October 2021 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

More great views of solar flares on the NSO site
by John M. Craig 28 Oct '21

28 Oct '21

halpha.nso.edu (redirects to a longer name I haven't bothered to memorize) Best view today I've seen is if from the El Teide scope starting at 15:24. the Start day to the 28th and the Image increment to 1 & hit Load. Then play it. The big active area in the central southern hemisphere of the sun is at it again. One coming around from the back side in the NW has also flared, but I haven't found it in the H-alpha images. Happy watching. If you have the gear, definitely worth a look at the sun today! John

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Dramatic flare visible in H-alpha images online
by John M. Craig 28 Oct '21

28 Oct '21

Hi Friends, There are a series of images available here (https://gong2.nso.edu/products/tableView/table.php?configFile=configs/hAlph…) that show a really large flare occurring over a period of about an hour and a half on the 27th from UT ~21:48 to ~23:38. If you show the series of pictures (use the blue arrow button) from the Mauna Loatelescope and step through during the period noted, you can see a really substantial flare develop and subside in conjunction with the large active region (12887) in the central southern part of the image (some of it is visible in the images from Cerro Telolo and Learmouth). One of the things that was particularly interesting to me is that in the Mauna Loa images around 21:58, you can see a flare from a spot farther north and west (12888) of the big active region 12887 that seems to happen right as the much larger flare is getting started. A connection somehow between the two different regions? There's also just a lot going on during other recent times with 12887 BTW, there are interesting maps with info about the visible and often farside active regions here (https://www.raben.com/maps/) I've noticed that on CloudyNights the folks in the solar imaging forum tend to drop the leading 1 from the region numbers. So, I guess if you want to be really in the know, you just use the latter 4 digits (2887 rather than 12887). Check out the gong2.nso.edu site; very cool. John

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3 Early-Morning Comets
by Dave Gary 18 Oct '21

18 Oct '21

During my imaging session this morning I took photos of C/2021 A1 Leonard, 4P/Faye and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is starting to get a nice tail. It’s back to work, so no more images for a week or two….weather permitting. I heard that sigh of relief. https://www.flickr.com/gp/78046474@N06/b2v635 Later, Dave

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Additional Information for Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard
by Dave Gary 16 Oct '21

16 Oct '21

I forgot to add in the last post that if you hit the “info” icon below the photograph there is additional information regarding this comet and how comet magnitudes are estimated. Dave

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Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard
by Dave Gary 16 Oct '21

16 Oct '21

I caught an image of this comet at approximately 06:30 this morning from the Driveway Observatory in St. George. Read a “Weekly Update” piece from S&T and decided to take a look. > https://www.flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/51594503492/in/dateposted-public/ <https://www.flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/51594503492/in/dateposted-public/>

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Lakeride Jr High (Orem) science classes star party postponed
by John M. Craig 12 Oct '21

12 Oct '21

Hi Folks, The science teachers at Lakeridge are looking at dates in the week of the 18th-22nd. Wednesday the 13th is definitely off. Will let you know when have a date for next week (or whenever). John

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Lakeridge (Orem) star party on Oct 13th looking unlikely
by John M. Craig 06 Oct '21

06 Oct '21

Hi Folks, Weather for next week isn't looking promising; predicting more than about 5 days out is not terribly reliable, but at the moment, the forecast for Wednesday the 13th is for mostly cloudy in the evening (after rain and snow showers earlier in the day). I'll let the usual suspects know directly as we get closer. Thanks! John

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Some pictures of the not-as-spectacular prominence
by John M. Craig 02 Oct '21

02 Oct '21

Hi Folks, Well, by the time I was able to get a chance to take pictures, the prominence wasn't nearly as dramatic. The prominence on the left in these pics (reversed left to right from actual) was nearly a complete arch upward about 3 times the length of the brightest part you see if my photos. My photo technique consists of holding the camera lens against the eyepiece and then some very minor processing to improve the contrast. Getting a decent exposure that pics up the face of the sun and doesn't wash the details out of the proms is a bit of a trick. Hope you might find 'em interesting. I'm aware that more could be done with them if I were interested in spending the time. (There's undoubtedly better pictures of the amazing prominence that were taken earlier in the day posted on the CloudyNights Solar forum.) http://user.xmission.com/~johncraig/astro/solarpics/2021-10-02/ John

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Awesome solar prominence!
by John M. Craig 02 Oct '21

02 Oct '21

If you have H-alpha gear, don't miss getting a view today--even though it's later in the day. I've perhaps seen only one prominence that was larger. If you can't get a look today, it may persist long enough to get a look tomorrow. Sunny skies! John

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Morning Comets: 6 September 2021
by Dave Gary 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

I got up early on the 6th of September to image these comets. It was a very nice early morning at the Driveway Observatory in St. George. I added a couple of other images just for fun. https://flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/sets/72157719787878051 Dave

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