Sun on 5.11.2024 – Cont’d
Posted by jmeriaux in Home, Sun, Uncategorized on May 27, 2024
I managed to capture the Sun this days in Visible Light, Calcium-K Wavelength, and H-Alpha wavelength.
This is the Sun captured in H-Alpha using my William Optics 60mm Refractor, with the Daystar Quark Filter. This is a mosaic of 4 images made from 700 frames each. The Sunspot group (Region 3664 – CR 2884) on the bottom right is very active and emitted large flares. This was taken on 5/11/2024 at 20h16 UTC from Concord, CA.
The same image at the same time, with a Stellarvue SVX 100mm, a Herschel Wedge and a Calcium K filter (Baader Calcium-K 8nm). I am using the same camera as above. The Faculae are more visible on the Sun’s surface. Don’t look at the Sun using such filter as the UV will harm your eyes. This was taken on 5/11/2024 at 19h57 UTC from Concord, CA.
Last, this is the Sun in Visible light . This was taken on 5/11/2024 at 19h26 UTC from Concord, CA. This was taken on 5/11/2024 at 19h43 UTC from Concord, CA.
With the Sun activity almost at its maximum, the Solar spots are spectacular. The Sunspot group below (Region 3664 – CR 2884) is the same group on the bottom right in While Light.
The Instrument was a Stellarvue SVX 100mm with a 2x Barlow. The Camera is an ZWO camera ASI 290MM. This camera is quite sensitive, with Small pixel for high resolution planetary pictures.
Sun on 5.10.2024 with Daystar Filter
The sun was very active this may, with Aurora Borealis seen at very low latitude.
This picture is taken with a 60mm William Optics Telescope with a Chromosphere Daystar Quark Filter. The Chromosphere filter has a dial where the HAlpha wavelength can be tweaker. The visual views are impressive, but a small telescope at F/6 works best because the Daystart Filter has a 4x Barlow integrated, and is optimized for roughly a resulting focal ration of 25.
Visually, the best with this filter and this small Apo is a 25mm eyepiece, to view the entire solar disc.
This is a mosaic of 4 images made from 700 frames each. The Camera used was a ZWO ASI 432MM. Even with a relatively larger frame (17mm), combining multiple images for a complete view of the Sun is needed. This was taken on 5/10/2024 at 19h08 UTC from Concord, CA.
The large solar spot group on the bottom right is the region 3664 (Carrington Rotation 2284).
The details on region 3664 below was captured using the same settings, with a ZWO ASI 290 MM camera which has a much smaller pixel size (but also a much smaller sensor). This was taken on 5/10/2024 at 19h021 UTC from Concord, CA.
Total Lunar Eclipse – May 2022
These pictures were taken from the Oaks Park in Pleasant Hill, CA. The weather was pretty bad (windy & Cloudy) but managed to take few pictures of the total moon eclipse.
- Telescope: SVRT 90mm Stellarvue refractor
- Camera: ZWO ASI 290MC
Below, the picture shows the star HR 5762 (5th magnitude in the constellation Libra) reappearing after its occultation by the moon. Picture was taken with the same setup at 4H04 GMT on 5/16/2023.
5th of June 2012 Venus Transit
Posted by jmeriaux in Astrophotography, Planets, Sun, Uncategorized on September 3, 2018
The next Venus transit will be in December 2117… I took these pictures with my Coronado 90mm H-Alpha telescope in June 2012. You can get more information on this historical Venus 2012 transit on the Nasa web site.
Below is a picture of the first contact on the 5th of June 2012, at 3:07 PM PDT at San Bruno CA. The disk of Venus can be guessed in the mid-section.
A non-processed movie of the entry of Venus can be see below. It shows the first minute of the entry of the disc in front of the Sun.
The next picture was taken at 3:22 PM PDT. The Venus’ disk is clearly visible at this time. There is a large solar filament on the top of the image.
Later at 5:59PM PDT Venus is making its progression on the Solar disc. Solar spots can be seen on the left side of the Venus’ disc.
Mars in February 2012
Posted by jmeriaux in Uncategorized on February 5, 2012
Mars is coming closer to opposition (first week of March). Its disc increased to over 12″, making it an easier astrophotography target.
On the 4th of February, the seeing was pretty good. Visually, at 400x or so, Mars disc was quite stable and full of details.
With a focal length of 7,000mm (using a barlow 2.5x), each pixel on the DMK covers about 0.15″.
On the right you can compare with a simulation of Mars disc captured on Calsky.org.
Mare Crisium and Petavius with my 11″ SCT
Posted by jmeriaux in Uncategorized on December 26, 2011
Date: 11/29/2011
Location: San Bruno, CA
Seeing: 3/10, Transparency: 3/6, No Wind.
Celestron 11″ EdgeHD with DMK AS41 camera at F/D 10 (resolution: 1280×960)
Software: Avi Stack (stacking of about 800 frames each), Photoshop CS4, Astraimage Wavelet filter
Both pictures were taken using a Baader Infrared pass band filter IR742. Not only this filter improve images degraded by bad seeing, but it helps taking pictures of the moon by reducing the (sometime too) high contrast between different parts of the lunar landscape.
Mare Crisium
In the “virtual atlas of the moon” I can read the following:
Type: Sea
Geological period: Nectarian (From -3.92 billions years to -3.85 billions years)
Size: Dimension: 638.0×638.0Km / 375.0×345.0Mi
Description:Formation with crater shape lengthened West East.
Very flat floor with ring of wrinkle ridge to the periphery and ghost craters to the South.
176 000 km2. 3.85 billion years old.
Langrenus (Top left) and Petavius (Bottom right)
The Petavius rille (or narrow valley) is easily visible from the mountains at the center of the crater, to the south rim. It said to have a dimension of 48Mi x 1.0Mi.
An smaller network of rilles is visible on the north west side of the crater.
On the cropped image below of the Petavius Crater, Petavius C (6.0Mi x 6.0Mi) and Petavius A (3.0Mi x 3.0 Mi) are highlighted. Petavius Rimae is 48Mi x 1Mi.
Heart Nebula with SV 90RT
Posted by jmeriaux in Uncategorized on December 18, 2011
Date: 12/5/2011
Location: San Bruno, California – Transparency 2/6 – Seeing 3/10
Telescope: Stellarvue 90mm Triplet with Flat field corrector
Camera: CCD Camera Qhy9 at 1×1 binning with Astronomik 12nm H-Alpha filter
This image is a detail of the Heart nebula (IC 1805) with my 90mm Stellarvue Triplet. I had to crop the image at the bottom of the frame, having some frosting issue with my CCD camera …
This is a composite image based on 20 images of 6min – totaling 2h of exposure.
The heart nebula is a great target for astrophotography, whether it is for wide field (picture I took in new mexico with 200mm tele) or a longer focal length such as below.
At 600mm of focal length (with the stellarvue 90mm), the nebula reveals complex details between the darker dusk lanes and bright parts of the emission nebula.
Astrophotography in Urban Environment 
