Sun June 24 with flare in AR4475

Temperature slightly above 30°C but seeing is good. I could capture a flare near sunspot AR4475 and in CaIIH line.


Setting: Solex Pro on TLAPO60/360 and ASI290MM
ND Filter

Tilt:0,6° Sx/Sy:1

Software: SharpCap, Inti, JSolex, DeNoise AI, CS4

Sun June 22 Sol'Ex and JSolex setting

Day 6 of the second* heat wave in Belgium so far this year. So conditions are moderate with temperatures above 25°C this morning and moderate seeing. I added extra protection with Aluminum foil on the camera and parts of mu Sol'Ex Pro version to protect for heating.

I spend time to a sharp apture aswell a good Sx/Sy. 

But more important was the time I spend on editing the images using JSolex. The slit contains some dust and previous images didn't show them. So went back to the basics and changed JSolex settings with some good results. 

* the first heat wave end May is not official as measured in Uccle but was registrated locally at my hometown.

E-Corona woth Sol'Ex

Last year I tried a couple of times to capture the E-Corona of the Sun. This time, the Sun was higher in the sky and a UT noon time about 62°. Most of the time a blue sky with sometimes very dim high clouds. 

Setting:

TS/TLAPO 80/360 with ND filter and ASI290MM camerea

AZ/EQ6 mount

Solex Pro version with tilted continuum filter 

Camera temperature : 46°C

Seeing: moderate to poor

ROI Capture Area 1936x68

Tilt:-0,17°

Sx/Sy: 5,82

Binning 2x2

Exposure time: 1,79ms Gain 116

Frames per second : 550

Total scans : 105

Software: Sharpcap

Editing: Inti, JSOLEX, CS4, DeNoise AI

ImageMath by JSolex; setting by Cedric aswell as by Olivier. Below images are made using setting by Olivier.

Conclusion:

- use of tilted continuum filter makes it easy to find the area of interest (Fe XIV)

- impact of seeing conditions

- almost One hour of scanning, resulting in 105 images

- sky not all the time blue and transparent

- Sx/Sy to high; rate should be x32 in stead of x16

- some signal in the image but still to weak to really make the link with the E-corona

Solex H-Alpha and CaIIH

My Solex by James R is still under repair and therefore I'm using my Solex Pro version with ASI290MM camera and ND filter on the TS/TLAPO60/360 scope.

I'm not sure what the rootcause is but the image show a kind of movement; could be seeing but I'm not sure. Anyway the focus was getting the E-corona imaged (see other blogpost) and finding the sweet spot for sharpness. 

Some smaller sunspots are visible aswell as a flare on the western limb resulting in a nice sharp prominence. 

Nancy Grace Roman Boarding Pass

The new Hubble Space telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is planned to be launched in August 2026. The aperture is the same as the Hubble Telescope but it will over a larger field of view. In the mean time I got my boarding pass :)

Supernumerary and double rainbows and a drone image of rainbow

Last week I could capture some special rainbows: double rainbows and supernumerary rainbows.

I took aswell a picture using my DJIO Neo2 drone.... really promising. 

Very rare 9° Halo

On June 11, 2026 I could capture a very rare halo. Beside the 22° Halo, there was aswell a 9° halo. I send my picture to Beglium Weather group  which confirmed the 9° halo. The 9° halo finds it's origin in pyramid chrystals. See aswell this website : https://www.meteoros.de/themen/halos/haloarten/ee31