26th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler (44x)
Conditions: Again mostly sunny but with high cloud, which meant I couldn’t observe until late in the afternoon. 26°C
The detached horizontal prom was still there, although it had grown a bit fatter since yesterday.

25th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler (44x)
Conditions: Again mostly sunny but with variable cloud – more cloud than yesterday, which interfered with the observation. 26°C
Sun is very nice and active with a lot to see today, in particular some nice prominences including a detached horizontal prom which was fascinating to see.

24th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler (44x)
Conditions: Mostly sunny but with variable cloud. Warm but not as hot as recently
This is the first observing since July 19th, thanks to cloud, murk and doing other things.

19th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler (44x)
Conditions: No change – warm, around 28°C/82.4°F, sunny: lovely! 🙂

18th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler (44x)
Conditions: The same – warm, around 28°C/82.4°F, sunny.
Got the PST out late, so the Sun was lower and the seeing less stable. There was a lovely prominence at the ‘4 o’clock position’ which uncurled, straightened out and detached over the space of a few minutes (sketches below, following the main drawing)

17th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler (44x)
Conditions: As yesterday – warm, around 28°C/82.4°F, sunny but a bit hazy.

16th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler (44x)
Conditions: Warm, around 28°C/82.4°F, sunny but a bit hazy.
No observing yesterday, because high cloud wiped out all the detail, but today was a bit better. The Sun had some nice detail some nice hedgerow prominences, filaments, a few new spots and a nice-looking active region.

14th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler (44x)
Conditions: Another lovely day with temperatures in the low 30s C/high 80s F
Hazy sunshine.
A pretty boring Sun today, not much going on but a nice loop visible.

13th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler (44x)
Conditions: Hot, hot, hot! Absolutely gorgeous, 32°C/89.6°F with the gentlest of breezes, no cloud although slightly hazy but, under the observing hood, it was a little too hot. Seeing was pretty turbulent.
Again, the Sun’s surface wasn’t as ‘busy’ as of late, but there were a few filaments and some faculae. No spots. There were some small prominences and a large arch which was quite faint but which is drawn darker (brighter) than it really appeared.

12th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler (44x)
Conditions: Warm, the gentlest of breezes, no cloud but slightly hazy.
The Sun’s surface was a bit quieter than of late, it wasn’t so ‘busy’, that nice sunspot group from earlier in the week has dissipated/rotated out of sight leaving a couple of faint filaments and some faculae. There were some faint prominences visible, including a larger diffuse one which was very faint and hard to see in the PST but I drew it darker than it really appeared.

10th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler (44x)
Conditions: Very warm, breezy with some cloud building up
Encountered an unforeseen hazard of day time astronomy – a bird crapped on my notebook! Not nice but I cleaned it off best I could; better than on me, I suppose, but at least hair and clothes can be washed!
I think I did a better job on the faculae today.

9th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler eyepiece
Conditions: Hot, around 29°C/84°F, clear. Seeing and transparency both very good.
I’ve bought a new eraser, a retractable pencil-type, which is much better for rendering faculae.

8th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 9mm Nagler eyepiece
Conditions: The fantastic run of good summer weather continues, again warm and pleasant (but hot under the hooded observing vest!), around 26°C, no clouds. Seeing fairly steady.
I used a 9mm Nagler with the PST, rather than the old 12.5mm Orthoscopic I had been using, and the view was much better, bigger and brighter.
There is a nice group of sunspots, AR 1785 with neighbouring groups AR 1787 and 1788.

7th July 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 12.5mm Orthoscopic eyepiece (32x)
Conditions: warm and pleasant, around 30°C, no clouds. Seeing fairly steady.
Nice sunspot group visible and some small prominences. Nice filaments on show, too.

I also attempted to take a photo, with some old Mylar film and a Pentax superzoom camera. The results weren’t great but you can see the sun spot group.

My observing fell by the wayside over the past three weeks, the sun’s been out a fair bit of the time but due to dire personal circumstances and critical illness of a family member put a stop to many other activites just recently. However, I managed sessions on 19th and 29th June and, as of 29th June, things with my family circumstances appear to be improving.

29th June 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 12.5mm orthoscopic eyepiece
Conditions: warm and pleasant, no clouds but there is an annoying breeze making it difficult to keep the scope and tripod stable.
Lovely big prominence visible.

19th June 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 12.5mm orthoscopic eyepiece
Conditions: warm and pleasant, no clouds

5th June 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 12.5mm orthoscopic eyepiece
Conditions: warm and pleasant, no clouds

4th June 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 12.5mm orthoscopic eyepiece
Conditions: warm and pleasant, no clouds

3rd June 2013
Instrument: Loaned Coronado PST with 12.5mm orthoscopic eyepiece
Conditions: warm and pleasant, a few fair-weather clouds in the morning.

Here’s my sketch (the marks at 3 o’clock position on the disc are actually an imperfection in the paper). How exciting to see sunspots, faculae, filaments, granulation (and to me, the best of all) prominences and loops!

May 25th 2013, 12.30 BST/11.30GMT
Instrument: 90mm f10 refractor with 25mm TeleVue Plossl (36.4x), method used was eyepiece projection
Conditions: partly sunny with variable amounts of cloud. Disappointing temperatures for the time of year, 15°C

Nice collection of sun spots, the photo at lower right shows them as they appeared projected onto white paper and photographed with a DSLR. Click on the photo for a larger view.