Solar activity

Here's a couple of  photos of today's beautiful Sun. Lots of nice activities going on despite the fact that the Sun is heading for a activity minimum in the solar cycle. Including a closeup shot of today's big beautiful prominence.  Taken using a Lunt LS80THa telescope with a PointGrey Grasshopper 3 camera.

Iridescent Clouds

Yesterday I saw some really colorful Iridescent clouds, one of my favorite cloud phenomena. These clouds are visible when parts of clouds are thin and have similar size droplets, diffraction can make them shine with colours like a corona. I like how the Sun was covered enough to be visible through and not totally overexposed.

Nikon D850 with Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8E
Exposure: 1/8000 sec. ISO 64 @ 112mm f/8

Mountain solar halo

Yesterday when I woke up I saw that there were good conditions for a solar halo here in the mountain area in the western part of Jämtland. I kept an eye on the sky and around 13:00 local time this halo was clearly visible for about 30 minutes. As you can see there were lots of clouds moving in and a few hour later it was cloudy.

I really like the different type of clouds surrounding the Sun, it gives more drama to the photo compared to a clear blue sky.

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Nikon D5 with Nikon AF-S 14-24 mm f/2.8
6 shot panorama 1/8000 sec. ISO 100 at f/8.0

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Spring equinox

Happy spring equinox everyone!

Today at 10:29 UTC the we left the astronomical winter and entered the astronomical spring. Today the day and night are equally long  and from now on the days will be longer and longer up until the Summer solstice on the 21st of June.

This photo from today shows a very calm Sun with no sunspots. The sun has now been without sunspots for 14 consecutive days. Last time this happened was in April of 2010. The Suns activity has a cycle of 11 years and the Sun is heading for a new Solar Minimum expected to arrive in 2019-2020. Up until then we can expect even longer periods with no sunspots, broken from time to time by mostly small sunspots.

Photo taken with a Lunt LS80THA telescope
and a PointGrey Grasshopper 3 camera

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The Midnight Sun

If you go above the artic circle during summer you can witness the midnight Sun. It's really amazing to be out in the middle of the night and still see the Sun above the horizon. You completely loose track of time at night since it feels and looks like it's late afternoon when it's actually past midnight. This is a mosaic picture I've made of 12 photos taken on June 21 in 2016 during the summer solstice in Gällivare, Sweden. The photos were taken between 23:30 and 01:20 local Swedish time. As you can see the Sun never goes down below the horizon.

Midnight Sun during summer solstice.

Earth at Aphelion

Today Earth is at aphelion, that's the farthest point to the Sun. Since Earth's orbit around the Sun is in an elliptical path, there is one point of the path when the Sun is at its closest to the Earth and one point when it is furthest away. The opposite to aphelion is perihelion, then Earth is nearest to the Sun, next time the Earth is in perihelion will be on the 4th och January in 2017.

Universe Today has an great article on today's event if you would like to read more http://www.universetoday.com/129513/earth-at-aphelion/

This is a shot of today's Sun as seen from aphelion.

Sun as seen from aphelion with scale sized Earth included.

Midnight Summer Solstice Sun

Last night the Sun went from spring to summer during the summer solstice. At the time I was above the article circle so I could see the Sun throughout the entire night. The weather was really bad during the day but cleared up around 19:00 UTC. Seeing the midnight Sun is really special and I'm so happy that the weather cleared up during the solstice. I was also able to see the full Moon rise and it's quite awesome to be able to see both the Sun and the full Moon during the night.

Midnight Solstice Sun in Gällivare, Sweden

Full Moon rising in the light of the midnight Sun

Here's a time lapse movie showing the Sun move across the sky. As you can see the Sun never sets below the horizon, it gets blocked blocked by clouds at one point.

June starts off with a halo

Yesterday, on the 1st of June, this beautiful halo emerged for a couple of hours during early afternoon. I was out scouting for new photo locations when I saw that a faint solar halo started to form. I drove to this church to get a nice foreground together with the halo. This is the new church of Oviken, Jamtland, Sweden. It was built in 1903 - 1905.

Solar halo over the new church of Oviken.

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Mercury Transit

Yesterday I spent the entire day outside following the Mercury transit. The weather was great more or less the entire time with a few clouds moving by from time to time. I have seen both Venus transits in 2004 and 2012 (Read about my Venus transit in 2012 here), but this was my first ever Mercury transit. All in all I'm very happy with the results and I'm really glad I got to follow Mercury during the entire transit.

Here's a photo showing my location and the gear I was using.

As you can see, I used both my 80mm H-alpha solar telescope and my 8" SCT telescope on my SkyWatcher AZ EQ5GT mount. Here some shots I took during the transit.

