Cold Moon, active sun

The full moon of December is traditionally called the "Cold Moon".  An appropriate nickname - the temperature is already in the single-digits Fahrenheit two hours before midnight.  This year it is also a perigean full moon (aka "super moon"), so it is noticeably brighter than average.

Cold Moon rising over Snowshoe Mountain, 04 December.

Cold Moon illumination.  Laowa 7.5mm f/2 lens, 2-hr live composite.

A large sunspot group is traversing the sun.  

 

White light. AT80EDT refractor + Lunt solar wedge.

Hydrogen-Alpha light.  Lunt LS50THa with double-stacked etalons.

Even though it is winter, heat currents in the air make it difficult to get sharp single images of the sun during the middle of the day.

December-01 moonlight star trails

 The landscape was lit up by the 11.6-day moon.  There was a gusty wind blowing, which required the camera to be set up on the leeward side of a shed for protection.  Temperature was 11° F heading toward an eventual low of 1.4° F the next morning.

Equipment: Olympus E-M1iii + Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 fisheye lens.

2-hr live composite mode

 

1-hr live composite.

New sunspots

A large sunspot group has just rotated into view.  This group is so large that it was visible to the NASA Perserverance Rover on Mars, which was not designed for high-resolution solar observation.   Who knows, more northern-lights displays may be in our near future.

Equipment: Olympus E-M1iii + AT80EDT refractor + Lunt Solar Wedge + ND0.6 filter.