This image depicts the northeast quadrant of our Sun, as recorded the morning of March 2, 2026. The data collected were in hydrogen-alpha light and depict well the turbulent curves in the chromosphere resulting from Solar plasma interacting with strong magnetic fields surrounding two sunspots shown here, left to right: Active Regions 4384 and 4381. Several tenuous prominences are found along the rim of the circle. This is a non-colored monochrome image. // James Guilford, Stella-Luna Observatory
It was the last sunny day expected for, likely, a week so we had to get out and image our Sun. Well, we would have done it anyway! Seeing conditions were forecast to be better than average but at midday, when we have our first clear shot at Sun, the atmosphere was stirred up and shaking our view. Still, the miracle of “lucky imaging” came through and we were able to make passable pictures from the image data. Interestingly, the sunspots at Active Regions 4384 and 4381 are the remnants of the giant sunspot formerly known as AR4366 surviving a trip around the far side of our star! Sunspots, by the way, receive new designations when they are first observed appearing over the eastern horizon even if they were previously observed as they disappeared over the western edge.
Both of these images were the result of data stacked in ASI’s VideoStack application. The image above was then processed only in Pixelmator Pro. The image below was processed in PixInsight/Solar Toolbox, and Pixelmator Pro.
An image of our Sun taken in hydrogen-alpha light reveals a turbulent chromosphere, marked with a few dark filaments. Three sunspots are found in the left-hand portion of the disk though difficult to see via hydrogen-alpha. False color has been added to this image. // James Guilford, Stella-Luna Observatory
Shown in white light is our Sun as it appeared on February 4, 2026. A large sunspot, designated Active Region 4366, drew much attention as it transited the surface, issuing flares along the way.
On sunny days, this winter, when it’s not bone-shatteringly cold, we’ve been imaging Sun. In white light, we’ve tracked the progress of a couple of impressively-large sunspots as they traversed the Solar photosphere, including one designated Active Region 4366 that drew global attention in late January and early February 2026. We’ve also been observing in hydrogen-alpha (Ha) light.
The NOAA SWPC Solar Synoptic Analysis map showing Sun on February 16, 2026.
On sunny February 16, we checked the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center’s daily Synoptic Analysis map for targets of interest. Yes! The map indicated several prominences around Sun’s rim so, a great day to see what was out there.
The full-disk image of Sun as it appeared in hydrogen-alpha light. This is a monochrome image original with false color applied. The “filaprom” is located at about the four o’clock position on the disk.
While an arch-shaped prominence at about the two o’clock position was our original target, as soon as we looked through the telescope’s eyepiece we saw it — a filaprom! What’s that? The snake-like features that appear in Ha are called filaments. If a filament bridges the Solar limb, its true nature is revealed: it’s a prominence, appearing as a dark filament when viewed against the bright chromosphere, and as a bright prominence when contrasted against the blackness of space — a filaprom! It was a first for us and delightful to observe!
Close-up view of the filaprom, near the top of the arc. Lower on the curve is a prominence issued from a position just over the Solar limb. Near the left-hand portion of the frame is a filament feature — a prominence viewed against the bright Solar chromosphere.
Improvements in instrumentation and processing skills helped with both the capture and depiction of our nearest star’s activities. We recently upgraded to the relatively-new Sky-Watcher Heliostar 76Ha telescope and that has made a huge difference in visualizing the chromosphere. The telescope’s filtering system, with a “single-stack” arrangement, is capable of 0.5 Angstrom or better which really brings out detail — stronger image “signal” produces image data that are easier to process and edit. More about the telescope another time.
The Sky-Watcher Heliostar 76Ha telescope in its parked position beneath the observatory dome.
The gray observatory is surrounded by accumulated and drifting snow. The dome itself wears an extra dome of accumulated snow.
