Sun – Page 25 – Astronomy Sketch of the Day

H-Alpha Sun

Solar H-Alpha
Sketch and Commentary by Erika Rix

2008 04 06, 1240ST – 1330ST (1640UT – 1730UT)
Solar H-alpha
PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56
Erika Rix

Temp: 62.1 °F / 16.7 °C
Winds: 3.5 mph from the East
Humidity: 52%
Seeing: 5/6 with moments of 2/6
Transparency: 4/6
Alt: 51.3 Az: 143.3

Equipment:
Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell

Sketch Media:
H-alpha – Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.
Added –25 brightness, +15 contrast after scanning in color at 300 dpi. Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun insert.

The Makings of a Coronal Mass Ejection

Sun – Featuring NOAA 10987, 10988, 10989
Sketches and Commentary by Erika Rix

2008 March 26, 1335ST – 1452ST (1735UT – 1852UT)
Solar H-alpha and White Light
PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56
Erika Rix

Temp: 57.0 °F / 13.9 °C
Winds: West 18 mph gusting to 25 mph
Humidity: 33%
Seeing: 5/6
Transparency: 2/6
Alt: 50.4 Az: 157.5

Equipment:
Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell
ETX70 AT, tilt plate, 8mm Televue Plossl

Sketch Media:
H-alpha – Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.
Added –5 brightness, +30 contrast after scanning in color at 300 dpi. Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun insert.

White Light – white copy paper, #2 pencil, .5mm mechanical pencil, photographed sketch instead of scanning for better contrast.

It was said that today NOAA 10989 produced an M2-class eruption causing a CME. I have to say that each of the three active regions had very bright plage seeming to curve around the dark specks of sunspots within each region. It’s not often I get such a great view of the sunspots themselves in h-alpha, but today 10988 had the largest umbral area and they all had one or two smaller dark spots. I could hardly wait to pull out the ETX70 with a white light filter to see the sunspots themselves in much greater detail.

Prom activity was very modest. After 3-4 strolls around the limb tweaking the Etalon, 6 areas of very small prominences came to view. The filaments on the disk were showy, especially the large blotchy one to the south of 10988.

With the white light filter, facula was clearly viewable around 10989, reaching out in several directions. Penumbrae were seen in most of the sunspots. I had hoped to increase magnification for a closer view, but with transparency becoming worse, as well as viewing in white light in the front yard rather then in the protection of the observatory, the white light view was already too soft. Increasing magnification would have made it impossible.

The Sun in Stitches

Sun in H-Alpha
By Erika Rix

2008 March 23, 1437ST – 1530ST (1837UT – 1930UT)
Solar H-alpha
PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56
Erika Rix

Temp: 39.0 °F / 3.9 °C
Winds: variable at 3.5mph, light cirrus and then scattered toward the end of session
Humidity: 46%
Seeing: 5/6
Transparency: 4/6 decreasing to 1/6
Alt: 51.2 Az: 187.0

Equipment:
Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell,

The new active region on the eastern limb was the first thing I noticed with the 40mm eyepiece. Dropping down to 7mm and adjusting the Etalon made this area rich with details. The seeing today was wonderful allowing higher magnification. A thick clumpy filament reached all the way to the limb, almost coming to a point before reaching out into the darkness of space for a very bright, flattened prominence reaching northward. The view was so three dimensional in appearance that it almost felt like you could reach in with your finger through the eyepiece and hook underneath the filament to pull it towards you. There were many tiny spicules on this eastern limb.

About 30 degrees inward from the East were two bright plage, separated only by a thin darkened line. I didn’t notice a sunspot within it in h-alpha and didn’t take the time to pull out my white light filter rig for a better look. The eye-catching view was when I increased the contrast to show a network of what I believe to be fibrils extending out from a thin filament that was running East to West. The fibrils seemed to extend almost north to south and the whole area looked like an incision with sutures. This area was just south, almost touching the plage and I wouldn’t have noticed it at all had I not tweaked the Etalon for more details to be pulled out.

Going towards the eastern limb, there was a longer area of plage that almost resembled the lunar crater Schiller, one giant footprint on the solar surface.

Although the eastern hemisphere was full of proms, mainly small vivid ones with a few brighter, large ones, there was a gem at the NE limb that was barely visible. I actually skipped over it completely the first time scrolling around the limb. When I moved the FOV, however, I detected a very large faint blotch hovering over the limb. After adjusting the Etalon, zooming in and out, I finally was able to make out this very fibrous prominence. It appeared to only be connected to the limb with one very narrow stalk, and at the beginning of the session, jutted dramatically to the North. Later, when I did a close up sketch of this prom, it actually spread out to the either side with almost a flat top. Truth be told, it reminded me of a clown’s hairdo.

When my session ended, I stood up against the drop down southern wall of the observatory to finish my cup of tea, admiring the countryside and the warmth on my back. Signs of spring are finally here, I thought to myself afterwards as I walked back up the stone steps to the house in my green and yellow flowered rubber gardening shoes, carrying my empty cup and sketchpad.

Dogging the Sun

The Sun in h-alpha, February 16, 2008
By Erika Rix

2008 02 16

Sun in h-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, 40.01/-81.56

Erika Rix

There were several prominences scattered about the limb, visible at different
magnifications. I’ve concentrated at the NNE one, which also had a very small reach
in front of the disk when I tweaked the Etalon.

I should have sketched this area larger, or sharpened my pencils better. There was
so much detail within it that my white pencils were too blunt to render them
properly.

With the hunters and their dogs in the fields and woods in front of our observatory,
I wasn’t keen on hanging out too long for more sketches. Thankfully I could close
the door to keep Riser in the observatory with me. As it was, he was antsy, moving
around a lot and making noises…very distracting.

Sketches rendered on black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ pencil and
crayon, white Prang pencil.

Dances on the Limb

Solar H-alpha sketch collage 2008 02 11, 1214ST -1304ST (1714UT – 1804UT)
By Erika Rix

2008 02 11, 1214ST -1304ST (1714UT – 1804UT)

Solar H-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 14.0 °F / -10.0 °C

Winds: WNW at 8.1 mph, light scattered and later completely overcast

Humidity: 49%

Seeing: 2/6-5/6

Transparency: 2/6

Alt: 35.9 Az: 176.9

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell,

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

Added -25 brightness, +5 contrast after scanning in color at 300 dpi. I then turned
the image into monochrome. I scanned initially in color to eliminate cross hashes
that the scanner creates in grayscale. Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun
insert.

At first glance in h-alpha around 10x magnification, only two prominences, SSE and
West, popped out at me. I didn’t waste much time with the 40mm eyepiece since I
usually use it for initially getting the Sun in the FOV. At 19x the eastern
prominence looked like two fingers curling towards each other with the southern most
of the two a little brighter. Taking the magnifications to 57x I could make out a
very faint thin line connecting the two and also noted the strands of contrasted
prominence within the two fingers at 33x. Seeing was much worse at the higher
magnifications but I had moments where it settled for a detailed view.

Moving South at low magnification, the prominence appeared to be two separate
entities with the westerly portion of it looking like a hook or letter C opening up
to the East. Increasing magnification with the zoom eyepiece, I was amazed to see
with slight averted vision at first several connections between the two. After
discovering them, I could actually look at them straight on to make out the delicate
network of strands. It was truly beautiful and very delicate.

A similar thing happened to me with the western set of prominences. The most
northerly of the four on the western limb grew almost twice in size with a
magnification of around 33x. The prom itself didn’t grow, but rather my ability to
see the actual size of it with a modest magnification. The additional length of it
disappeared at 57x.

The little set of prominences at the NNE limb became brighter as the session went
and also became better defined with the lower one (more northerly) turning from a
fuzzy little thumbprint into a thin branch reaching to the one that was more to the
East.

I noticed a dark round dot around 40 degrees on the disk from the East and pretty
much on the equatorial line. It was very small and tweaking the Etalon did not show
any signs of plage. Other than that, there were no significant surface details such
as plage or filaments to me visually. The disk was alive with hairlike structures
and a mottled appearance, very pretty.

The Mosque and the Mushroom

Solar sketch on January 20th, 2008
By Erika Rix

2008 01 21, 1155ST -1241ST (1655UT – 1741UT)

Solar H-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 19.0 °F / -7.2 °C

Winds: from the South at 6.9 mph, light cirrus

Wind chill ~ 12F

Humidity: 42%

Seeing: 5/6 with moments of 4/5

Transparency: 2/6

Alt: 29.3 Az: 168.6

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

Added -27 brightness, +6 contrast after scanning.

Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun insert.

Yesterday I had forgotten to record drift before I brought the Maxscope back inside
and closed up the observatory. Not feeling like setting back up again to record
drift, I guessed the orientation incorrectly. Today, I observed close to the same
time as yesterday and with the diagonal near the same position and by comparing
today’s sketch with yesterday’s, I think I can safely say the SW prom that I
sketched was actually a SE prominence. I’m sorry for my error, but happy to supply
a compared view of the two solar sketches.

Solar sketch on January 21th, 2008
By Erika Rix

Please note the differences in the 55 deg PA and the 135 deg PA (approximately)
prominences between the two days. The NE prom developed into a beautiful display
today that at first glance appeared to be a soft mushroom head with hardly a stem
beneath it. Nine minutes later and bumping up the magnification, it took a
completely different structure with clearly several legs reaching to the limb as
well as a pointed tip swaying to the north.

