~ The (Ha) Sun with solar filaments, sunspots and active prominences on 26th February 2023 ~
 
On the 25th February a magnetic filament connected to sunspot AR3229 near the northern limb of the sun erupted producing a reaction of events that could lead to a geomagnetic storm on Earth in the next couple of days. (Information from Spaceweather.com)
 
This is image of the Sun in (Ha) on the 26th February with some of that activity still present on the surface with prominences around the solar limb and some dark filaments on the surface.
 
There was also activity around AR 3234 to the north in the middle of the Sun and another area in the south AR 3236.
 
This image was taken with my Lunt 60mm solar telescope with a Canon 700D camera. The colour image is a composite with two sets of exposures to capture the disc and the faint prominences that were combined in PS; the exposures were 1/320th and ISO 100.

​The monochrome image was taken with an exposure of 1/200th and ISO800.

Credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov

After taking those lovely pictures of Venus & Jupiter earlier in the western sky at sunset, I waited until it got darker to try and find and capture that elusive Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). 
 
This Comet has been putting on quite a show in the northern hemisphere as it headed toward the Sun, but now it’s heading back out of the Solar System and becoming fainter.
 
Observers here in the southern hemisphere are only just seeing it, but not at its best and where I am here at home with all this cloud and urban light, it’s impossible to even find with the naked eye in the northern sky.
 
So using the star chart App called Stellarium and aimed my camera and lens up near Mars in the constellation of Taurus, I took some long exposure images and got it in between the clouds!
 
It was ever so faint but you can see make it out above Mars; I’ve also captured the two star cluster in Taurus, Hyades and Pleiades. It’s not the best picture by a long shot… but at least I captured it :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and 18-400mm lens, the Comet images were between 6 and 10 second exposures with ISO1600 & 2500.

It’s back, that pretty coloured volcanic sunset sky, with Venus and Jupiter putting on a lovely show in the western sky.
 
Because of all the cloudy weather we have not seen many sunsets of late, so it was such a surprise to see that eerie bright yellow colour back in the western sky before I took this picture. It even got a lot more spectacular later on with that deep purple colour but for some reason I couldn’t capture it with my camera!
 
Venus will continue to close in on Jupiter on the ecliptic in the western sky with a very close conjunction on the 2nd March, hopefully I’ll be able to capture some photos of the event over the next couple of weeks, that is, if the weather is kind :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-400mm lens, the exposure was 1.3 seconds and ISO200. 

~ Movie taken with Canon 70D on movie mode ~

~ Solar flare AR3217 ~
 
While observing the Sun early yesterday morning I saw a sudden brightening from sunspot AR 3217 that produced a solar flare.  It didn’t last for very long, but I managed capture it, the previous image taken in monochrome just 5 minutes before do not have that bright activity.
 
There were also quite a few active prominences all around the limb with a small looping prominence not far from AR 3217, the Suns so exciting to observe at the moment as we head toward solar maximum.
 
Images taken with a Lunt (PT) 60mm solar telescope, Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens attached. Twenty images were capture with an exposure of 1/200th second and ISO200. Images stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS. Monochrome images, exposure time was 1/125th second and ISO800 with the same processing.
 
The white light image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and Canon 100-400mm lens with 2x teleconverter making a focal length of 1280mm, a glass solar filter was fitted to lens for safe viewing and imaging.

There was a lot of high level cloud in the western sky late this afternoon when I took these images, I was so surprised to capture this much detail on the surface of the Sun.
 
There were many long filaments and the new sunspots AR 3214 & AR 3213 looked very active, there was also a nice prominence on the western limb.
 
Images taken with a Lunt (PT) 60mm solar telescope and a Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens attached. Twenty images were capture with an exposure of 1/200th second and ISO200.

​Images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS. Monochrome images, exposure time was 1/125th second and ISO800 with the same processing.

On the 2nd February over twenty little budding astronomers came along to the Runaway Bay Library to learn all about our Amazing Solar System. 
 
The children had a lot of fun learning all about the planets. 
It was a joy to be back at the library with the Stardust kids, Noeleen :-)
 
Presented by Noeleen Lowndes
Member from the Southern Astronomical Society (Gold Coast)
https://www.sas.org.au