The giant sunspot had been producing strong x-ray flares and produced a number of coronal mass ejections, so I had decided to bring the refractor out and take a whole disc picture of the sun using the Nikon D750 and a 2x times converter.
Sunspot AR3664 Astrophysics 127mm f/8, 2x converter, Nikon D750a
The partial solar eclipse on October 25th happened conveniently during lunch break, and the skies were perfectly clear. I opted for the big refractor (Astro-Physics 127mm f/8) combined with a 2x Nikon teleconverter in the hope to capture some detail in the form of sunspots on the solar disc.
I setup the camera to record a set of timelapse images, taking a picture every 20s. After I while I also setup the 60mm refractor to be able to observe the eclipse visually.
Shortly after maximum eclipse I noticed an airplane with contrail heading to the area of the sky where the sun was located. From past experience I thought that it will miss the sun (the apparent diameter of the sund and moon in the sky is only about half a thumb’s width at arm-length), but switched the camera to video and started recording.
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After a few very quiet months the sunspot AR2736 grew to a considerable size and shows quite a bit of detail in this close-up image. The image was taken on 22.03.2019.
Read MoreAs the ISS orbits our planet, from time to time it passes in front of the sun for a given location.
https://www.calsky.com and https://transit-finder.com/ allow you to predict such transits for your location.
Last Saturday such a transit happened, and I was able to capture it:
A combination of all frames that captured the ISS.
2nd Contact – Diamond Ring, Nikon D750, 1/160s, f/8.0, ISO 400, 600mm (300mm f/4 PF + TC-20E III)
Two weeks before the moon will eclipse the sun, the moon was partially eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow
I had to turn around, when the road to my observing location was blocked, then I rushed to another spot, to find clouds on the horizon blocking the view for quite a while. But finally the still eclipsed moon emerged from the clouds and I was able to take some quick shots.
I used my 80mm refractor and a 300mm lens for the images.
Read MoreEven though we are heading for a possibly deep and long solar minimum, a huge sunspot is visible on the sun right now.
Today two big sunspot groups were prominently visible on the sun:
Active Region 2644, 50 frames of 524, Astro-Physics 127mm f/8, QHY5L-II, Vixen 2x Barlow
Active Region 2645, 50 frames of 524, Astro-Physics 127mm f/8, QHY5L-II, Vixen 2x Barlow
The sun shows only few spots when near solar minimum. Today the Spots AR2629 and 2628 were clearly visible.
Astrophysics 127mm f/8 with Nkon TC-14EII and Nikon D750 Baader solar film (photographic density).
These days the large sunspot AR2456 is very prominent on the sun’s disc:
