Birds and planes passing in front of the sun with sunspots
Today it was silhouettes of a turkey vulture, some other birds, and partial silhouettes of a jet and a small plane passing in front of the sun. I’ve also added the time-lapse video if you want to look for other objects passing in front of the sun. There are several sunspots (we are at or near the solar maximum) that are constant across the video. When viewing the individual images there are some with small dots (satellites?) and blurs (blowing autumn leaves).
Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a bird. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of two birds. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a jet. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of an airplane. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)
The comet is still visible to the telescopes with an estimated magnitude of +6.8. The tail is fainter and shorter than yesterday. The Vespera II telescope was fitted with a CLS (city light suppression) filter causing the tint to the image. The length of the comet tail can be estimated based on the field of view for the telescope’s digital sensors. Stellina (1.0° x 0.7°), Vespera Classic (1.6° x 0.9°), Vespera Passengers (2.4° x 1.8°), Vespera II (2.5° x 1.4°), and Vespera Pro (1.6° x 1.6°). The jpg images were processed to increase the brightness (Capture One Pro) and reduce the noise (Topaz AI).
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec).Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera Classic Telescope (200 mm, f/4, 30 x 10 sec).Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera Passengers Telescope (200 mm, f/4, 30 x 10 sec).Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera II Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec) using a CLS (city light suppression) filter.Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 30 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 30 x 10 sec).
Jets and birds passing in front of the sun with sunspots.
The sky started out clear and sunny with clouds coming in later in the day. The Stellina telescope was fitted with a solar filter and set to observe the sun and sunspots. While reviewing a time-lapse video of the 18500 images (7h 45m compressed down to 10m 15s) I noticed the silhouette of a couple of jets and a bird (Turkey Vulture). Let me know if you see anything else (other than clouds) passing in front of the sun. It was windy with leaves falling from the trees. Even though it is Halloween, I didn’t catch a silhouette of a witch on a broom flying past the sun. By evening, the sky clouded over, so no images of the comet or other night sky objects.
Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a jet. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a jet. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a bird. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.
Gone to See America 2012 Road Trip. Day 11: Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Roswell, New Mexico.
Silhouette of Sandhill Cranes in Flight at Dusk. Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Roswell, New Mexico. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 1400, 500 mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre)
Daily Electric Energy Used (34.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (36.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny day. A surplus of 2.9 kWh.
Gone to see Europe. Semester at Sea. Fall 2012 Semester Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 08: At Sea, North Atlantic Ocean.
The early dawn sky was full of pink jet contrails when I got out on deck. The contrails would be from all of the red-eye flights crossing the Atlantic ocean from North America to Europe. A sign we were getting close to the end of our first leg at sea. As the sun came up, the contrails changed from pink to yellow.
Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.
Gone to see Europe. Semester at Sea. Fall 2012 Semester Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 02: At Sea, North Atlantic Ocean.
Waiting for the Sun to set from the aft deck of the M/V Explorer. Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 122 mm, f/11, 1/200 sec).
Sunset at Sea on the M/V Explorer. Fall 2012 Semester at Sea Voyage. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 122 mm, f/11, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Time-lapse video of the sun setting from the aft deck of the MV Explorer. Images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro. Time-lapse video created using Photoshop CC. Two versions first without additional processing, and the second applying a warping filter using After Effects CC to minimize motion while hand holding the camera on a moving ship.
