It was a bit of a challenge getting photos of the Sun today as there was a lot of cloud in the sky, but I did it…that long Filament was just huge and those prominences on the limb looked spectacular.
 
Information on Spaceweather.com states its over 370,000 km long…Wow! The monochrome image is just 20 single images stacked in RegiStax6; it shows the delicate prominences in much more detail than the colour images…
 
My photos were taken with a Lunt 60mm solar telescope and a Canon 700D with a 2x Barlow lens attached. Two sets of images were captured at different exposures and stacked in RegiStax6 and combined in PS. I used the monochrome setting in the camera for the black and white image.

I’m posting this small video below to show you the beautiful prominences that were so active on the north western limb of the Sun today. The bright pink colour is just the coloured camera’s sensor being saturated with too much light, but as you can see it captures the faint prominences. (I was lucky to get these images because of all the clouds)

What a difference to see the Sun in a different wavelength of light. I know a lot of people cannot afford a dedicated (Ha) solar telescope but it’s just mind-blowing how much more activity and surface detail you can see with one of these specialised telescope.  I could not afford a new one, so I took the risk and brought a second hand one and I’ve not been happier :-D
 
Yesterday I posted a white light image and all you can see are just the Sunspots on the surface of the Sun with no activity.
 
My Lunt solar telescope is only 60mm in aperture, but the solar view is truly awesome...the Sun is one of those astronomical objects that can change in real time while your observing it, and that’s extremely exciting to see.
 
The (Ha) images were two sets of 20 images each, one set for the solar disc at 1/320th second exposures and ISO200 & the other set for the faint prominences at 1/15th second and ISO200.
 
All the images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed and combined in PS. The monochrome image is not combined just 25 images stacked with exposure of 1/30th second and ISO800, you can see a lot more detail in the prominences with this image as it’s not a composite photo.

There was a sprinkling of small Sunspots all over the surface of the Sun late yesterday afternoon at 4pm. I’ve also taken some (Ha) images with my Lunt solar scope and will post soon)
 
This image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens with a 2x teleconverter attached making a focal length of 1280mm. The lens was fitted with a glass solar filter for safe imaging of the Sun.
 
DANGER: Please do not look at the Sun with your camera lens or telescope without a properly fitted solar filter on the objective!
 
Twenty images were captured with an exposure time of 1/400th second and ISO 200, then they were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

Dawn Planets…Wow!
 
Oh Wow...what a magnificent sight it was before dawn this morning, with all the planets lined up on the ecliptic. You can clearly see little Mercury low on the horizon; I had to twist the camera and myself around to go high up the sky at the zenith near the palm trees to capture Saturn but Yay! I got it :-D
 
Those stunning colours are from the fine volcanic aerosols high up in our atmosphere from the Hunga-Tonga eruption that happened last January…. the first image was taken an hour before sunrise at 5.35am and the second image at 5.50am, 45 minutes before sunrise, this is when the colours are at there most vibrant.
 
My first image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tokina 11-16mm lens @15mm; the exposure was 10 seconds and ISO400. The second image was taken with a Tokina 10-17mm fisheye lens @10mm with an exposure of 8 seconds and ISO200.

~ I used a fisheye lens so I could capture all the planets right up to the zenith on the ecliptic  ~

I woke up very early this morning and jumped straight out of bed, looked out my bedroom window and saw Venus shining brilliantly in the predawn sky. It was embedded in that volcanic dawn sky with all those incredible colours…. I was so excited :-D
 
At 5.30am here in Australia it’s still quite dark as it’s winter time, but all around and up the eastern horizon in a high broad halo you could see that gorgeous deep orange glow from these volcanic particles that are high up in our atmosphere…. it was just stunning! I also took one image of Venus reflecting on the water and a bit lower down in the picture you can just make out the elusive planet Mercury.
 
My images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens set on 18mm with ISO 200 and numerous exposures times.
 
*** Tara Williams from NSW *** In answer to your question from yesterday on Spaceweather.com: I did notice that this coloured twilight glow is extending right around the horizon, but it’s ever so faint in the western sky…now that’s very interesting!
 
Thank you for asking that question, as I would never have thought about looking in the opposite direction. I’m also capturing ripples in my images even through the sky is perfectly clear, another interesting observation!!!
 
Maybe we can blame this very unusual cold weather on these volcanic particles too ; -)

The video below was taken with my Canon 70D camera at 6.16am just 20 minutes before sunrise. The golden colours were magnificent just like liquid gold; you can still make out bright Venus in the eastern sky.
~ It was breathtakingly beautiful ~

​We had our first full day of sunshine after many weeks of rain to take a lovely picture of the Sun with my Lunt solar telescope.
 
There were some lovely prominences firing away on the western limb with one of them arcing out into space and curving back toward the limb. You can see the sunspots AR3023, 3024, 3026 & 3027 all nearing the western of the solar surface.
 
The images were taken with a Lunt 60mm PT solar telescope and a Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens attached.
 