The SE prominence today at first glance was shaped like a beautiful mosque. Bumping
up the magnification made it more difficult to see as much detail because the sky
conditions took a turn for the worst and I had to keep waiting patiently for moments
of clarity to complete the prominence sketch. By the time it became steady and
clear, the prom had changed too much for me to add the fainter portions of it.

The plage that I noted yesterday was no where to be found today.

Prominent Arches

Solar prominences, January 23rd, 2008 1125ST -1240ST (1625UT – 1740UT)
By Erika Rix

2008 01 23, 1125ST -1240ST (1625UT – 1740UT)

Solar H-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 21.0 °F / -6.1 °C

Winds: variable at 5.8 mph

Humidity: 63%

Seeing: 6/6

Transparency: 3/6

Alt: 28.1 Az: 160.5

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

Added -30 brightness, +9 contrast after scanning. Tilting Sun program used for
digital Sun insert.

The NE and the SE limbs continue to put on a display for us. I didn’t get a chance
to observe yesterday for all the overcast and light snowfall, but over the past
several days’ observations, it’s been very interesting to watch the changes and
compare observations.

The solar disk had long u-shaped very thin filament looking lines reaching almost
from the SE limb to the inward 1/4th of the disk. The opening of “u” was facing
outward toward the large prominence on that area of the limb. This was the
prominence that I concentrated on today for a sequence that spanned only about 45
minutes’ time. Funny, it seemed much longer than that, and as much as it changed in
that time frame, I would have expected it to have been longer as well. Seeing was
terrific, but transparency was only average with moments of excellent clarity as
well as an orange haze all around the disk in my FOV.

Differences in the first two sketches almost alarmed me and I worried that I had
made one too compact width wise and the other too spread out. There’s a chance that
I may have indeed done that, although as a sketcher, I try to make my sketches as
true to my observations as I possibly can. Once I recorded the last two, though, I
could see the movement of the prominence indeed spreading out, getting fainter to
the eastern side of it with each sketch. It was almost as if that side of the
prominence was getting weaker and losing structure. I would have loved to stay out
all day to record this.

The NE prominence was not quite as tall as the SE prominence, but it was easier to
view, although I did have to adjust the outside etalon as there was quite a
difference between the two prominences for best bandwidth viewing. I normally tweak
as many things as I can with the scope to tease out details in my observations, but
I normally don’t have to adjust the etalon that much between different prominences.

I observed 8 different areas of prominences around the limb total.

Prominade on the Limb

Solar H-alpha 2008 01 25,
1205ST -1330ST (1705UT – 1830UT)
By Erika Rix

2008 01 25, 1205ST -1330ST (1705UT – 1830UT)

Solar H-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 16.0 °F / -8.9 °C

Winds: SSW at 4.6 mph

Humidity: 71%

Seeing: 5/6

Transparency: 2/6

Alt: 30.5 Az: 170.9

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm
Zhumell, ETX70-AT with 8mm TV Plossl for white light observation.

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

The NE and the SE limbs are still at it. Snows and overcast prevented me from
viewing yesterday, but on the 23rd of January, two proms on the NE limb were spread
out a little further from each other and the one that was around 55 degrees PA had
two very bright upright legs to it with a faint line of connection in between them.
Today, there is a very tall fainter prominence around 45-50 deg PA that looks like
two hands pressing against each other with a small prominence just north of it by
about 2-3 degrees. Then around 55-60 degrees PA (maybe even a little more distance
than that) was a brighter prominence defined by a very bright tall slender arm on
the northern side of it with a few shorter slender arms jetting out to the southern
portion. The base of the main southern portion was about twice as thick as the
northern arm.

To the SE around 135 degrees was a very bright cone shaped prominence about half as
tall as the two proms on the NE limb. The inside of the cone appeared hollow.
Bumping up magnification, and adjusting the T-max, I noticed a small, round, faint
cloud just to the south of it, reaching up above by about half its height. I
lowered magnification again for better contrast and it didn’t take long for me to
notice a few other portions of it. Playing with the zoom eyepiece, I soon found a
happy medium in magnification to tease out as much detail as I could, bringing out
this prominence to fuller glory. It was huge and very similar in shape, only much
fainter, to the prominence in this same area two days ago.

