Blog: Astronomy

The Thrill of Solar Astronomy

October 25, 2023

Permalink | Tags: Solar Astronomy, Astronomy

WARNING: When observing the Sun, be sure to use only equipment designed specifically for that purpose and produced by reputable manufacturers. Follow their directions closely. Do not improvise your own filter material for solar observing. If you are careless, you risk instant and permanent injury and/or vision loss.

The annular solar eclipse that swept through my region about a week and a half ago reminded me how thrilling solar astronomy can be. It also underscored how central the Sun is to our existence.

The Sun as it appeared in my double-stacked Lunt LS60THα 60mm solar telescope this past summer on June 20, 2023. I used my Canon M200 mirrorless camera to capture the image, and I did my postprocessing using the raw file.

The Sun is the ultimate source of life and energy on Earth. Without the Sun, our world would be a frozen, lifeless wasteland.

Think of how often references to the Sun come up in our culture, references that we aren’t always fully conscious of. We wear sunglasses, we drink sun tea, we relax in sunrooms and on sunporches, and we enjoy our Sundays. Spending time outside, we get a suntan (or maybe a sunburn). A happy person has a sunny disposition. Sunflowers are a thing of beauty. We often orientate how we build our buildings to bring sunlight into them. In another age, we used sundials to tell time. The Sunbelt is a place where Americans migrated to as they moved away from the Rustbelt. Sunrises and sunsets are things of beauty to observe. And so on.

The Sun is at the center of our existence as we live it here on Earth. It’s apparent motion across the sky defines our daily rhythm. And we measure the passage of our lives by the number of times it takes for us to make a complete circle around the Sun. With it occupying such a central place in our lives, it’s natural for us to be drawn to the Sun.

Within the world of amateur astronomy, solar observing turns everything about our hobby on its head.

It’s done during the day, not at night.
One can enjoy spending time in warm, pleasant sunlight instead of shivering in the cold during the winter or fighting off mosquitos during the summer.
Light pollution is not a problem. Indeed, no human-generated source of light can possibly match light from the Sun.
The Sun is ever-changing. It never appears the same from one day to the next.
It’s our opportunity to study a star up close.

I get a thrill from knowing that I can not only observe something as forbidding as the Sun but also that, by taking all necessary precautions, I can do so safely. Being able to observe something as powerful as the Sun instills a sense of awe and wonder that nighttime astronomy can’t match.

For much more, check out the various resources I have listed in my section on solar astronomy.

Annular Solar Eclipse of October 14, 2023

October 14, 2023

Permalink | Tags: Solar Astronomy, Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography

WARNING: When observing the Sun, be sure to use only equipment designed specifically for that purpose and produced by reputable manufacturers. Follow their directions closely. Do not improvise your own filter material for solar observing. If you are careless, you risk instant and permanent injury and/or vision loss.

One of the things I have grown to love about astronomy in general is the sheer luck that sometimes comes out of it.

Although I had been eagerly awaiting the annular solar eclipse that swept over my little corner of the Pacific Northwest today, forecasts had been pointing to cloudy conditions that threatened to scuttle the entire event.

But today was my lucky day. A clearing in our cloud cover happened just in time for the eclipse. Although I didn't see its very beginning and very end, I saw the part that mattered most.

Annular Eclipse of October 14, 2023 — Collage of the fifteen keeper images I took during today’s annular solar eclipse.

At the very least, the eclipse reminded me of the sheer joy I get out of being able to observe something as awesomely powerful as our Sun.

Check out more details and pictures from the eclipse in this fuller-length article.

Smoky Moon

August 25, 2023

Permalink | Tags: Lunar Astronomy, Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography

This year, wildfire smoke hadn’t been too much of an issue until recently. But rather than get bummed out about it, I decided to make lemons out of lemonade.

With my Canon EOS M200 mirrorless camera attached to my trusty 1962 Questar, I took this image of the Moon as it appeared in our smoke-laden skies:

Smoky moon — Smoky Moon on August 25, 2023. Canon EOS M200 with 3.5-inch Questar telescope, ISO 6400, 1/15 sec., f/16.

A bit more than a year ago, I took this series of three images as the Moon set:

As I noted in this post on Cloudy Nights the next day, the effect was kind of like that of a total lunar eclipse. As the Moon set, it sank lower into the smoke haze, and its reddish tone grew more intense.

Huge Prominence

July 28, 2023

Permalink | Tags: H-alpha Solar Astronomy, Solar Astronomy, Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography

WARNING: When observing the Sun, be sure to use only equipment designed specifically for that purpose and produced by reputable manufacturers. Follow their directions closely. Do not improvise your own filter material for solar observing. If you are careless, you risk instant and permanent injury and/or vision loss.

Perusing the internet on my iPad over breakfast, I happened to turn to my solar activity monitor that I have on my website. I was shocked to see an absolutely huge prominence lifting off the Sun likely as the result of a rather strong flare. I quickly got myself setup and captured what little remained of the fast-moving event whose climax I missed unfortunately. Still, the progression of images is neat to see.

Huge prominence — A series of eight images I took of an exploding prominence (upper right) with my Canon EOS M200 attached to my 60mm Lunt H-alpha solar telescope (animated GIF made via ezgif.com).