Recent arctic-air frigid weather has brought real winter weather to our region for the first time in a few seasons. Snowfall over the past 48 hours amounted to 10 or 12 inches of light, flaky, fluff. Nighttime below-zero low temperatures have erased any thought of going out; skies have been cloudy, anyway, preventing guilt and regret. So the dome remains sealed though pointed to the south for midday solar observations. If we ever see Sun again.
Full disk image of Sun as viewed in hydrogen-alpha light. Snake-like, dark filaments grace the center of the image. Several sunspots are also noted. Dominant in its influence on surrounding plasma features, is Active Region 4341 which exploded with a powerful flare one hour after this image was recorded.
With recent weather, we believed the observatory might be closed until spring. On January18, however, the skies were clear and blue with very little wind. We unsealed the dome, brushed off some of the accumulated snow, and aimed at Sun. The first thing we observed was the presence of large filaments at the center of the disk. One filament, Z-shaped, was in immediate proximity to a large sunspot at Active Region 4341. Also visible were multiple prominences around the disk; Sun is still active! The powerful magnetic forces surrounding AR4341 are made evident by its influence upon Solar plasma — twisting and aligning the visible features like iron filings around a science classroom magnet.
A close-up view of Solar Active Region 4341, in hydrogen-alpha light. Snake-like, dark filaments grace the center of the image. Several sunspots are also noted. Dominant in its influence on surrounding plasma features, AR4341 exploded with a powerful flare one hour after this image was recorded.
While the sky was clear and blue, the temperature was wicked cold for standing around on stone floors. Also, touching metal telescopes, properly allowed to reach the ambient temperature of 19°F, with bare hands is, painful. The laptop computer also found the temperature uncomfortable for, while its battery was charged to about 60% capacity, the system quit complaining of low battery. Attaching the computer’s charger let us finish the session.
Video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft, showing the X1.9/3b flare at AR4341. — January 18, 2026
One hour after we recorded the images of AR4341, the sunspot exploded with a massive X1.9-class flare. Expansive auroral displays are expected early January 20 though here, in Northeast Ohio, we are expecting cloudy, winter weather.
Also appearing on Sun, sunspots at AR4347, 4342, and 4344, shown here in white light (false color applied), in the northern hemisphere. Hydrogen-alpha light reveals features in Sun’s chromosphere, whereas white light imagery shows features, such as sunspots, in Sun’s photosphere — a layer deeper.
Our inland view of the aurora borealis competing with suburban light pollution the night of November 12, 2025. The aurora on the previous night was stronger, raising excitement worldwide; it was cloudy here that night.Just above the treeline in the center of this image may be seen hints of the aurora borealis. Farther north from here, looking out over a dark landscape, the show was probably pretty good!
Here are some views of the sunspot that blew off the CMEs that caused the geomagnetic storms that made the auroras that raised all the hubbub this week.
The sunspot at Active Region 4274 is responsible for all the action. Where we show two sunspots, the smaller one (bottom edge) is AR4275. The first view is in hydrogen-alpha light, the second and third views are in white light; yellow-orange tones are false color applied in processing.
Sunspots and prominences shown via hydrogen-alpha light, false color added.A white light view of AR4274 (top) and much smaller AR4275 (bottom), false color applied.AR4272 close up, with interesting patterns emerging in both the umbra and penumbra areas of the larger spot. Strong winds at the time of imaging reduced resolution somewhat.Here’s a white light image of Sun we made this morning depicting very Active Region 4274 and its less busy neighbors. Rotation is a bit off — rotated southward — but left alone for composition purposes. AR4274 is responsible for a series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that resulted in two nights of auroral displays that excited observers worldwide.
Single exposure image of Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), October 20, 2025. Tech: Canon EOS 5D Mk. 4 DSLR, 400mm lens, f/5.6, ISO 10,000, 4 seconds.
October 21, 2025 — It was a tough one to find but, after a good deal of effort under near-pristine (for us) skies, I was able to spot the comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) from a Medina County, Ohio park. This (above) is a quick edit of a single frame. Star tracking wasn’t what it should have been; I’ve got to get more practice in the field! I worked on combining multiple frames the next morning, attempting to create a better quality image.
