Wednesday, July 1, 2015

July 2015

July 31st 0730 GMT

A bin scan in a clear sky did not show any sunspots.

July 30th 0630 GMT

 I bin scanned the Sun in good conditions again, only to be greeted by a blank disc.

July 29th 1415 GMT

 
I bin scanned the Sun in a clear sky but did not detect any sunspots.

July 28th

I reprocessed a solar hydrogen alpha photo from September 4th 2011.
 
 


July 28th 1420 GMT

 
A solar bin scan under fair conditions did not reveal any sunspots.

July 27th

I reprocessed a solar hydrogen alpha photo from October 22nd 2011.
 

I also processed a set of shots from October 26th.




 

July 26th 1930 GMT

It was still very much daylight but I decided to snap the Moon while I had the chance. For a daylight shot it wasn't bad. I stacked 106 images taken with a 127mm Maksutov and Nikon D3200 DSLR.
 
 
 

July 26th

 
I reprocessed a solar hydrogen alpha shot October 19th 2011.
 
 

July 25th 1520 GMT

A solar bin scan did not reveal any sunspots.

July 23rd

I reprocessed a solar hydrogen alpha photo from October 16th 2011.
 

... and another one from 19th:

 

July 21st 2030 GMT

Conditions were poor and I mean: POOR! I used a 127mm Maksutov and D3200 DSLR. I stacked 14 images and managed to get some detail on the lower hemisphere.
 
 

July 21st 1215 GMT

I bin scanned the Sun in clear conditions but I did not see any sunspots.

July 19th 2110 GMT

I was hoping to see Venus and the Moon but they were both behind cloud. I caught Saturn with its rings.
 
 

July 19th 1440 GMT

After the excitement of the single sunspot the day before, the solar disc was clear.

July 18th 0725 GMT


I checked the Sun in hydrogen alpha ;light with my PST. It was extremely quiet, with no obvious features, apart from the sunspot.
 




 

July 18th 0705 GMT

 
I bin scanned the Sun and saw a single sunspot. Action at last!
 
 

July 16th 1330 GMT

A bin scan through a gap in the cloud did not reveal any sunspots.

July 15th 1135 GMT

The conditions were quite poor but I managed to see a sunspot through the cloud.
 
 

July 14th

I reprocessed a solar hydrogen alpha photo from October 2nd 2011.
 

 

July 11th 1500 GMT

 
Conditions were quite poor but I managed to catch a gap in the clouds and see a sunspot.
 
 

July 9th 1245 GMT

A solar bin scan had shown that the sunspots had rotated and split into 4 individual spots.
 
 

July 7th 1145 GMT

 
I bin scanned the Sun, expecting to see some more sunspots (as some were present in the Big Bear photos) but just saw the 2 that I had seen the day before. They had rotated, though.
 
 

July 6th 2220 GMT

I'm not normally up this late on a weeknight but I hadn't long finished work! After a day of cloud and some rain, it cleared a bit. Most of the sky was covered by cloud but there were one or two clearer patches. I ruled out the possibility of photography but I was able to split Albireo with my binoculars quite clearly! I could also split Epsilon Lyrae (into two) and Delta Lyrae. I did not see the double stars in Draco. This was as much to do with them being almost directly overhead and hurting my back, as the weather! Amazingly, I found the Wild Duck Cluster (M11),  Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and Melotte 20 but I could honestly say I'd had better views of them at other times.

July 6th 0720 GMT

 
I bin scanned the Sun under hazy conditions and spotted new activity.
 
 

July 5th

I reprocessed a solar hydrogen alpha shot from November 3rd 2911, showing a large filament.
 
 

July 5th 1050 GMT

I bin scanned the Sun under difficult conditions but did not see any sunspots.

July 4th 2100 GMT

I photographed Venus and Jupiter and saw that the gap had roughly doubled since 2 nights before.
 
 

July 4th 1345 GMT

I bin scanned the Sun under poor conditions but did not see any sunspots. 

July 3rd 1140 GMT

 
I did a hydrogen alpha solar shoot with my PST. The Sun looked rather quiet. I used 2 cameras to take some full disc shots and close-ups.
 





 

July 3rd 0940 GMT


I did a quick white light shoot of the Sun. I took one set with a variable polarising filter and another set without. The ones with the filter were more clear.
 
 

July 2nd 2100 GMT

I photographed the Moon and the close passage of Venus and Jupiter with the Nikon DSLR at 300mm. Despite some stacking, the result was not so good.
 

 

July 2nd 1540 GMT

 
It took ages for a big enough gap in the clouds to appear but I finally caught a sunspot. Conditions were quite awful, though and it is likely I missed some fainter ones.
 
 

July 1st 2100 GMT


I did a dusk shoot of Venus with Jupiter using my DSLR at 300mm.
 

July 1st 1005 GMT

 
Despite the very poor conditions, a bin scan showed a sunspot. It is likely that any small, faint sunspots would have been missed.