Bin scanned the Sun at 12:45 GMT in clear conditions
but didn't see any sunspots.
June 2nd
Bin scanned the Sun at 06:40 GMT in clear conditions
but didn't see any sunspots.
The dusk patrol at 21:30 GMT showed mercury through thin
cloud and the phase of Venus being clearly halfish.
June 3rd
I went out for a photo shoot at midnight GMT (01:00 BST).
There was lots of cloud to the north, obscuring Venus and Saturn,
while the waning gibbous Moon was very low in the south east. The
first picture shows the full disc:
The second picture shows the western hemisphere:
The third shot shows the full disc at 10.1 megapixels:
I could make out Jupiter's equatorial cloud belts and
all four Galilean moons to the left of the planet but, unlike the
Maksutov, I was unable to capture anything other than the planet's disc
with the Startravel.
Unfortunately, I had the same problem with Alberio, despite
it being clearly visible in the telescope.
The next shot shows Jupiter with Antares and the Moon
to the left.
The next one is the Summer Triangle, which really shows
up better in the full sized version:
The next shot is Cassiopeia:
The next one shows the Plough:
The next one shows Bootes.The full size version actually
resolves Mizar and Alcor.
The final offerring of the night was a better snap of
Jupiter in Scorpio.
The clearer conditions of early morning had been replaced
by cloudier ones, so the morning bin scan was through thin cloud
at 09:25 GMT and no new sunspots were visible.
At 15:40 GMT, I tried to observe the Sun in hydrogen alpha
light but the image was very faint. I could see one facula that
had the potential to change into something more interesting but
there was no chance of a photo.
June 4th
Bin scanned the Sun through cloud at 12:20 GMT. It was clear
enough to see
limb darkening but I was unable to see any sunspots.
June 5th
Despite the thin cloud, I was able to see two new sunspots,
most likely associated with the thin facula I saw 2 days earlier in
hydrogen alpha light.
I managed to do some follow-up observations in hydrogen
alpha at 16:45 GMT. I couldn't see any prominences but noticed that
the facula I saw 2 days previously had rotated into better view.
The full disc shots didn't come out but a close-up of the
active region did.
June 6th
Bin scanned the Sun and found that the sunspots had changed
and rotated.
June 7th
The conditions were really bad but I managed to bin scan the
Sun during a clearer patch in the evening. The sunspots had apparently
faded.
June 8th
Bin scanned the Sun at 09:50 GMT in much better conditions than
the day before but didn't see any sunspots.
June 10th
I'd arrived in Hyderabad the night before and checked the Sun
using my PST. I detuned it to see if I could find any sunspots but didn't.
Unfortunately, it soon clouded over and I was unable to make out more
than superificial granulation features through the thin cloud.
June 12th
The sky had cleared a bit overnight to leave a thin haze. The
Sun was quite bland but I managed to see some granulation, a facula
and a prominence but no suspsots.
I took a shot of the whole disc at 03:30 GMT and a close-up of
the prominence:
June 13th
I observed the Sun in hydrogen alpha light at 09:30 GMT from the
roof of the building. We saw one prominence and detected a small second
one photographically. I caught the class and the granulation on camera.
June 16th
It was finally clear at 02:30 GMT, so I did a hydrogen alpha shoot
from the hotel. First of all, there were no sunspots, which I ascertained
by detuning the filter. I was able to find only granulation features on
the Sun, with no faculae nor prominences.
At 08:30 GMT, we saw 2 small filaments near the centre of the solar
disc but, due to the high elevation of the Sun, photography was not possible.
At 10:30 GMT, the Sun was not so high, being 4pm local time, so I
was able to do a photo shoot, despite the cloud.
June 17th
I attempted a hydrogen alpha photo shoot at 09:50 GMT but no features
were visible, only granulation. However, some prominences were visible
in the photographs.
From 13:40 GMT to 14:00 GMT I finally saw some decent
weather after sunset. I used the Startravel 80 with the 12mm CEMAX eyepiece
and used optical zoom on the digital camera. The Moon was a thin crescent
but still showed some craters. Venus showed a 45% phase and Jupiter’s moons
and 2 equatorial cloud belts showed well visually, not bad for a small telescope.
Unfortunately, only one photograph showed anything like the phase of Venus,
due to mount instability problems.
June 25th
Finally, at least a partial break in the weather but the Sun was very
quiet. I managed to capture some granulation features at 02:30 GMT, which
showed up best in blue:
We tried again from the roof at 11:30 GMT but the disc was very bland
indeed.
June 27th
I arrived back in England and found the weather no more helpful than
it had been in India. There was enough clear sky to bin scan the Sun through
thin cloud and I managed to see a sunspot for the first time for 20 days.
June 28th
Again, the weather was not great but I managed a sunspot drawing anyway.
June 29th
With the weather predictions getting less optimistic by the minute, I
grabbed a morning opportunity to view the Sun, even though the Earth's rotation
affected the orientation of the sunspot.