Stacking RAW images of C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) I did what I could to pull the most out of the imagery. What we got was a somewhat “cleaner” version. Not spectacular but the best we could do given all circumstances. I hope to learn improved processing skills and revisit the source images in the future. In the meantime, though the pictures are not spectacular, I’m happy to have bagged another comet. After all, how many of them do most of us see in a lifetime? These were recorded the night of October 20 but the UTC time conversion moves the date to the 21st.
Stacked image of Comet C/2025 A5 (Lemmon), October 20, 2025A SkySafari chart showing the position of Comet C/2025 A6 at about 7:30 PM EDT, October 20, 2025, as viewed from Northeastern Ohio.
November 3, 2025 — The air was still and the moon so bright and clear tonight, we had to open up the observatory long enough to take a peek and a pic! Moon was 92% illuminated in its waxing gibbous phase, lighting the landscape around us, no flashlight required. Technical: Askar 103 APO telescope, TeleVue Powermate 2X Barlow, Canon EOS 5D Mk. 4 DSLR, single exposure.
A full-disk image of Sun, as recorded in hydrogen-alpha light. Visible are two large sunspots, several serpentine filaments, and prominences that appear around the star’s limb. Credit: Stella-Luna Observatory / James Guilford
October 3, 2025 — We had been having quit a lot of trouble lately, recording data and reproducing images of Sun with prominences. There was some early success but even those images were a struggle to produce. Taking a look at suggested camera settings found in an article on solar imaging, one thing stood out — gain! We had nudged the camera’s gain setting upward and that’s not helpful and certainly not recommended; the setting should be very low or even zero! A few adjustments in data capture parameters was all it took to make a big difference in image processing and results!
Sun’s northeast quadrant, as recorded in hydrogen-alpha light. Visible are several filaments, as three prominences appear along the star’s limb. The “peach fuzz” appearance of the edge of the solar disk is caused by the presence of innumerable spicules or small prominences.
We’re very pleased with Barlow-boosted views, shown here, though we’re still having some issues with achieving even lighting across whole-disk views — just can’t seem to get them tuned right with the Coronado SolarMax III. Visual observing was also very good, especially with the TeleVue 10mm eyepiece. October 3 conditions: Clear sky, temperature of 74°F, light southeast wind.
A close-up view of two large sunspots, as seen in hydrogen-alpha light. Solar plasma follows the intense and curved lines of magnetic force to highlight the turmoil in the vicinity of the spots.
An International Observe the Moon Night promotional graphic. Credit: NASA
Note: The observatory construction is essentially complete with only a few “touch up” items and further outfitting remaining. We’ll eventually get around to writing and illustrating the story of the project. First, though, the 2025 International Observe the Moon Night….
October 4 marked International Observe the Moon Night (IOMN), an event billed as an opportunity to “unite people across the globe in a celebration of lunar observation, science, and exploration.” Coordinated and promoted by NASA, IOMN boasted 1,045 registered events worldwide. That count does not include informal events and individuals who, on their own, observed Earth’s Moon, encouraged by the promotion. Unfortunately, due to a U.S. government shutdown, NASA staff are unable to update the IOMN website and we may never know how it went this year.
While we did not host an outreach event, we did post fresh, new telescopic images depicting lunar details, along with descriptions of those events as our participation. This year, we concentrated our efforts on the Threads social media platform. What follows is what we posted.
Here’s a nice full-disk view of Earth’s Moon, one we made a few months ago with a phase very close to what we see tonight. The phase is called the “waxing gibbous” and is seen between the First Quarter and Full Moon. Moon will reach its full phase the night of October 6, this year.Mare Humorum, aka Sea of Moisture, is the dark circle at the center of this image. It was formed in an impact by an asteroid or comet, the crater filled with basalt. The “sea” is about 264 miles across and is seen here near the terminator — the dividing line between night and day — not long after local lunar sunrise. Crater Gassendi is the circular ring that intersects with Humorum. The crater is about 69 miles in diameter; a smaller crater at its northern edge is called Gassed A.
