What a stunning surprise to see this magnificent looped prominence on the western limb on the Sun today from huge sunspot group AR2673.
 
I watched and photographed it for hours while it pulsated into delicate large arcs, at one stage, I though it was going to detach but then the two sides of plasma meet again and formed another beautiful arc,
​what an incredible display to witness!
 
 This image is taken with a ZWO ASI 120 MC-S CCD camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached to a Lunt 80mm solar telescope.
 
The AVI movie file was imported into Registak6 for stacking, there was next to no processing, basically, this is the way it come down from the Sun, it was just awesome!!!

​The full solar disc image above was taken with Lunt 80mm solar telescope and a Canon 700D camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached to show how large this prominence was on the Sun. This is a composite image, one set of images for the prominence and the other set for the solar disc. Both images were combined in PS CS4.
 
The other image is from NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory, which shows this amazing activity in extreme ultra violet light. Please go to there website to see more incredible images of our star, the Sun at:
https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov
​

​These two huge sunspot groups are now heading towards the western limb of the Sun and are still very active.  

​In a couple of days time they will reach the edge of the solar surface and hopefully produce some stunning prominences :-)
 
Images taken with a Meade 80mm refractor fitted with a glass solar filter and a Canon 700D camera fitted with a 2x Barlow lens for the full disc.

I then added another 3x Barlow lens making a 5x Barlow lens setup for a close up and more detail view of these two amazing sunspots.

I was so surprised to see this very dark ruddy coloured full Moon rising at my home on the evening of the 6th September, as it climbed higher up the eastern sky the colour became lighter, until it was a pretty golden colour.
 
I was surprised, because this is usually the colour of a fully eclipsed Moon, but that was not the case tonight. We have had no rain for months and it’s so dry that a lot of dust and bush fire particles are in the air; this is what is producing these unusual colours when looking at the Moon.
 
All the particles in the Earths atmosphere are refracting the bright reflective sunlight from the Moon. An hour later, when the Moon was higher in the sky it became its usual silvery light of a full Moon :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and my new Tamron 18-400mm lens set at 400mm and F6.3, with a mixture of exposures from 1/80th of a second to 1/320th second.

For the past week the Sun has been extremely active with two huge active sunspots groups called AR2673 & AR2674 on its surface.  A few hours after taking these images on the 5th September, sunspot AR2673 produced a X9 solar flare that will produce stunning aurora in the next couple of days as this storm cloud passes by the Earth. This is the biggest CME produced by the Sun in over a decade!
 
The image above and below were taken with a Meade 80mm refractor and a Canon 700D camera fitted with a 2x Barlow lens for the full frame disc of the Sun. The higher magnification image was taken by adding a 5x Barlow lens to the setup.
 
Exposures for the full disc were 1/500th second and ISO200, for the higher magnification images exposures were 1/250th second and ISO400. Both images were produced by stacking 20 images in Registak6 and lightly processed in PS CS4.
 
For more information please go to Space weather.com to see all the stunning images from contributors in these affected areas at: http://www.spaceweather.com

~ TEDx Helensvale Library ~
Gold Coast Libraries are very excited to announce the release of seven TEDx Talks from our recent TEDx Helensvale Library event!
 
Seven stories from inspirational Gold Coast locals sharing their passions for architecture, ballet, circus, music, astronomy and social enterprise. Watch the videos now and be inspired to MAKE IT! 

The presenters on the night were:
(L Top) Karl Smith, Kristy Seymour, Noeleen Lowndes, Barry Lee, Nicolle Edwards,
Jordyn de Boer & Georgia Canning.

~ Starry Starry Night ~
Look up and discover your night sky
 
Noeleen talks about her love affair with the stars and the steps we can all take to discover more about our night sky. To find out more visit mystardustobservatory.com
 
Noeleen is president of the Southern Astronomical Society, having been a member for 22 years. She is an astrophotographer, astronomy and space educator, and is NASA’s Saturn Observation Campaign member in Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkaXnghax8c

Please go to my TEDx talk at the Helensvale Library Blog on the 2nd June 2017
​to read all about this wonderful event at:
http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-tedx-talk-at-helensvale-library-2nd-june-2017

Our Australian group with the Mayor of St Joseph Mr Bill Falkner…Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!! :-)

St Joseph Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/Eclipse2017inStJoMo/