Solar telescope 11:15:30 UTC

8" telescope 12:27:14 UTC

Solar telescope 12:43:12 UTC

Solar telescope 16:37:23 UTC

8" telescope 18:37:16 UTC

Solar Eiffel Tower

My latest photo of the Sun with a big prominence looking like the Eiffel Tower got some nice attention around the world. Here are some of the articles covering the story

Popular Science
http://www.popsci.com/sun-briefly-built-eiffel-tower-larger-our-planet

Discovery News
http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/eiffel-tower-prominence-towers-over-the-sun-150817.htm

Dail Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3202391/Is-Eiffel-Tower-sticking-SUN-Enormous-arc-gas-solar-surface-resembles-famous-French-landmark.html

Space.com
http://www.space.com/30289-eiffel-tower-prominence-towers-over-the-sun.html

Gizmodo
http://gizmodo.com/look-how-massive-this-eiffel-tower-shape-on-the-sun-is-1724908641

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Planning and shooting a sunset

I never get tired of watching a sunrise, sunset, moonrise or moonset. All these events are always beautiful to watch and it's also very exciting because you never know what might happen regarding light and atmospheric phenomena.

Last Sunday the weather was looking good for the evening and I had looked up a location that would give me a nice foreground, in this case a large building. I think planning your shot is half the fun and that's something I really enjoy doing. When planning my shot I usually use Google Maps and tools like The Photographer's Ephemeris. Other useful tools are planetarium software like Stellarium 

Always be careful when shooting the Sun since its so bright, you could damage your eyes. Never look straight into the Sun through your camera. Regarding filters, this sunset was quite cloudy so I didn't need any filters, otherwise you could use a ND-filter to dim the Sun.

As soon as I arrive on the location I've planned, I start by checking the surroundings to see what I can work with regarding foregrounds etc. I also double check that I'm in a spot where the Sun or the Moon will pass behind the planed distant object. Then I usually start off by taking some wide angle shots while the Sun is above the horizon and I got some really nice a warm light.

Here's a shot showing lake Storsjön and you can see the building to the right of the Sun. Above the Sun you can see a faint Sun pillar.

Nikon D810A, 1/250 sec. ISO 200, 70 mm f/8

As the Sun gets closer to the horizon I switch to a longer focal length to really get up close with the Sun. In this case I was shooting at a focal length of 1,200 mm. Quite extreme but in that way you get a much more dramatic scene. The building was located 13 km away from me at the time.

Nikon D810A, 1/2000 sec. ISO 400, 1200 mm f/11

In the shot above you can see two sunspots on the solar disc. Both these sunspots are about the same size as the Earth's diameter. As you can see the clouds can sometimes work with you adding a lot of drama to the scene. The sky above the Sun looks much better with this thin layer of clouds that it would have done without them. But I would have preferred not having the lower thicker clouds to get a cleaner solar disc, but they also adds a bit of drama.

Later on the Sun passed behind the building as planned.

Nikon D810A, 1/500 sec. ISO 400, 1200 mm f/11

The image above is a panoramic image of three shots. I did that to get the reflections of the Sun in the water. You should always be alert to whats happening in the scene regarding light, reflections or shadows. For just a brief moment there could be something that you don't want to miss.

So, how close will you get with a focal length of 1,200 mm? Here's a 100% crop from a photo I took later on.

Nikon D810A, 1/500 sec. ISO 400, 1200 mm f/8

As you can see a really long focal length can create some dramatic shots but it's also really hard to get sharp shots. When you enlarge a scene using a longer focal length, you also enlarge all the errors. So if you have lots of turbulence in the air you will have a hard time getting a sharp image. In this case I was shooting over water and that usually gives a much sharper image due to stable air.

So, keep shooting those sunsets, it's not cliche, it's so much fun and excitement.

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Back in northern Sweden

I've been traveling in the south of Sweden for almost 4 weeks and now I'm finally back in Östersund. I had a great time and got to see some starry night skies again. Here in the north we still can't see any stars but it won't be long now. Here are a couple of images from my trip.

Sunset in Blekinge

Night in the forest in Småland

Sunset in Malmö

Moonset in Malmö

Jupiter and Venus conjunction in Denmark

Moonrise over Gothenburg

Earth to Moon solar filament

Here's a photo I took of the Sun today showing one huge filament stretching over the surface of the Sun. I've included a scale sized Earth and Moon and the distance between them and as you can see, the filament is just about the same length as the distance from Earth to the Moon. Otherwise the Sun was quite calm but this filament was very impressive through my solar telescope.

