Blog Archives - My Stardust Observatory

~ Happy New Year ~ The Sun surface on the 1st January 2025

1/1/2025

~ Happy New Year to Everyone ~

It’s not the best weather here today with lots of cloud and very windy, but I wanted to capture an image of the Sun for the first day of 2025.

There are two large sunspots on the solar surface, AR 3936 is now just off the western limb and new AR 3943 is coming into full view on the eastern limb, this one looks very interesting!

Image was taken with the Seestar S50 telescope with attached solar filter, this time I’ve captured a video file for just 2 minutes and stacked it within the telescope with the stacking mode, processed in PS.

The SDO data servers at Stanford University was damaged in a flood on the 26th November 2024, since then
Dr Tony Phillips the creator of Spaceweather.com is using solar images from contributors for the Daily Sun.

For ‘New Year Day’ the 1st January 2025 my image was on display : -D

Spaceweather.com on the 1st January 2025
https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=01&month=01&year=2025

Solar Dynamic observatory website
https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Spaceweather.com website
https://spaceweather.com/

~ Spectacular crepuscular rays at dawn (4.30am) 30th December 2024 ~

12/30/2024

I woke up very early this morning and looked out my bedroom window and Wow!

The eastern sky was just stunning; the dawn colours were amazing with beautiful crepuscular rays of light right up the horizon… I was off and running to grab my camera, what a way to start the day :-D

Image was taken with a Canon G7x M11 camera with manual focus, ISO 125 1/80th second exposure.

~ Many sunspots on surface of the Sun 28th December 2024 ~

12/28/2024

The Sun is peppered with many sunspots right across the solar surface from the east to west, with AR 3936 being the largest active region.

Images were taken with a Seestar S50 telescope with attached solar filter; twenty images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed n PS :-D

~ Congratulations to NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Team ~

12/26/2024

Parker Solar Probe: Humanity’s Closest Encounter with the Sun
NASA news: 26th December 2024

Controllers have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.

Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone received in the late evening hours of Dec. 26 confirmed the spacecraft had made it through the encounter safely and is operating normally.

This pass, the first of more to come at this distance, allows the spacecraft to conduct unrivaled scientific measurements with the potential to change our understanding of the Sun.

Read more:
https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/nasas-parker-solar-probe-makes-history-with-closest-pass-to-sun/

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre
https://www.nasa.gov/goddard/

~ Merry Christmas & Peace & Goodwill to all in our World ~

12/25/2024

~ The solar surface on Christmas Eve 24th December 2024 ~

The solar surface today with those large sunspot groups near the centre of the Sun on Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas to everyone on planet Earth and Happy Holidays :-D

My images were taken with a Seestar S50 telescope with attached solar filter; twenty images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed n PS.

More Sunspots coming on eastern side of the Sun!

12/22/2024

~ Large sunspots groups AR 3927, AR 3928 & AR 3932 on eastern side of Sun ~
~ 22nd December 2024 ~

It’s quite amazing all these new sunspots rotating into view on the eastern side of the Sun, there are now another two new sunspots on the eastern limb to add to all the other ones Wow!

Images were taken with a Seestar S50 telescope with attached solar filter; twenty images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed n PS…I’m excited!

~ Solstice Sun has many Sunspots on eastern limb 21st December 2024 ~

12/21/2024

Today is the summer Solstice here in the Southern Hemisphere ‘Happy Solstice’

~ Sunspots AR 3926, 3927 & 3928 on the 21st December 2024 ~

There are a lot of very interesting small sunspots that have developed on the eastern limb of the Sun and they look to be quite active! My images were taken with a Seestar S50 telescope with attached solar filter;
twenty images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed n PS.

~ Mineral waxing gibbous (11 day old) Moon on 12th December 2024 ~

12/13/2024

We are heading towards the last full Moon of 2024 with this 11-day-old waxing gibbous Moon riding high in the northern sky here in Australia.

With just an adjustment in Hue/Saturation you can bring out the colours to show the different minerals on the lunar surface. Images were taken with a Seestar telescope, 25 images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

I’m really quite impressed with the detail on the lunar surface with this little smart Seestar S50 telescope, it’s so easy to set up, it’s an absolute joy to use :-D

~ The normal coloured Moon ~

~ Sunspots AR 3917 & AR 3920 on surface of Sun 12th December 2024 ~

12/12/2024

Sunspot groups AR 3917 & AR 3920 are now growing larger on the surface of the Sun, my images were taken with a Seestar telescope with the attached solar filter. Twenty images were stacked in Registax6 and processed in PS.

My image was displayed as the daily Sunspot image on Spaceweather.com on the 12th December 2024 Yay! :-D
https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=12&month=12&year=2024

For all current Space weather please go to Spaceweather.com at:
https://www.spaceweather.com

~ Sprinkling of sunspots on surface of Sun 8th December 2024 ~

12/8/2024

We are in the middle of a heatwave today with the temperature at 35 degrees C…it’s so so hot for taking pictures of the Sun…. but I did it :-D

The sunspots closest to the western limb are AR 3910 & AR 3912, toward the middle are AR 3917 & AR 3916.

Images were taken with a Seestar telescope with attached solar filter; twenty images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed n PS.

We are not getting the daily sun images on Spaceweather.com because there has been a flood at the Stanford University that gets the data from the SDO data servers.

Here is a note from Spaceweather.com on the 8th December 2024;
They are now using our images for the daily Sunspot posts:

Note: A flood at Stanford University has damaged a number of important SDO data servers. Repairs may not be completed until 2025. As a result, Daily Sun images will be coming from readers of Spaceweather.com for the foreseeable future. Thank you, citizen scientists!

IMPULSIVE X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: Sunspot 3912 erupted today (Dec. 8 @ 0906 UT), producing an X2-class solar flare and a shortwave radio blackout over southern Africa. The impulsive flare is the latest in a series of increasingly intense explosions this weekend:

https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=08&month=12&year=2024