Wierdest conditions July 20, 2021

[ffellah]

Hello all: this morning one of the strangest sessions, with the smoke from the fires on the West coast obscuring the sun here on the East coast. The atmosphere was surreal, I never saw the sun like that. High res was not an option, but I tried the HaT with the 0.7x reducer hoping for the best. Additionally, the PG174 chipped camera, that is usually very fast, was running between 1 and 2 FPS, adding to the Twilight Zone feel of the whole thing . I only shot a series of 100 frames for each .SER and stacked 10. It took some processing but in the end I was able to have a couple of acceptable images. Last surprise: I took a photo of the sky with my iPhone to record the unusual conditions and when I looked at it closely on a large monitor what do I see ? Venus. Never thought I could take a photo of Venus during daytime with my phone.

Franco

[DeepSolar64]

Franco,
The smoke and haze from the fires out west doesn't seem to be hitting the southeast US like it is up where you are. The rain we have been having lately may also be cleaning it from the atmosphere.

Nice images and you might be surprised what you can image with your phone!

James

[Montana]

Wow!! how strange to see Venus and so bright too, are you sure it isn't a lens flare?

Great solar image too, a very clear and crisp one for the conditions

Alexandra

[marktownley]

Wowzers Franco! That smoke will be drifting across the Atlantic before too long if it's with you on the eastern sea board...

Very nice shots!

[Ivan]

Franco, this is a great shot. Thank you. Hopefully the smoke will go away soon.

Ivan

[MAURITS]

Beautiful images Franco, hopefully without smoke in de coming days.

[EGRAY_OBSERVATORY]

Thank you Franco for your excellent presentation and the unusual capture too.

Best wishes
Terry

[ffellah]

Thank you all for your nice comments.

Franco

[marktownley]

Nice additions!

[Valtori]

Very nice close-ups there!!

Val

[ffellah]

Thanks a lot, Mark and Val.

Franco

[eroel]

Franco:
Super images in spite of the seeing conditions, the Venus one is awsome.
Regards,
Eric.

[Carbon60]

Crazy conditions indeed, Franco. Nice images.

We sometimes see similar effects when the winds bring very fine desert sand/dust from the Sahara creating a strange orange haze. Thankfully this is not a common event

Stu.

[Martin_S]

That's an interesting post Franco, I once read that early solar observations were done when the sun was low through smoke haze.

Martin

[ffellah]

Thank you Eric, Stu and Martin, much appreciated.

Franco