I'm slowly working my way through images taken over the summer. These were from back in August and the level of activity remained high.
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These were from back in June and it's amazing to see all the filaments and clouds of gas hovering over the solar disk. They form in magnetic loops and are just off the surface of the sun and are cooler than the chromosphere below them. Solar weather at its finest.
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Jupiter reach opposition on November 3 and it was a reasonably clear Friday night so I packed up my gear and headed out to my dark sky location to catch the Jovian Giant in all its glory. The seeing conditions weren't great, so I didn't get as much detail as I was hoping for, but did pick up Europa just before it started transiting across the disk and the Great Red Spot was well positioned for the image. I also was able to make out the Cassini Division (gap in rings) on Saturn. Overall, a reasonably productive night.
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November 3, 2023
Celestron 7" Mak-Cas
ZWO ASI178MM
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono through RGB filters
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in Registax 6
Final Adjustments in Photoshop
It's been a hot and humid summer around here so I haven't been out much imaging much of anything, especially the sun. These were captured back in May and I finally got around to processing them. So much activity!
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We had a rare clear night for this time of year last evening and it may be a while before I'm able to venture to my dark sky location again. I decided to try and make the most of it and capture as many galaxies as I could in one shot. By my count, I got at least 9. These are near Virgo and range in distance from about 30 million light years to 65 million light years from us on Earth. That time scale puts them around the time the dinosaurs went extinct to a bit more recently. I've imaged some of these independently before, but this is a pretty good collection.
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Solar maximum continues to roar. These were taken in early May and I shot both in H-alpha double-stacked along with a simple white light filter. The H-alpha provides so much detail, but I also like seeing some good detail in the sunspot activity shown through the white light filter.
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We are now under 365 days until the next total solar eclipse observable in the U.S. I hope this activity continues...it should make for a dramatic scene next April.
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April 15, 2023
Lunt Ha 60mm double-stacked solar telescope
ZWO ASI178MM
SharpCap - 8 Bit Mono
Image Stacking in AutoStakkert
Adjustments in ImPPG
Final Adjustments in Photoshop