Followup Edit: Spellcheck was convinced we meant to type “Gassed” when what we really wanted was Gassendi A. Maybe it was the chili we had for dinner. Here’s crater Tycho, prominent even in the heavily-bombarded southern lunar highlands. Estimated to be 108 million years old, Tycho is about 53 miles in diameter but easily spotted using binoculars or a small telescope. The crater’s vast field of ejecta rays — the spray of material “splashed” out when an object hit Moon — is bright and forms lines that lead back to their origin. The feature was named after Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe.Also near the terminator, in Moon’s northwest, is this beautiful pair of craters: Kepler (left) and Copernicus. Like Tycho, Copernicus is marked by the prominent lines of ejecta radiating from the impact site, a crater about 58 miles in diameter. Crater Kepler, about 20 miles wide, lies to the west of Copernicus with its western rim shining brightly in the light of the lunar sunrise. For our final image of the night, we’re posting our image of a complex area of Moon at the northern end of the terminator. In the upper right we see crater Anaxagoras and surroundings glowing brightly, contrasted against the stark blackness of space. The smooth band spanning the image is Mare Frigoris. “C” shaped arch marks Sinus Iridum, opening to Mare Imbrium. Crater Plato is the circle with a smooth, dark floor in the lower right. Notice the chain of smaller, satellite craters next to Plato.
Crater Plato is about 63 miles in diameter and about 3.84 billion years old. Once again, see how the western rims of the craters along the terminator shine in the low-angle light from the rising Sun.
We hope you have enjoyed what you have seen and will see online tonight, or were fortunate to attend an International Observe the Moon Night event in person. Outdoors, at home, online, or wherever you may be, we’re glad to have had you with us. We hope IOMN has united people across the globe in a celebration of lunar observation, science, and exploration, under one sky, appreciating one Moon. Goodnight, and keep looking up!
Our neighborhood star: The Sun. Photographed in hydrogen-alpha light, this image shows the roiling chromosphere of our star with a large filament parallel with the left-hand edge of the picture, sunspots strung vertically across the center, and a good number of prominences along the rim, glowing against the dark background of space. Image has been rotated — east is up, north is right. Imaged 2024-10-26. 18:43 UTC. Credit: James Guilford, Stella-Luna Observatory
White light allows viewing Sun as if we could stare directly at it without the resulting blindness. The Herschel wedge does much the same thing but with, perhaps, a bit more contrast and detail. Both of those white light views allow us to see a layer of the solar atmosphere called the photosphere. In the photosphere the most apparent details are sunspots, standing black against a white background. With enough resolution we can also see granulation — enormous convective bubbles of searing solar plasma.
One layer above the photosphere — yes, above — is the chromosphere. Shining in the wavelength of hydrogen-alpha (Ha), the chromosphere is not visible to us without light filters that exclude all light but Ha. A wholly different view of our Sun is available in that wavelength. Swirling seas of plasma form curves and hash as they are moved by magnetic fields, long filaments float over those seas, as fountains of glowing gas arc from the solar disk contrasted against the blackness of space. On closer examination, the solar limb appears rough, a bit like a fine-toothed saw blade, as innumerable spicules, jets of glowing gas, are seen in contrast. Yes, sunspots are visible but are no longer the primary interest.
After many tries and failures at processing images to best show the chromosphere complete with prominences, I finally learned what some other imagers were using to process their images: Solar Toolbox — a package of programming scripts used with the PixInsight imaging application. I still have much to learn about Toolbox but it has already been enormously helpful to me in the challenging world of solar imaging! Thus, the image above is from very good data recorded about seven months ago, now reprocessed using Toolbox.
Stella-Luna Observatory 