Edit: Today April 30, this photo is featured as Astronomy Picture of the Day at NASA.

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Sun and Moon halo on the same day

Yesterday we had excellent halo conditions here over Östersund, Sweden. During the day I took a photo of the 22° solar halo. And later that night, 10 hours later, when the Moon was in the same position in the sky, I took another shot of a 22° Moon halo taken from the same position. It's quite interesting to see these two halos side by side.

The image below shows the two images merged together. This image was featured as Astronomy Photo Of the Day at NASA

Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, did an article explaining the this photo and phenomena more in detail, you can read it here. The photo also appeared on Gizmodo and Peta Pixel.

Sun halo left and Moon halo right

Here are the two shots separately. The photos were taken 10 hours apart.

Sun halo taken 10:21 (UTC standard time)

Moon halo taken 20:30 (UTC standard time)

Things to look forward to in 2015

A new year starts today, a year filled with exciting astronomical events to look forward to. In this photo you can see the Great Lake Monster looking at a solar halo, an event we hopefully see more of during the winter ahead.

First out is comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2), it will soon be visible here in northern Sweden and I'm really looking forward to see and take photos of it. It should double in brightness by mid-January 2015. This puts it just above the threshold for naked-eye visibility and makes it possible to record the comet using only a camera--no telescope required.

One of the biggest astronomical events during 2015 is the total solar eclipse on the 25th of March. In the northern Scandinavia more than 90% of the sun will be covered. To see the total solar eclipse you need to travel to Svalbard or Faroe Islands.

Another great event is the Blue Moon on July 31. A Blue Moon is when there are 2 full moons in one Month. A full moon occurs roughly every 29.5 days so on rare occasions there are two full moons in one month, then the second full moon is called a Blue Moon.

Also NASA's New Horizons will arrive at Pluto, lunar eclipse, meteor showers and more. I'll keep you posted as we're getting closer to them during the year.

Happy new year and clear skies!

Unusual Sunset

For some time I've had an idea that I would like to shoot a scene during sunset and work with silhouettes against the solar disc. In October of 2014 I finally got around to do it and I called up a couple of friends to see if they were willing to do some acting.

I originally hadn't planed to use sword fighters, but I thought it could be an interesting concept to have some theatrical action in the scene. My two friends are trained amateur stuntmen and used to handle swords so I felt confident that no one was going to get hurt.

A lot of time went into location scouting, I wanted a hill clear of any big trees and buildings and with an even surface so that the action would be clearly visible and the actors easily could move around.

An interesting part in the movie is at the 01:30 mark when you see the exhalation lit up by the Sun.


Music Koke Nunez Gomez - Soul of Warrior

Sunspot AR2192

Today I finally got some clear skies and a chance to see the huge sunspot AR2192. It was a fantastic view through the solar telescope and I don't think I ever seen such a huge sunspot.

This is a shot I took today, in the center of the Sun you can see a very long filament. It's longer than the distance between Earth and Moon.

Behind the scenes of Solar Superstorms

Here are some behind the scenes footage of the work I'm doing on the upcoming Spitz Incorporated movie Solar Superstorms together with Thomas Lucas at Thomas Lucas Productions. The work is coming along just fine and I have some serious amounts of data to process. I will continue shooting during October so let's hope for some sunny days ahead. Read more about the movie.

Solar Superstorms

Finally I'm able to share some news about one of my biggest ongoing projects. It's a upcoming movie production called Solar Superstorms, a movie about our closest star, the Sun.

It's produced by Spitz Incorporated (USA), the world's leading projection dome supplier. They specializes in planetarium theaters, projection domes, architectural domes and custom immersive theater attractions. They also offer the industry's most comprehensive fulldome show library.

Spitz partners in this project are Thomas Lucas Productions (http://www.tlproductions.com) and the Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (http://avl.ncsa.illinois.edu).

My task in this project is to deliver several different scenes of the Sun and some of the affects it has on Earth. I'll start shooting in the coming weeks so exciting times ahead. I'll also keep you posted on my progress and hopefully be able to share some behind the scenes footage of my ongoing work.

Solar Superstorms is scheduled for launch early in 2015. You can read more about the movie in the attached image.

Low and High Rainbow

Here I have combined two shots from yesterday of two different rainbows. It's interesting to see how the Suns altitude in the sky affects the height of the rainbow.

The first photo was taken at 15:25 UTC (Add two hours for Swedish summer time) when the Sun had an altitude of 27° above the horizon. In the second shot, taken at 19:48 UTC, the Sun was just 0.033° (2 arc minutes) above the horizon. At sunrise or sunset a rainbow's centre is on the horizon as seen in the second image.