Solar and Lunar Image

Here is the solar image from today, and the lunar image from last night.

The Sun currently has a low sunspot activity, so observations would be ideal in other wavelengths at the moment rather than in white light. There is a grouping at the center (below solar equator) that currently has no NOAA designation.

The Besao Stone Clock Formation

During the National Astronomy Week (NAW), the Andromeda Mobile Planetarium team decided to conduct archaeoastronomy. Archaeoastronomy (also spelled as archeoastronomy) deals with astronomical practices, socio-cultural interpretations and applications of ancient cultures. During our events in Tadian Mountain province we heard of a rock formation used by farmers with the Sun.

The rock formation known as the Besao Sunset comes as one of the tourist destinations listed in the Cordilleras. However, very limited information about it can be found online. In fact, all the sites I have encountered uses the same line:

"Besao Sunset (Besao) - a primitive formation of two rocks where farmers can determine seasons by how the sun's rays fit into the crevices in the rock formation."

Due to the lack of information, the Andromeda Mobile Planetarium team decided to document this structure. We informed miss Bel Pabunan, curator of the National Museum Planetarium, of what we intended to do. Our write up will be forwarded to her. As we set out for our event in Agawa Elementary School in Besao, we started asking the locals about information regarding the stone structure. A teacher from Gueday Elementary School, one of the participant schools, pointed out that the rock structure was next to their school in the Besao Rice Terraces. After our event, we set out for the Besao Rice Terraces.

The teachers from Gueday Elementary School offered us some snacks as we arrived, and we discussed the nature of their place. The area is quite remote and they rarely get visitors (despite websites having them as a tourist site). We then headed to the first part of the stone structures which aligned with the view of the Sun. The upper part of the main stone pillar that contained etches was taken away in 1986 - some say by the National museum, other locals suspect tourists. The locals mentioned that it was visited by an archaeologist in the past. Our research show that the late William Henry Scott indicated that the etches were said to resemble ancient writings from the Shang Dynasty in China (16 BC).

The etches indicated cultural practices in which a boar was sacrificed in the center of the dap-ay. The size of the boar depended on the planting period.

 

The other part is the head-like rock structure that contains crevices which is said to align with the Sun to tell the seasons. The Sun is said to align with the stone during the autumnal equinox on September.

The head-like rock formation that aligns with the Sun.

The North-South directed crevice below the stone head.

Solar Image: 12 January 2014

Here is today's whole disk image and 3D isophote rendering of the sunspot groups. This will be my last post for now before traveling back to the Andromeda Mobile Planetarium for work. I might get to image again on Saturday or Sunday when I get back to my equipment.

The receding sunspot groups AR 2257 and 2255 have developed gamma-delta magnetic fields putting the risk for M-class flares at 40%, and X-class flares at 10%. As of yesterday only eight C-class flares were released by active regions 2255, 2257, 2260 and 2262; five of which were by AR 2257.

I was hoping I can document the growth and development of AR 2259 [McIntosh: Eko] but it looks like I'll only get to catch up on that via the internet.

AR 2259

Well that's it for the mean time. Catch you guys next time! :)

Clear skies!

Solar Image: 11 January 2015

Here is the solar image for 11 January 2014 along with their 3D rendering of the transiting sunspot groups. I've been able to follow AR 2257 since January 7 and here is a little animated GIF showing the development of AR 2257.

AR 2257 currently has a McIntosh class of Dki and NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of flares. As of this post it released 3 C-class flares today.

Solar Image: 10 January 2015

Today is a bright & sunny Saturday morning. There are several sunspot groups in the Sun today. I've been receiving good feedback for my 3D rendering of transit ARs from the solar imaging community that I've decided to add them to my usual whole disk white-light images (which are now posted at the sidebar of this blog). The 3D render brings out much detail in the umbral and penumbral structure of the sunspot groups.

AR 2257 is growing in size and may pose a threat for M-class flares. It currently has a McIntosh class Dki and released 3 C-class flares yesterday (C 9.6, C 1.8, C 1.9).

Another sunspot group that seems to be growing in size is AR 2259 [Eko] with two C-class flares yesterday.

You can check out my paper on Sunspot data extraction through 3D rendering at:

• Philippine Journal of Astronomy (June 2014)
• RTU ESS: Sunspot Data Extraction Using 3D Isophote Rendering

You can also choose to join our solar community on Facebook at Solar Activity.

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)

I've only gotten back in Manila from the holidays and decided to take a shot at comet Lovejoy. I wasn't able to do it earlier since I left my usual gear (camera and travelscope) while away since we didn't have much space in the car. Comet C/2014 Q2 was first spotted by Terry Lovejoy last August.

Anyways, I decided to take out my dobsonian and scanned for the comet which is now in Eridanus. The moon and Manila's light and air pollution made it a bit challenging to observe the stars of Eridanus.

I was able to spot the comet by using omicron eridani (Keid & Beid) as my reference point. These stars were relatively bright and close enough to the comet's current position. I took multiple frames of the comet each at 1.3 seconds only given that my setup had no tracking capacity. Unfortunately I couldn't stack them together either since my laptop had limited memory to run conventional stacking softwares.

I ended up my night by taking a shot at Jupiter and the moon.

To aid you in searching for Comet Lovejoy, you can check out it's current position at TheSkyLive. Happy hunting! :)

Solar Image: 22 Dec 2014

I had to image in between brief moments of sunlight through gaps in the clouds. Seeing wasn't that good so I opted to do some 3D isophote rendering of the three largest transit-ARs. The two large sunspot groups receding from the solar disk have been actively flaring; in fact AR (1)2242  produced an intense X1.8-class flare on Dec 20 00:27 UT.