Sunday Sunshine 5th May

[marktownley]

It was the bank holiday weekend here in the UK, a bonus Monday off work, and despite mixed conditions around the country we didn't do too bad and got some sunny breaks, we went off in the boat to our regular countryside spot. First thing Sunday morning was best for me, and the 'alarm cat; kindly woke me up at 5am as was going light and the birds were tweeting, so I was up and out with a brew for first light.

There was a faint sun pillar visible in the mist as the sun was coming up:
20240505_055951 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

The mist puts a lovely colour tinge to the sun, but is awful for proper solar

IMG_3185 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

The alarm cat was up and out with me, it's a very important job going round sniffing everywhere
20240506_054621 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

I'd took the travelling kit with me, along with my new super size wind break. less so for breaking wind, but more so from hiding the scope from Mr Nosey Bonk and his mates in the other boats. The scopes work like a magnet to them, and they always come along to see what's going on, solar astronomy perplexes most people - why would you look at the sun, you go blind? But then inevitably they end up hanging around for an inordinate amount of time telling me how they were watching some TV programme on the Roswell incident. Whilst it may sound antisocial on my part, and while outreach is an important part of our hobby, there are just times when I want to get on and do solar, not be shoe horned into a discussion on weather Mayan crop circles were caused by aliens...

20240505_064115 by Mark Townley, on Flickr

I used the solarquest mount this time, and I know others hold it in high regard, but again I had nothing but issues with it not staying on target on the sun, it doesn't go off the sun, but it can move around nearly a solar diameter while it seemingly endlessly hunts to lock on. I've read the instruction manual, done factory resets to no avail. Makes me cross and swear, which I don't want to do. I may have to get the AzGti out again and try with that. I prefer the hand controller for fine adjustments. Anyway, I digress, here are some pics.

The sun was in varying states of flaring throughout the image sequences. First off the Ha full disk.

Ha FD DS50 2x cemax zwo183mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Difficult to tune properly, the solarquest wobbles around when you touch the scope...

Then the CaK disk, the haze / mist isn't conducive to the CaK proms, but i'm pleased with how it came out.

CaK FD 40mm f15 zwo183mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Then CaK 40mm f15 with a 2x cemax (running at less magnification) and the ZWO290mm

ar13663 CaK 40mm f15 2x cemax zwo290mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ar13664 CaK 40mm f15 2x cemax zwo290mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

Then running at 60mm f10, but with the 2x cemax giving somewhere around 2.25x with the 290mm for a bit more scale.

ar13664 CaK 60mm f10 2x cemax zwo290mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

ar13663 CaK 60mm f10 2x cemax zwo290mm by Mark Townley, on Flickr

I shot a lot of data, but high cloud prevailed and started to cause transparency and contrast issues. It was nice to be out and observing though!

Hope you like these!

Mark

[Martin_S]

Great post Mark. Your imaging location is so peaceful. The Cak looks good, thanks for posting.

[WMoore]

Excellent session and backstory with photos :-)
The active AR regions positively crackle in CaK
Thanks!

[Александр]

Very nice scenery and the scope is close by.




Alexander.

[Carbon60]

Beautiful and idyllic location, Mark and great images.

Stu.

[arnedanielsen]

What a beautiful and tranquil spot for solar imaging and some very nice results as well! Thanks for sharing Mark!

[DeepSolar64]

Mark,
Your boating-solar posts always makes me smile. I am a bit like you, I like doing outreach to a point but I am not exactly a people-person and am not always eager to answer seemingly offbeat questions like how the world governments are hiding aliens and how aliens are sucking off plasma from the sun to power their technology.

That is a nice blind too and I have one of those fuzzy cat alarm clocks as well. But with me it is always coffee in the morning and beer in the evening. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

From one boater to another here is a couple of mine. I could only carry the little SUNoculars on my little boat I guess...

James


P.S. Do you ever see kayaks on the canals?

On Russell from McCalla State Park. .jpg (1.93 MiB) Viewed 454 times

The Grey Minnow.JPG (5.37 MiB) Viewed 454 times

[KMH]

Those are beautiful landscape and solar images! How big is your boat?
I can also understand your comments on visitors while imaging. Last summer I spent a number of evenings taking infrared images of the Venus nightside surface, which had only about a 20-30 min window after it got dark enough and before Venus got too low. On a few occasions I had interested people stop and chat. Although they were well-meaning, it kind of drove me crazy!

Kevin

[marktownley]

Thanks folks for the kind words!

You do get kayaks on the canals James, along with paddle boards. There's a chap I see regularly with a lovely wooden kayak, I will have to get a picture next time I see him. The boat is 50 foot long Kevin.

Mark

[MAURITS]

A beautiful post Mark, great images and wonderfull location.

[Dennis]

Great post and images Mark. Funny how people assume if you point a telescope at the sky you must know about alien stuff : D

[DeepSolar64]

Mark,
My kayak is 10’ 4” long. Polyethylene plastic. I bet the wooden kayak is pretty. I don’t see many of those. Most here are plastic, fiberglass or carbon fiber. Wood and aluminum are rare here. Dad however made three out of cedar wood which forms a frame. Vinyl is stretched and attached to the frame. Very similar to the Inuit boats but theirs used sealskin wrapped around a wooden frame. Dad still has one of them. My brother the other. The third no longer exists.

Again. Nice setup and images!

James

[rigel123]

Great backstory and wonderful images Mark! Always like to see pics of the boat too, and nice Kayak James! I'm out at the moment in my backyard catching some shots of AR3664 blasting off an M Class flare after it's X Class earlier, along with that huge prom on the Western Limb.

[DeepSolar64]

Thanks Warren! I have really enjoyed my kayak. I caught an X-class flare visually this afternoon. I will post the results of the session shortly.

James

[marktownley]

Thanks guys!

[DeepSolar64]

You are welcome Mark. I always enjoy your images and boat trip experiences.

[ffellah]

A great set of images, Mark. Your CaK is always stunning. Must be very relaxing boating around and stopping to do solar: you have a great combination.

Franco

[pupak]

Peace, tranquility and wonderful photos.
Very nice collection, Mark.
Petr

[nicspenceryork]

Wow, brings a whole new meaning to ‘holiday snaps’!
Gorgeous set,
Nic

[Ibbo]

Great location and images Mark.
Wish we still had access to a boat and that Helen was able to enjoy it.