Activity on the increase

Sun-spot activity continues to increase towards solar maximum next year.

In a rare gap in the torrential rain and total cloud cover that seems to be the British Summer this year, I couldn't miss the opportunity to try and get a few images last Sunday. Fortunately, active region 1520 was still putting on a show, following the CME that smashed into earth's magnetic field on the 14th.

I was pleased that, following my failure to get the camera settings right during my last imaging session, this time things seemed to go a little better, remembering to set the ISO below 200.

Processing was my usual routine - 20 RAW images, stacked in Registax 5 with tweaks to the wavelets and de-ringing (more by trial and error as I'm far from mastering the various options). In Photoshop CS3 though, I thought I'd be bold and experiment a little. The two images are processed in largely the same manner, differing only in the blend mode applied to a copy of the background layer as output from Registax. I'm not sure which one I prefer.

Blend mode "Lighten"

Blend mode "Multiply"

What a whopper!

Sunspot active region 1476 that is. A rare spell of sunny weather over the weekend allowed me to try and capture AR1476, which is the largest active region so far this solar cycle.

Unfortunately, it's been a while since I've used my camera and I must've been a bit rusty in it's basic operation, leaving the ISO setting on it's previous value of 800. As if I needed that extra bit of sensitivity to record the solar disk! I should've realised things were not right when I found I needed an exposure of 1/5000 to prevent over-exposure, but this clue clearly escaped my attention, so ISO800 it remained. I only realised my mistake when processing the stack of 20 exposures later on Saturday evening.

Considering the noisy settings, the final result is actually not too bad. I presume the stacking in Registax has helped remove much of it, but I still wish I'd had opportunity to repeat the shots at my usual ISO200.

Twilight Parade

I love the beauty of the crescent Moon with the faint Earthshine glowing against a slowly darkening twillight sky. When moving against a backdrop of planets, the view can be magical. And so it was on the night of Monday 26th. The three brightest objects in the sky (apart from the Sun that is!). Venus at the top, with fainter and more distant Jupiter hovering above the branches of the bush. Wonderful.

Conjunction 2

The closest approach of brilliant Venus and Jupiter was unfortunately clouded out this evening. Good job I imaged the two brightest planets a few nights ago then, when separated by a little over 3 degrees.



Jupiter & Venus over Willington



Back to the Sun

Sunspot AR1429 has been responsible for recent coronal mass ejections (CME's) which have been battering Earth today, with another geomagnetic storm due to reach Earth tomorrow. Watchers in northern regions have been enjoying some marvellous aurorae, but sadly few have been visible from Bedfordshire. Hopefully chances of seeing the lights from Britain will increase as activity continues to increase towards solar maximum next year.

A while since I've imaged sunspots, so today I thought it was high time I went back to the Sun.

Conjunction

After several months of inactivity on the blogging front - partly due to my PC being out of action - time for a quick update.

Venus is putting on a fabulous show at the moment, shining at a brilliant magnitude -4.1. This is the conjunction with a lovely crescent moon on the 25th March, the two brightest bodies in the night sky being separated by only 3 degrees.



Earthshine