July 2008 Observations

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July 2nd

A gap in the cloud appeared at 16:20 GMT to allow me to take a quick hydrogen alpha shot. There was a small prominence and a little disc activity.



I also re-processed shots from June 7th.



I revsited a few past photos but it was April 23rd before I uncovered anything else worth revisiting.



... and the final one was April 22nd.



July 3rd

I reprocessed a new image from April 16th



Then another 2 from April 11th:



Then from April 8th



Then April 7th:



July 7th

I bin scanned the Sun through some gaps in the clouds at 14:25 GMT but didn't see any sunspots.

I was hoping to snap the Sun later but as it started to rain, I revisited April 6th:



Then revisited March 27th:



I then revisited March 22nd



July 8th

Well I had a little bit of live action before the Sun was lost to cloud completely at 06:30 GMT.



I later did some remastering from the afternoon session of March 9th.



In another session on another computer, I remastered some shots from April 14th and 15th 2007:

Apr 14th 2007



April 15th 2007



At 21:10, I checked the Moon. It would not normally be worth a mention but I hadn't seen it for so long that I had to view it, even though I could only make out the main maria ("seas") and not one single crater through my binoculars.

July 9th

It was very rainy, so I started hunting for new raw images to remaster and my hunt took me to Jan 12th 2008:



Then back to January 9th:



Then further back to November 14th 2007:



Then Oct 23rd 2007:



July 11th

I re-visited Sept 7th 2007:



I checked the Sun with the PST at 17:00 GMT through thick moving cloud. I could make out a few granulation features but no prominences nor filaments. It clouded over again quickly, so I took no photos.

I checked Aug 24th 2007.



I then revisited Aug 5th 2007:



Then July 31st 2007



July 12th

I managed to find a clear patch of sky co-inciding with the Sun's position at 18:30 GMT. I could make out quite a lot of granulation features and also a small prominence at about 4 o'clock. The full disc shot shows the granulation. Some of the close-ups show more granulation detail.



Unfortunately I didn't have the right camera to hand to capture the promimence and it clouded over again.

July 15th

I bin scanned the Sun through moving cloud at 12:00 GMT but didn't see any sunspots.

Surprisingly enough, it cleared up at 18:05 GMT to see the Sun with the PST. I could see quite a few supergranulation features but no prominences. However, cloud was a problem. The first close-up just shows a small prominence.



July 16th

Due to the lack of viewing opportunities, I remastered a shot from July 29th 2007.



.... then July 18th 2007.



July 17th

Another drizzly morning, so I'm loading up some new edits for July 1st 2007 that I did the evening before instead.



I later visited June 13th 2007 and even unearthed (or should that be unsunned!!??) a prominence I missed on the day.



I then went back to June 12th 2007.



May 29th 2007 turned up a filament I hadn't seen before.



July 19th

A trip backwards to May 19th 2007 revealed some prominences I hadn't captured before.



Having seen a sunspot on the Big Bear images the day before, I attempted to recover it in a bin scan at 10:15 GMT. Unfortunately, I was unable to. Even though there was thin moving cloud, I thought it was worth a try.

It cleared enough to do a hydrogen alpha photo shoot from 15:45 to 16:00 GMT. I tried various combinations of zoom eyepiece and digital zoom on the cameras.



Unfortunately, the end result from many shots was very disappointing with only 2 shots useful out of over 30.

July 20th

It was honestly a night to send any self-respecting deep ski imager running for the hills but, as I'm not one I was out at 23:10 GMT and saw a waning gibbous moon with a slim terminator and the ray systems of Tycho et al dominating the landscape. I rather like the Moon when near full, although it isn't always popular with others and scatters its light at the slightest hint of thin cloud. Jupiter was surrounded by a thin halo but I could still make out 2 moons to the left of the planet. I bagged the Usual Suspect double stars, such as Alberio and Mizar/Alcor. I was able to see the globular cluster in Hercules (M13) and the Wild Duck (M11) in Scutum but that was all. Still, it was nice to see some action after a long lay-off.

