My Thursday

[Thefatkitty]

Hey everyone, hope life is good

I wasn't too sure where to put this, more pics than anything. Still, it was an astronomical day...

Most days I'm up at about 3-4AM and on the road by 5AM at the latest. I'm fine with 4-5 hours of sleep a night, though I don't bounce out of bed like I used to. Who of us does?

Last night was the largest "Supermoon" of the year; the Buck Moon. It was low in the south when I got up. However, when I was heading west at 5:30ish AM down the 401 (Trans-Canada highway and just past Yonge St), I saw ol' Luna on the horizon.

At first I thought it was somehow the glare from another vehicle... Then when I realised what it was, it seriously looked about 5 times the size of the "normal" Moon.
Atmospheric conditions (very damp out and it was 14C/57F) with a rising Sun behind me are so good at doing that optical image

Of course, the camera lens shows what our eyes get so wrong:

I spent the morning in southern Ontario's tricity area; Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo. Finished off at a bit after 11AM, and made the 2 hour drive home. It was still somewhat hazy when I got in, but it was, in my mind, clear enough for me to want to take out my 80mm for some solar.

I did so, with some Baader 3.8OD photographic solar film, Solar Continuum filter and UV/IR cut filter behind that.

Annotations:

Full size image here



It was a nice day, and the early Lunar and later Solar gave it that little extra.

The Sun is really taking off with Solar Cycle 25. Do yourself a favour, get some Solar film for your scope and take a look and even photograph our star!

Thanks for reading/looking; I hope it wasn't too painful

All the best,

[Frankskywatcher]

Pictures of the sun always intrigue me are the “ cooler” spots sun flares ?

[helicon]

Nice pic Mark.

[Makuser]

Hi Mark. A very nice set of lunar and solar images from you. And that new active region on the left, as you would expect, is now officially AR3058. Thanks for sharing your work/astronomy day adventures with us Mark and keep looking up (but watch out for the traffic too )

[jrkirkham]

Thank you for the report.

[Unitron48]

Very nice sessions! Thanks for sharing your day's activities!!

Dave

[Lady Fraktor]

Nice pictures Mark, to cloudy to see the Moon here unfortunately.

[Bigzmey]

Nice report and pics Mark! 5 to 11 am workday sounds nice. You beat all the traffic and get home for breakfast.

[Thefatkitty]

Pictures of the sun always intrigue me are the “ cooler” spots sun flares ?

Hi Frank, well, I could put it into my own words, but I think this short description from Wikipedia says it better than I could:

Sunspots are phenomena on the Sun's photosphere that appear as temporary spots that are darker than the surrounding areas.
They are regions of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic flux that inhibit convection.

Flares off the limb can't be seen with a white-light filter; that requires a HA scope, which requires much $$$

Hope that helped!

[Juno16]

Painful??? What??? Your images are beautiful Mark! Thanya bunch for sharing them here!
Raining here (again) . We are certainly in a weather slump here. I haven’t been out since May.
I did enjoy setting up new cable management for both scopes and set my HEQ5 and Sharpstar in my living room yesterday to rough focus my new guide camera (ASI120mm mini). Now, all that I need to swap out is the only camera that I have (ASI533). I actually had a great time messing with the new guide camera! You’ve got a find fun where you can!

Thanks again for the great images Mark. Keep them coming!

The pup is great! Two more weeks with her. Jack is a super big brother!

[Thefatkitty]

Painful??? What??? Your images are beautiful Mark! Thanya bunch for sharing them here!
Raining here (again) . We are certainly in a weather slump here. I haven’t been out since May.
I did enjoy setting up new cable management for both scopes and set my HEQ5 and Sharpstar in my living room yesterday to rough focus my new guide camera (ASI120mm mini). Now, all that I need to swap out is the only camera that I have (ASI533). I actually had a great time messing with the new guide camera! You’ve got a find fun where you can!

Thanks again for the great images Mark. Keep them coming!

The pup is great! Two more weeks with her. Jack is a super big brother!

Hi Jim, good to hear from you! Since May, really? Well, at least you seem to be all set up; hope it clears for you soon. I always enjoy your images

Glad to hear the puppy is well and I hope she finds her forever home. And of course Jack is a super big brother, he's got you for an owner.

Here's hoping your weather improves!


All the best,