Scattered Thoughts . . .

T wo or three times a year, I put together a small photo book of photos I have shot documenting some of the things we've done so I can send it to my father.  We haven't traveled at all since the beginning of the pandemic and we are still in no hurry for that.  Well...  we would like to travel but the risk is still too great.  I've already had the virus three times and I am still experiencing lingering problems due to the virus so I'm in no hurry to expose myself further.  My health was bad enough before these lingering problems due to the virus.  I don't need to continue to expose myself and my health to more problems. While I was sorting through photos and choosing photos to put in this photo book, I came across some of my solar images from a session in July that were worth writing about here in my blog.   I specifically remember this particular session because I was able to watch a solar flare erupt and recede for about an hour.  It was a pretty amazing and very m

M any  nights before heading to bed, I continue to try to refine my workflow for processing my solar imagery data.  I'm definitely beginning to understand what needs to be done in this process because I feel my resulting images are getting better and better.  This photo, below, is a photo I compiled and processed from data collected just a couple of days ago on July 31st.   I've found that when I black out the disk/sphere of the sun, everything on the limb of the sun really stands out.  The fine hair-like spicules of red-hot plasma are clearly visible all along the limb.  In this particular shot, there is a rather large prominence too which really is the main subject here.  This is red glowing plasma consisting of hydrogen and helium.  This prominence is flowing and looping along magnetic fields about 24,000 miles into the corona from in front of the limb to back behind the limb in this photo.  Generally speaking, prominences can flow and loop into the corona upwards of tens of

I am still feeling rather lousy and lacking energy so I didn't think it would be wise to do much today.  My plan was to lay low and recover.  I want this virus behind me...  once again!  (Perhaps the third time is the charm.)   The lawn is in need of mowing but I have been putting that off for the past few days in an attempt to recover.  This morning was a fairly clear day outside though so I mustered up the energy to drag one of my telescopes outside to do some solar observing again for a short while.  This wouldn't require nearly as much energy as mowing the lawn or any other project that needs to be done so solar observing was the thing to do this morning. This time I grabbed my longest telescope so I could do some closeup observing. I haven't used this telescope in a while.  This telescope is fairly long at 1000mm.  When we combine that with the internal Barlow lens of the Quark Chromosphere hydrogen alpha solar filter I was using, that put my total focal length at 420

I 'm still down for the count with some sort of bad cold or virus so I'm not doing much (yet still testing negative for COVID...  I don't believe it though).  Whenever I attempt to do something, such as walk across a room, I start coughing and coughing and coughing.  So, I'm sitting in the house trying to figure out what I can do. The sun was shining in between lots of scattered clouds which reminded that the last time I had my good solar filter out (the other day) it did not work.  I saw no detail and then noticed that my power LED was not illuminated.  I made an assumption that my battery was the issue but I had not tested the filter again, visually, since then.  I figured that since I wasn't doing much this morning that perhaps this would be a good time to set up a telescope to test the filter.   This particular filter is a specialized hydrogen alpha filter but is really considered an "entry level" filter but that doesn't mean it is at a budget pric

A s I mentioned in a previous blog entry, last Saturday was my last day of imaging with what was, at the time, my best telescope mount (see photo, at right).  At the time, it seemed like the electronics were toast so that put an end to this last imaging session within a short few minutes.  Then I spent the next few hours trying to figure out exactly what was wrong with this mount. Even after a few days, I still had not fixed the mount because I still had no idea what could be wrong other than perhaps a piece of obsolete and no-longer-available electronics failed so I ordered a new mount.  The mount I ordered was the newer and significantly improved version of this older mount.  The advantage of purchasing the same (but improved) mount is that I wouldn't need to purchase any other associated accessories because this new mount would fit everything I already own.  It would fit every tripod, it would fit my telescope pier with no adapting necessary, and all my associated accessories wo

I had previously written about a morning of solar observing .  This time, I am going to write about a morning of solar imaging . I was excited to do some imaging because my previous morning of observing-only was exceptional.  The atmospheric conditions (astronomical "seeing" as it is rather unscientifically and rather ridiculously called by the astronomy community) were well above average when I was observing the previous day.  Those kinds of seeing conditions are rare so I was hoping that this morning of imaging would have skies that were just as good.  Sometimes good seeing lasts only an hour, other times it will last for a couple of days.  It was clear on this morning, there was a deep blue sky, and the weather was beautiful.  Above average seeing conditions would be awesome for imaging.   After about a half hour of setup time, running in and out of the house collecting the necessary gear and assembling it all, I was ready to fire up the computer and point the telescope to

I t was a very rare beautiful day yesterday.  Lukey and Kenzie were with us for the day too.  The moment I saw how clear the sky was on this morning, I knew I should be setting up for some solar astronomy at some point during the day.   Because of trees around our house, I have only a relatively short window of opportunity the first thing in the morning and then a relatively short window of opportunity in the early afternoon for solar astronomy.  Two short windows of opportunity are better than no windows of opportunity though.  The sun would be behind trees all the rest of the time.  I chose to set up for solar astronomy first thing in the morning before Lukey and Kenzie even arrived at the house.   I knew that if I waited for early afternoon, then I'd likely have to contend with wind.  When it comes to astronomy, wind can be as limiting as clouds so I knew that my chances of a good session were during that early morning window of opportunity.  The wind usually picks up by late mo

Y esterday afternoon was a little chilly but a beautiful afternoon for solar astronomy.  The sky was a deep blue, the distant mountaintops were crisp with no haze diminishing my view, and the temperature was a balmy 20° or so.  It was a great opportunity to spend a little more time with this new solar filter. I set up everything indoors and then moved everything to our mudroom/laundry room at the back door to make it easier moving everything outdoors.  I knew I wanted to attempt to capture some photos so I also had two cameras ready as well as a few lens choices.   You can clearly see in this first photo that it was a beautiful afternoon.  I don't think I've seen skies this clear in years! I was able to set up the telescope in an area where I had cleared snow the previous night.  This area of the backyard is very near our outdoor kitchen and the back door to the house so I had easy access to any additional equipment I might need from indoors.   Although it was a relatively mode

The sun was shining this morning so, on my way to the bathroom for my morning cleanup and visit, I immediately turned on my new Ha (hydrogen alpha) solar filter so it could warm up.  This particular filter requires power to keep the etalon (interference filter) at the optimal temperature so I can see the most details.  The wavelength band varies very slightly by controlling the temperature of the etalon.  The more finely tuned the temperature setting, the more details you will see.  The filter requires about 10 minutes to warm up so I turned it on before washing up and brushing my teeth so it would be ready when I was ready for the day. I then headed out into the frigid single digit temperatures (just like the other morning) with the battery pack in my pocket and the telescope and mount in my hands.  I carefully made my way down to the end of the icy driveway where I have an unobstructed view of the sun quite low in the southeastern sky. I had far more success at pointing the telescope

W hen I got up this morning, I immediately noticed that the sun was shining through our windows.  It was very noticeable because this is not something we see all that often and especially not in the dead of winter when it is typically snowing every single day.  The sky appeared blue so it meant I should attempt a quick solar observing session with a new solar filter.  I had received this new filter a few days previously and was waiting for clear skies to use it for the first time. The temperature was in the single digits but there was no wind so I figured that the sun would help keep me warm.  I quickly dressed for the frigid outdoors and collected my astronomy gear.  I headed outdoors for a "first light" with this new filter. As expected with these sort of things, this session didn't go as planned.  It is often difficult to figure out the focus point for a new piece of equipment so I expected to have to play around with different configurations.   Needless to say, I had