I was hoping to see some sort of evidence from the pore that the Hinode captured.
Of course, it most likely is too small yet for me to see and even so, with the poor
transparency today, I imagine it would have been difficult even it were visible for
my scopes. After my H-alpha session, I pulled out the ETX70 for a white light view
and couldn’t see any evidence with pore nor facula. Something I did see, however,
was a claw like marking just inside the limb about 25 degrees in the NNE quadrant.
I’ve included a close up view of what it looked like. There were dark areas
resembling a filament that had dissipated.

All in all, I observed 7 different areas of prominences around the limb. The NW
section of limb appeared rough and turbulent with the long section of short
prominence weaving up and down off the limb.

Sunny Day Flyby

Sun and Jet, SW prominence and visitor
By Erika Rix

2008 01 20, 1140ST -1205ST (1640UT – 1705UT)

Solar h-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 10.4 °F / -12.0 °C

Winds: from the West at 9.2 mph gusting to 19.6 mph, scattered clouds

Wind chill: -8 °F / -22 °C

Humidity: 57%

Seeing: 5/6 with moments of 3/5

Transparency: 5/6

Alt: 28.4 Az: 164.8

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

Added -37 brightness, +1 contrast after scanning.

Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun insert.

The first thing that caught my attention this morning during the observation was the
bright substantial prominence on the SW limb. A careful scan around the limb of the
Sun showed a total of six prominences, all quite a bit smaller and varying in
shapes. The SE prom resembled the letter A. Moving to the NE, the next prom looked
like a flag waving to the North. Further NE, the prominence hugged the limb,
spreading out like an inchworm. The next three on the NW side were slender fingers,
two of them dual fingers.

It was very difficult to move around wearing my coveralls, oversized thick winter
gloves that I had to borrow from my husband because I still can’t find mine after
the move last spring, and heavy winter muck boots. Leaving the gloves off my
fingers for more than a few minutes made them a little painful with the wind that
came in over the observatory wall as well as the metal knobs on the telescope. I
was able to do part of the sketch with Paul’s gloves on, but had to add the finer
details without them. Tuning and focusing the scope was a chore as well.

I did manage to catch a bright plage area to the eastern 1/3rd of the disk. It was
fairly small and compact and I almost missed it altogether as I was moving the disk
around in my FOV looking for surface details. Other than that, surface details
were insignificant. I lacked the ambition to drag out my ETX for white light filter
views to see if there were any signs of a sunspot near the plage that I saw in
h-alpha.

The excitement of the session, other than witnessing the beautiful SW prominence,
was a jet crossing in front of the Sun. The contrails started out small and then
resembled a shock wave as it crossed in front of the solar limb to the NE and then
spread out even more as it traveled further away. It almost reminded me of a
Moreton wave from photos I’ve seen. I’ve tried to add that affect to my sketch,
realizing that shape of the jet is most likely very inaccurate at best. My
concentration was on the contrails, and the jet shape was just a few flashes in
front of me as I was trying to capture the whole scene. The most remarkable part of
the contrails was the “pulling effect” as it crossed the limb. It looked like the
jet was pulling streamers, almost smears, of plasma away from the Sun. Very cool,
indeed.

Twists of the Solar Flux

January 18, 2008 Solar Prominences
By Erika Rix

20080118

Solar

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA, Lat 40.01/Long -81.56

Erika Rix

Still not quite recovered from the neck surgery, Paul was good enough to open and
close the roll off roof of the observatory for me. I was able to carry down the
battery supply for the LXD75 for tracking as well as close up (after my session) the
southern drop down wall that enables me to view the Sun at the lower altitude. The
enclosed area within the observatory certainly helps control the stability of the
scope with the winds today at 11.5 mph. The temperature was comfortable at 26F, but
with the lack of surface details, I wrapped up the session in just less than an
hour’s time.

The haze limited the performance at higher magnification, but with a little
patience, I had moments where I could drop down to 7mm (57x) with the zoom eyepiece.
Seeing flipped back and forth and the best views seemed to be around 30x
magnification.

There were 7 areas of prominences that I was able to record with no significant
surface detail. Three of these areas were sketched.

The brightest prominence was about 55 degrees PA and I did a three sketch sequence
of it noting the small changes in appearance over 40 minutes’ time span. This was
after the original overall sketch of the limb. The basic outline of this prom
really didn’t change a great deal. But looking closely within the structure, there
was quite a difference in the intricate network.

At 1209ST (1709UT) at the end of the session around 70 degrees PA, a very bright
small blob of a prominence appeared and then left just about as quickly. It may
have just been that I was able to see it well during a brief moment of steady clear
seeing. Still, it was very noteworthy and I was happy to catch it.

Sketch media: black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and white Prang pencils,
white vinyl eraser, fixative

Post processing: -25 brightness, +4 contrast, resized and created collage by pasting
selected prominences on black background. Used digital disk for position angles
from Tilting Sun program.