1039 is back and big!

[Matt Wastell]

Returning AR 1039 is now visible (new number 1041).

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/mdi_mag/512/

Yeah!! The weekend is looking up!

[Dennis]

Hi Matt

I have been out trying to image this “new” sunspot but the seeing isn’t quite good enough to image even at the native focal length of the Mewlon 180 which is F12. I’ll persevere and see what comes up, but it ain’t looking too good right now.

I ran a quick “set up” avi early on with the x1.6 extender fitted and since then the conditions have gone down hill quite considerably.

Cheers

Dennis

[Matt Wastell]

Hey Dennis
I think with this region - most active one in 2 years - it will be there tomorrow!!!!!!!!
Good luck with it when the conditions improve.

[Dennis]

Here we go Matt – I almost managed to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear!

This was the very 1st movie file that I recorded for the day – a result of my “shoot one as soon as you set up” philosophy. In fact, it was one of only three recorded today, due to the seeing collapsing and clouds rolling in soon after.:(

So often I have set up my mount and telescope to then be thwarted by clouds, equipment failures, gremlins, etc. that I now make it a point to grab something as soon as everything is powered up and working. Today this payed dividends because this AVI was the only one with something worth processing. If I had delayed the shoot to tweak settings and optimise the set up, I would have missed this fleeting opportunity.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Matt Wastell]

Good to see you got an image - good enough for spaceweather too!
I take your approach too - set up and shoot - I often find my early AVI's are my best ones. I guess when I use a 40mm solar scope, focus does not always need to be 'perfect' as tiny detail is not shootable anyway!

I hope the weekend is clear!

Thanks for sharing.

[Dennis]

And here’s today’s rather poor offering. I managed to find a brief clearing around mid day where I was able to record three AVI’s, although only one of these offered any detail in some of the frames.

Avistack and Registax were not able to produce any suitable results due to the data being so poor across the frames. In the end, I opened the AVI in VirtualDub and manually stepped through all 1250 frames to locate just 3 frames that showed some detail. I then copied these 3 as Layers into Photoshop CS4 where I was able to manually align them and process the final result to bring out some of the detail.

To our readers outside of SE Qld, it’s not all bliss and kisses in Brisbane in summer and today was one tough day at the office – I’m glad it’s only a hobby! LOL!

Cheers

Dennis

[telecasterguru]

Dennis,

I'm glad you put the hard yards in for the rest of us. Great image. Today I think the winner was the sun.

Frank

[Dennis]

Thanks Frank – I’m going to have to investigate doing this solar stuff from the comfort of the house as it’s just too hot outside even when my head is inside my observing hutch (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-370-0-0-1-0.html)!:lol:

The table top is awash with perspiration!:(

Cheers

Dennis