Sunspot – Tele Vue Optics

Active Region 12866 (left) and 12868 (right) by flickr user Carlo Casoli. All rights reserved. Used by permission. This hydrogen-alpha solar chromosphere image was taken at 2021 09 07, 10h 32’00” CET. Imaged with filtered Tecnosky 80/480 APO (DayStar Quark Chromosphere Model H-Alpha Filter with 4.2X telecentric Barlow) using Tele Vue 2x Barlow (effective focal length = 4000 mm) with ZWO Electronic Filter Wheel and ZWO ASI174MM camera. All carried on Ioptron CEM70G & Ioptron TriPier. Software: FireCapture, AutoStakkert3, and Photoshop. From Casalecchio di Reno, Italy.

It’s time to revisit the Sun! This nearby yellow-dwarf star is entering middle-age and is showing some spots! Here we have a selection of solar images, taken from around the world, made with Tele Vue Barlows and Powermate image amplifiers.

3 Big Flares in Active Region 12860 (movie) by flickr user Carlo Casoli. All rights reserved. Used by permission. “I was very lucky to film a series of flares lasting about 2 minutes. The energy released in this very short time is incredible; the largest of the flares has an extension equal to at least 3-4 times the Earth’s diameter”. For this Hydrogen-alpha animation, 10-second exposures were taken every 30 seconds for a total of 1 hour from 2021 08 29 11h 30′ – 12h 30′ CET. Imaged with filtered Tecnosky 80/480 APO (DayStar Quark Chromosphere Model H-Alpha Filter) using Tele Vue 2x Barlow (effective focal length = 4000 mm) with ZWO Electronic Filter Wheel and ZWO ASI174MM camera. All carried on Ioptron CEM70G & Ioptron TriPier. Software: FireCapture, AutoStakkert3, ImPPG, and Photoshop. From Casalecchio di Reno, Italy.

Continue reading “Tele Vue’s 2021 Solar Gallery”

Sunspots 25 Nov 2020 by flickr user Antonio Agnesi. All rights reserved. Used by permission. The image was captured through a Tele Vue Ranger refractor with Celestron Ultima 2x Barlow and Lunt Herschel wedge with Baader Solar Continuum filter. The camera used was a ZWO ASI 120MM. All gear was carried on a Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 mount. Exposures 5ms and the best 120 frames were stacked. macOS software used was ASICap, Lynkeos, and Photoshop CC.

According to a recent Solar Activity Update by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center, “Solar activity picked up at the end of November into early December, 2020, as several sunspot groups emerged or rotated onto the visible disk”. The update continues: “Solar activity is anticipated to slowly increase over the upcoming years towards the predicted solar maximum peak around July, 2025.” This is great news for observers of our nearest star! At times this year, there had been month-long sunspot “droughts” with no or few sunspots on the solar disk.

The return of Sun as a target of interest has led to a sudden uptick in Solar image postings to social media these past few weeks.

A detailed look at sunspots 2785 and 2786 by Instagram user Michael Harriff. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Taken on 29 November 2020 in Hydrogen-alpha light ─ “This was the only clear shooting day in several weeks! 😩”. A Tele Vue 4x Powermate on a Lunt 80mm MT refractor allowed the system to reach 2,240mm effective focal length for this close-up shot. The camera used was the ZWO ASI174MM (mono).

Continue reading “Here Comes the Sun!”