sunspots (AR 2991, 2993--2997, 2999?) 4/23/22 22:07 UTC

a nice set of sunspots were on display the weekend of 4/23/22.  Here's an animation comparing two views: a traditional "broad band" view showing the spots visible with neutral filter, and a view with a hydrogen alpha (Ha) filter showing ionized hydrogen plasma in dancing magnetic fields above the visual surface.  

Sun WL vs Ha 2/23/22 22:07 UTC

while i generally find the Ha view more interesting, it tends to mask the detail of the sunspots as well as the subtle "granules" on the surface of the sun.  

the visual surface of the sun is called the photosphere, while the Ha/plasma layer is called the chromosphere as hydrogen plasma emits mostly red light.  

Here's a composite Ha view combining a surface image with a much brighter image showing the prominences projecting off the disk edge:

Sun Ha Composite 2/23/22

Here's a small animation of one of the prominences over 4 minutes:

Prominence 4/23/22 22:43-22:47 UTC

another of surface filaments between the sunspots no flares :(

Prominence 4/23/22 22:29-22:37 UTC

next day i pulled out a big scope for higher resolution views of the spots, but the seeing wouldn't really support the magnification

Sun broad band 4/24/22 22:18 UTC

a 2x barlow added no detail :(

Sun broad band 4/24/22 22:25 UTC

Imaging details:

the "broad band" images were actually taken with a Lunt 60 Ha scope with the pressure tuner "off band". this is basically the equivalent of a red continuum filter which, to my eye, passes as "white light".
this conveniently allows "white light" and Ha images through the same imaging train with only a minor adjustment.
  
4/23/22
Ha Lunt 60 PT 
sky-watcher star adventurer mount

full disk
zwo ASI 174MM 
Ha disk
FPS (avg.)=172
Shutter=0.458ms
Gain=190 (47%)
Histogramm=75%

Ha prominences
FPS (avg.)=114
Shutter=4.575ms
Gain=190 (47%)
Histogramm=100%

Ha tuned off band
FPS (avg.)=121
Shutter=0.131ms
Gain=190 (47%)
Histogramm=72%

close up animations
ZWO ASI 290MM 

disk face
FPS (avg.)=71
Shutter=0.468ms
Gain=190 (31%)
Histogramm=78%

prominence
FPS (avg.)=253
Shutter=3.946ms
Gain=190 (31%)
Histogramm=100%

4/24/22
white light images 2/24
celestron 11" Edge HD
ASA mount
ZWO ASI 290MM 

"wider" close up
IR pass 685 filter (sharper than green due to poor seeing)
FPS (avg.)=21
Shutter=0.091ms
Gain=256 (42%)

close up with 2x powermate
ZWO green filter 
FPS (avg.)=38
Shutter=1.847ms
Gain=256 (42%)

processing:

autostakkert
best 20 frames of 20 sec captures

registax, photoshop

East Bluff, CA
4/23-24/22 

Starry Stormy Night

I don't usually post others' work, but I sort of collaborated:

StormyStarry Night

Notice anything unusual about the sky?

The sky is not filled with van Gogh's stars, but rather swirling storm clouds on jupiter's north pole captured by the juno mission.  The foreground is my daughter's rendition of van Gogh's Starry Night.  After seeing this awesome flyby of jupiter captured by the Juno space craft, my brother commented that the clouds were reminiscent of Starry Night.  So I took a picture of my daughter's painting, a screen shot of the NASA flyby and combined the two in photoshop.  

Here's her original a la van Gogh:

Starry Night by Alice circa 8th grade

and here's the flyby paying homage to kubric (suggest full screen view):

Juno Flyby of Ganymede and Jupiter
Video Credit: Images: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SWRI, MSSS;
Animation: Koji Kuramura, Gerald Eichstädt, Mike Stetson; Music: Vangelis

https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html

more than you wanted to know about 2001 a space odyssey

Ice Giants and Moons

Here's a capture of Uranus equatorial north (earth's) up:

Uranus
11/29/21 06:50 UTC

Uranus' north pole is rotated to the left 90 degrees relative to the orientation of the rest of the planets in the solar system. a cloud on the north pole makes the left side brighter.  

Here's a wider view using a much longer exposure showing...

the moons of Uranus
Miranda is above, but lost in the glare as it's too close
11/29/21 06:36 UTC

Here's Neptune:

Neptune 11/29/21 4:04 UTC

and a brighter view showing Triton:

Neptune and Triton 11/29/21 4:04 UTC

The magnetic fields of the ice giants uranus and neptune are unusual in that, they are highly skewed/off center from the axis of rotation.  a recent study suggest this is due to super ionic ice (which is just fun to say).  

