The Sun – 27th April 2026

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WARNING: NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY.  Read the page on Solar Safety before attempting any kind of viewing of the Sun!

A super selection of Sun in white light images taken by members Jim & Simon on the 27th April 2026. The Sun was quite active with several sunspots.

The 1st image on the right was taken by Jim Burchell using a Seestar S50 smartscope.

The images below are taken by Simon Dawes. Details of how Simon took his images are on some of the photos.

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Astroimages by Tina Bishop


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Here is a fantastic selection of images taken by new member Tina Bishop and new to astroimaging too.

All images were taken using a Dwarf3 smartscope.

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Sunspot Galore

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A fabulous selection of Sunspot images taken by Simon Dawes this last week.

WARNING: NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY.  Read the page on Solar Safety before attempting any kind of viewing of the Sun!

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Sun & Moon by George Buckberry

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The Moon & Sun by member George Buckberry; both taken using a Dwarf 3 smart scope.

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The Sun

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Two images of the Sun taken using smartscopes on the 4th February 2026.

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Taken by Jim Burchell using a Seestar s50.

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Huge Sunspot AR4366

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Hot off the press - 2 images of the Sun showing the enormous Sunspot AR4366; taken on the 4th February 2026. The image on the left was taken by Jim Burchell using a Seestar s50 smart scope and the image on the right was taken by George Buckberry using a Dwarf3 smart scope. Both taken from the Dartford area.

AR4366 has unleashed dozens of solar flares including a powerful X8-class flare on the 1st February 2026. Most sunspots never produce even one X-flare but this week, giant sunspot 4366 has fired off six; the latest being an X4.2-class explosion on the 4th February.

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Below is a diagram of the sun with the sunspots labelled and an image of just AR4366. Both these images were taken from the website spaceweather.com.

''The image of the Sunspot AR4366 was taken by amateur astronomer James Kevin Ty on Feb 3rd from his backyard observatory in Manila. "This sunspot started as an inconspicuous pore just a few days ago. Since then it has grown hugely in size!" he says.

SUNSPOT ARCHIPELAGO: Sunspots are magnetic islands on the sun. Sunspot AR4366 is a complete archipelago. Scroll down to scan more than 200,000 miles of island chain.

The island metaphor is apt. Sunspots are buoyant concentrations of magnetism that float on a sea of solar plasma. Archipelago 4366 consists of one big island twice as wide as Earth plus dozens of lesser isles ranging in size from US states to small planets.

AR4366 is currently facing Earth.'' Ref:Spaceweather.com

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The Sun & Full Moon – 3rd Jan 2026

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The 3rd of Jan 2026 saw the 1st Full Moon of the year and several members got out their scopes and cameras and took some lovely images of the Moon.  Some members also took the opportunity to image the Sun that day too.

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Sun & Full Moon by Honor Wheeler.

Taken using a Dwarf3 smart scope taken from Dartford.

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The Sun by George Buckberry.

Taken using a Dwarf3 smart scope taken from Hextable.

 

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The Full Moon by George Buckberry.

Taken using a Dwarf3 smart scope taken from Hextable.

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Full Moon rising by John Howarth taken from Bexleyheath.

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Full Moon rising by Gary Hunt taken from the Isle of Sheppey.

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Full Moon rising by Kevin Smith taken from Deal, Kent.

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Full Moon rising by John Archer taken from East Sussex.

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Full Moon by Dominique Ferrand taken from London.

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Full Moon by John Archer taken from East Sussex.

Taken using a Dwarf3 smart scope.  The photo is made up of a stack of 20 images.

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The Sun & Moon – 31st Dec 2025

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The Sun & a Waxing Gibbous Moon (89.7% illuminated and 11.64 days old) taken on the last day of the year 2025. 

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The Sun by Honor Wheeler taken from Dartford using a Dwarf3 smartscope. 50 stacked images and processed in Snapseed.

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The Sun taken by George Buckberry from Hextable using a Dwarf3 smart scope.

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The Moon taken by Honor Wheeler from Dartford using a Dwarf 3 smartscope.  50 stacked images and processed in Snapseed.

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The Moon taken by Neil Webster from St Mary's Platt. 

The image is made up of 6 frames: each 90s x 33fps (20% selected by AS).  Neil used a AA 115 APO, EQ6 R, ZWO ASI290MM and R-IR Filter to capture the images and then processed them using Firecapture, AutoStakkert, Photoshop and Microsoft ICE.

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Dwarf3 images by Dr. Mike Rushton

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Two super images taken by Dr. Mike Rushton using his Dwarf3 smart scope on the 12th November 2025 of the North America Nebula (Caldwell 20) and the Sun.

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Active Sun

NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
 
Two great images of the Sun taken on the 28th and the 30th of August by member Jim Burchell.  The images were taken using a Pentax KP attached to a F11 refactor, set at iso 100 and 1/400 second using a Baader solar film.  The images were then processed in Snapseed.
 
 

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