unaided view of the centre of the galaxy around
Scorpio and Sagittarius was quite superb (it was near the zenith) but the
Large Magellanic Cloud was obscured by the lights if Sao Paolo and the Small
Magellanic Cloud wasn't visible at all.