Imaging details:
camera ZWO ASI 290MM with ZWO RGB filters
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
East Bluff, CA

11/29/21 04:04-06:36 UTC
120 second captures
gain 456, exposure ~5-12 ms, 30% histogram, ~60-200 fps

3x upsample (drizzle)

animated jupiter

seeing was not great for me this past apparition of jupiter.  here's an animation at low power:

Jupiter 10/4/21 03:34-03:47-UTC

Here's a combination of all of the frames derotated combined.  this gives a smoother image, but blurs the moon and causes edge effects at the extremes:

Jupiter 10/4/21 03:34-03:47-UTC
derotated to each time point

Lastly here's a wider composite image showing the moons:

Jupiter 10/4/21 03:24 UTC

Imaging details:
camera ZWO ASI 290MC with IR block
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
East Bluff, CA

10/4/21 03:24-03:47 UTC
90 second captures
gain 351, exposure ~0.567 ms, 30% histogram, ~200 fps

spiked sunspots

 unusual spiked sun spots saturday morning ;)

spiked sunspots 2/5/2022 15:55 UTC

according to google they are spiked seed capsules from the gum tree.  if you look closely, there are a few real sun spots, also a prominence at the bottom edge blocked by branches.  here's the prominence a few minutes later:

solar prominence 2/5/22 16:00 UTC

the over exposed central portion has been digitally occluded.  unfortunately shorter exposures to capture detail on the face did not come out well. 

spoiler--annotated true sun spots and prom (click for full size):

Image details:
Ha Lunt 60 PT double stacked
zwo ASI 174MM
manual tracking on alt-azm mount
spiky spots are single frame captures

prominence: 
20 sec capture
FPS (avg.)~48
Shutter~2.283 ms
Gain=234 
East Bluff, CA
2/5/22 15:54-16:00 UTC

lunar lines: Rima Ariadaeus

a long straight trough on the moon is called a rille (german for groove). just to confuse, "rima" the latin term for crack or fissure  is used when naming these objects.  

Rima Ariadaeus is thought to have been formed when a section of the Moon's crust sank down between two parallel fault lines (click image for wider view):

Rima Ariadaeus
9/13/2021 03:02 UTC

Objects on the terminator (day/night line on the moon) are contrast enhanced by shadows from low angled light--a bit too much in this image as the bottom portion of the line is lost in shadow.  

next up is the crater posodinius:

Posodinius
9/13/2021 02:59 UTC

the secondary rim (top) is apparently not another crater, rather the floor of the crater is fractured and tilted, creating a 1 km drop. also, you'll notice a faint rille crossing from center to upper right.  the crater was not near the terminator during this capture, so the contrast is poor. might revisit while closer to the terminator to capture the rille.

references:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rima_Ariadaeu03

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/796

Image details:

camera ZWO ASI 290MM 

filters: ZWO IR pass 850 

(seeing was mediocre with the 850 filter clearly sharper than a Baader IR pass "685")

celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow

East Bluff, CA

9/13/21 02:59-03:02 UTC

moon waxing crescent 6.6 day old

FPS (avg.)=73

Shutter=12ms

Gain=251 (41%)

still more great lunacy: theophilus and friends, ghost crater

also seen in the wider image in the previous post is this trio of craters:

Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina craters
 9/13/2021 02:54 UTC 

the age of these craters increases from left to right (north to south):
theophilus (left) has steep sharp terraced walls and a steep triple peaked central mountain.  

cryillus (center) has more rounded walls, with the northern interrupted by theophilus.  the central peak is also rounded and less prominent.  

catharina (right) has low rounded edges with no terracing and multiple craters interrupting/obscuring the rim.  nothing remains of the central peak.  

Lastly, can you find the "ghost crater" in this wider view (click for full size)?

ghost crater daguerre upper left
(straight up from theophilus)
almost entirely covered by lava
 9/13/2021 02:54 UTC 

ghost crater daguerre
almost entirely covered by lava
 9/13/2021 02:54 UTC 

references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophilus_(crater)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillus_(crater)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharina_(crater)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerre_(crater)

Image details:
camera ZWO ASI 290MM 
filters: ZWO IR pass 850 
(seeing was mediocre with the 850 filter clearly sharper than a Baader IR pass "685")
celestron 11" Edge HD, no barlow
East Bluff, CA
9/13/21 02:43-03:02 UTC
moon waxing crescent 6.6 day old
FPS (avg.)=73
Shutter=12ms
Gain=251 (41%)