I tried some constellation shots (not that it was ideal) and the Plough came out. Cassiopeia and Hercules failed.



I went out with the PST at 08:30 GMT. There was a lot of thin fast moving cloud, so I decided to revert to the more simple imaging process for now, possibly trying a heavier mount when/if(???) health issues become resolved. Visually, I could see only granulation features.On the full disc shot, I found that the grey scale image showed the most detail, so I decided not to colour it.




Afterwards, some 10 minutes later, I attempted to bin scan the Sun. Despite the good conditions, it was a pure white disc showing limb darkening and nothing else.

July 23rd

I actually missed some solar observing simply through being busy and not the usual whinge about the weather. So although I went out with the PST, it was not until 19:10 GMT, hardly an optimal time. Despite seeing some pictures of prominences on the messageboards, I could not visually resolve any but did notice a couple of filaments. The full disc shot had an overexposed centre while showing some granulation around the edges.



July 24th

It was a busy day again but this time, I managed to get out earlier at 17:50 GMT. Visually, I could see a small prominence and a decent filament. The prominence can just be seen in the first full disc photo. The second full disc shot shows the granulation nicely but the filament didn't show.



The close-ups showed various amounts of detail, although some images overlap.

July 26th

It was rather hazy when I went out with the PST at 07:45 GMT but decided to have a quickphoto  shoot anyway. It was very difficult to find any surface detail but I managed to see a prominence.



At 09:45 GMT, I went to feed our pet rabbit when I noticed that the last quarter moon was still riding high in the south west. I went in to fetch my binoculars (15x70). Despite it still being somewhat hazy, I was able to see the crater Copernicus quite clearly and also Grimaldi. I saw that many southern craters were still visible, although I could not clearly identify each of them individually. An interesting bit of unexpected bonus viewing.

At 21:40 GMT, I went out for a weather check and was disappointed that only the Summer Triangle and Cassiopeia were visible but did see 2 satellites curve from Aquila through Cygnus to Cassiopeia before fading into Earth's shadow.

July 27th

I headed out at 23:50 GMT with the hope of doing some constellation shots. Unfortunately, there was a lot of cloud about, with some constellations completely obscured and other patches of sky being quite clear and I could even see parts of the Milky Way. First up that worked was Aquila and I was also pleased to capture Delphinius.



I'd taken Cassiopeia before but it was nice to see it again.



The final shot was aimed at Aries but I picked up Triangulum and Perseus as well, despite the lights.



At 00:00 GMT, I returned with the binoculars. I started with Jupiter whose disc showed clearly and I had a real go at seeing if I could detect the equatorial cloud belts but couldn't. I did see 3 moons, though. I was able to bag both globular clusters in Hercules (M13 and M92) and the Wild Duck cluster (M11), although it was dimmed by cloud. I tried for the Ring (M57) and Dumbell (M27) but didn't catch either, despite the relatively clear sky showing lots of stars in the plane of the Milky Way. I did manage to see the North America nebula and also the Pelican, having seen a photo during the day and knowing where to look. My last fuzzy was the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) which showed nice structure. I drew a blank on M34 due to cloud. I was able to bag all binocular double stars on my Usual Suspects list. I finished off with a low Moon, with Copernicus showing nicely on the terminator and some earthshine, very amazing for a moon that was 5/6 days from new.

At 09:35 GMT, I did a hydrogen alpha shoot with my PST. The conditions were somewhat better than the day before but the solar disc looked devoid of detail and, although there was a prominence in the same position as the day before, it had spread out and become fainter, making it difficult to resolve.



I was unable to extract any meaningful details from the close-ups.

Afterwards, I noticed that the Moon was still visible. It was not as impressive as in the early hours of the morning, nor even as the day before. Neither Copernicus nor the main southern craters were visible, although some craters were still visible to the south towards the sunlit side.

July 29th

I was out early at 06:40 GMT, as rain had been predicted and I might not have another chance to snap the Sun. The disc was very bland and I couldn't see any prominences but the photos showed a small one at about the 2 o'clock position. I also managed to extract some detail in one of the close-ups but was not really expecting to.




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