Swansea Astronomical Society Blog

The leading component of AR1302 has completed its split into two distinct spots. A DMK21AS camera fitted with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow and a UV/IR cut filter was used with a 5" Maksutov fitted with a photographic grade Baader solar filter. A single AVI of 10000 frames was processed with Registax 6 for each part of the AR. The two parts were merged with iMerge. Lots of granulation and spot structure is visible.
Click on an image to get a larger view.




Steve Wainwright
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More images by Derek Francis







Derek Francis

Exactly the same setup was used as yesterday and the same sunspots are presented in the same order. An 11" SCT fitted with a Baader solar filter was used.
AR1306 on the left and AR1305 on the right. Focal length 2800mm.


AR1302


The next two images of AR1302 used a 1.6x Barlow. Focal length 4480mm.


Granulation and the fibrillar structure of the penumbra is clearly visible.


Derek Francis

These images were taken at a focal length of approximately 2800 mm with
an 11" Celestron fitted with a Baader solar film type filter.
AR1306 on the left and AR1305 on the right


AR1302


The two parts of AR 1302 and were taken at a focal length of
approximately 4480 mm using a 1.6 Barlow.




Derek Francis
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More images by Steve Wainwright

Images are colourised to indicate the wavelengths used
AR1302 taken with a DMK21AS camera fitted with an IR/UV cut filter and the lens assembly of a x2 Barlow, with a 5" Maksutov fitted with a photographic grade Baader solar filter


H-alpha mosaic showing details of AR1302 in context. A H-alpha PST was used with the same camera arrangement as for white light


Whole disk imaged with a modified Opticstar PL-130M camera fitted with a ND filter and an IR/UV cut filter at the prime focus at the PST. GSTAR4 software was used to control the camera and capture the AVIs:


In the evening a Samsung SDC-435 frame-accumulating video camera fitted with a light pollution filter was fitted at the prime focus of an f/5, 6" Newtonian. A Kmax USB video capture card was used and GSTAR4 was used to capture unique frames into AVIs. Dark frames were collected and Andrew Sprott's Dark Frame Scaler was used to scale the master dark frame before it was used in Registax.
The Bubble nebula C11


Steve Wainwright
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More images by Keith Davies

The images were all taken through a 11” Celestron SCT and a DBK21 camera

Jupiter at prime focus.




Uranus with a 1.5x Barlow


Keith Davies

A modified Opticstar PL-130M 1.3Mp CMOS camera was placed at the prime focus of a H-alpha PST to image the whole disk. New GSTAR4 software by Australian astronomers Steve Massey and Chris Wakeman was used to control the camera and capture AVIs. A DMK21AS camera fitted with a Baader green continuum filter and an IR/UV cut filter was placed at the prime focus of a 5" Maksutov fitted with a Baader photographic grade solar filter and AR1302 was imaged. The same active region was also imaged with the DMK fitted with the lens assembly from a x2 Barlow with the H-alpha PST. The whole disk and the active regions were seething with activity.
Images were colourised to represent the wavelength used.

Click on the image to get a larger view.

Detail of AR1302 using the DMK camera


AR13012 in Green continuum light


Steve Wainwright
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More images by Keith Davies








Keith Davies

A remounted Opticstar PL-130M USB 2.0, 1.3Mp CMOS camera was placed at the prime focus of a H-alpha PST and an 80mm Apochromatic 80mm refractor fitted with a 1000 Oaks glass solar filter. I used GSTAR4 capture software written by the Australian astronomer Steve Massey. I am reviewing this software for Steve in a variety of imaging situations. AVIs were captured in 200 frame lots and 2000 frames were captured in H-alpha and 1000 frames in White light before clouds stopped further imaging.
The AVIs were processed in Registax 4, scaled and co-rotated in Picture Window and made into an animated gif in Paint Shop Pro Animation Shop.
The animation shows a blink comparison of the H-alpha and White-light images:


Steve Wainwright

Here are two examples of recording the positions and sizes of solar features in white light and H-alpha light drawn from the eyepiece.
Click on an image to get a larger view:




Brian Spinks

These two images were captured using a ToUCam.
The exposures were made for the prominences and disk respectively.




Anne Startup

These sketches were made at the eyepiece.
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Jim Startup

The Opticstar 1.3Mp monochrome USB 2.0 CMOS camera was remounted again to improve the centralisation of the sensor:

The project box is slightly smaller and the USB port is better supported:


AVIs were captured at the prime focus of a H-alpha PST exposed for the disk and for the prominences. The data were processed in Registax and the resulting images were colourised and combined in Paint Shop Pro:
Click on the image to get a larger view:


Steve Wainwright