(Two sets of 20 images were taken with two different exposures to capture the solar disc and the faint prominences and then those two images were combined in PS)

​I was very surprised to capture so much detail on the solar surface because of all the cloud in the sky today.
 
There was a lot of activity around the biggest sunspot groups AR 2993 and AR 2994 and that prominence on the lower western limb was really firing away…but alas, the cloud then completely covered the whole sky and that was the end of that!
 
My images were taken with a Lunt 60mm PT solar telescope and a Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens attached :-D

I’m now starting to also capture images in the monochrome settings within the camera, as I find with this setting there is more delicate detail in the prominences. I’m not very good yet at artificially colouring the Sun in Photoshop, so I’ll stick to my colour images for the time being.

It was a challenge taking this image of the Sun late yesterday afternoon, as there was a lot of cloud in the sky.
 
I wanted to see if there was any activity around that active sunspot area AR 2983 as it neared the western limb and was rewarded with a very active prominence. There was also an active prominence firing away on the northern eastern limb that may be a potentially new active area about to come into view.
 
The two large filaments on the surface of the Sun look like they’re about to join together making an extremely long filament. Safe Solar Observing is getting very interesting now J
 
 Image taken with a Lunt 60mm PT solar telescope and a Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens attached. Two sets of images were taken one for the solar disc and one for the prominences and combined in PS.

The Sun today had some beautiful long filaments and an active region around sunspot AR 2978. There were also some interesting prominences around the limb, one of them looked like it was spraying plasma violently out into space (north eastern limb) with another one to the south eastern limb faintly erupting on the limb.
 
Images were taken on the 6th April 2022 with a Lunt 60mm PT solar telescope and a Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens. Two sets of images were taken one for the disc and one for the prominences, as they needed a longer exposure to capture the faint detail.
Then both images were combined in PS CS4.

Information on Spaceweather.com on Solar Cycle 25 that the Sun has now entered into:
https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=06&month=04&year=2022
 
SOLAR CYCLE UPDATE: New sunspot counts from NOAA confirm that Solar Cycle 25 is racing ahead of the official forecast--and the gap is growing:

The "official forecast" comes from the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel, a group of scientists representing NOAA, NASA and International Space Environmental Services (ISES). The Panel predicted that Solar Cycle 25 would peak in July 2025 as a relatively weak cycle, similar in magnitude to its predecessor Solar Cycle 24. Instead, Solar Cycle 25 is shaping up to be stronger.
In March 2022, the sun produced 146 solar flares, including one X-flare and 13 M-flares. Auroras were sighted as far south as Colorado (+38N) and Nebraska (+42N). Multiple shortwave radio blackouts disrupted communications on ships at sea and airplanes flying over the poles. If current trends continue, April will be even busier. Stay tuned. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression
 
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/solar-cycle-25-forecast-update?fbclid=IwAR0II6o75ehEkIfRW-QP4F4w1ljXx89KsQrKdhEGeJvnIm6GviIFiEjdH34

SOLAR CYCLE 25 FORECAST UPDATE
published: Monday, December 09, 2019 22:30 UTC
The NOAA/NASA co-chaired, international panel to forecast Solar Cycle 25 released their latest forecast for Solar Cycle 25. The forecast consensus: a peak in July, 2025 (+/- 8 months), with a smoothed sunspot number (SSN) of 115. The panel agreed that Cycle 25 will be average in intensity and similar to Cycle 24.
 
Additionally, the panel concurred that solar minimum between Cycles 24 and 25 will occur in April, 2020 (+/- 6 months). If the solar minimum prediction is correct, this would make Solar Cycle 24 the 7th longest on record (11.4 years).
 
SPACE WEATHER PREDICTION CENTER
NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov
 
Are you a teacher or home schooling your children please go to:
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/additional-resources/#outreach
 
Storms from the Sun booklet download at:
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/u33/swx_booklet.pdf

(The Sun in Ha)
There is a very active eruptive prominence on lower limb of the Sun with the area around the large sunspot group AR 2978 alive with activity on the surface. AR 2975 & AR2976 are now close to the western limb and rotating out of view, so far no active prominences have been seen in my time zone.
 
There are also a couple of long filaments on the surface of the Sun. I’ve just seen on Spaceweather.com that one of these large filaments just opened up into ‘A Canyon of Fire’!
 
Wow… a filament of magnetism whipsawed out of the suns’ atmosphere that carved a canyon at least 20.000km high and 200,000 km long…Wow, now that is power!
 
https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=04&month=04&year=2022
 
My images were taken with a Lunt 60mm PT solar telescope and a Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens attached. Two sets of images were taken one for the solar disc and one for the prominences and combined in PS.
 
The best exposure times that I use with this camera are for the solar disc 1/320th second and ISO200, for the prominences 1/15th second and ISO200 and I take about 30 images in a continuous burst then stack in RegiStax6 and process in PS CS4.