Our friends of the La Blaque observatory in Varages had organized an afternoon dedicated to solar observation. We were ten of us behind the eyepieces to admire the hot sun rays.
Here join a small overview of the animation (the base color comes from the coffee offered by Caroline)
We deploy heavy EQ, Celestrons (the famous Hats of AiryLab) some large Lunts a Skywatcher and other solar bino’s. I had a lot of work at the sketch board !!! Only a 150 mm Lunt was devoted to the photography.
Here is a little souvenir from the H-alpha compiled views from the Fred’s Hat, the 150/1200 for WL and a nice Jean-Luc bino for 3D view…
As the sun had become much quieter than previous days, it was not particularly complex to draw today, but we do what we can with the star we have! On the left we can see the active area around the end of the AR2339 spot.
I was delighted this morning to find this dark and large filament at the north-eastern limb of our Sun. It had the appearance of a large serpent with foot like projections anchoring it to the solar surface and then visible curving around the limb. The filament is magnetic curtains of plasma hovering over the Sun’s surface, this an especially large and detailed one. I read on the Spaceweather site that the length of the filament would measure the distance from the Earth to the Moon. That’s one big serpent!
Solar Filament & Prominence
h-alpha 60mm Lunt 35x
Maui, Hawaii
4/26/15 0800-0845 HST
Black Strathmore Artagain Paper
White Conte’ Crayon & charcoal pencils, black & white
Photoscape Software to colorize, Photoshop Software to reduce size
I went out to sketch the AR 2339 in h-alpha but when I saw this massive Hedgerow type prominence on the limb it had to be done.
PST 40 halpha scope ,8mm eyepiece / 50X
Pastels and Conte on black paper. 13:33 UT May 13th 2015
Bray, Co Wicklow, Ireland
On April 28th, I had the opportunity to follow the evolution of this very nice and long prominence.
That was made using a very small Lunt in Halpha (35mm) the total sketch time was less than 2h.
The full view sketch was made using black pencils HB and 4B on white paper and with the help of transparent paper for the active zones, inverted while scanning.
For the sun’s “comic” I sketch only on white paper with a HB pencil, I had no time to sketch more details and the other details were quite calm facing the prom evolution.
This kind of exercise is interesting because no space probe, nor camera are programmed or able to send us such a big number of photo’s and so quick. Let’s say this is another evidence why sketch is still an interesting technique, as is ASOD !.
The filament, origin of this prom is visible on the main sketch and on the first one of the sequence, after that the filament disappear. At the end I just add a digital color layer to my sketch with the use of Paint.net.
Thank you to you all for your interest and on top of that thank you to the ASOD team for their work.
Todays solar surface showed some interesting features that I tried to capture. There were a lot of long detailed filaments as well as a region to the east that looked like a piece of silk that had been crinkled and then flattened. To the west of this area was a brightening plage, at the moment the brightest region in the observation besides a bright spike on the limb. The prominences to the north were more subtle and dim.
White sketch paper
Grey charcoal, Tombow pencils 2H, 6B
White acrylic paint (plage)
Blending pencil
Photoscape to adjust contrast
60mm Lunt h-alpha 36x
3/21/2015 2010-2035 UT
Seeing Wilson 4/5 Transparency 2/4
Cindy (Thia) L. Krach
Maui, Hawaii
Object Name : Sun
Location : Granada (Spain)
Date 08/02/2015
Media: Graphite pencil, white paper.
Equipment: Coronado PST and Baader Hyperion 13mm, azimut manual mount.
SUPER SOLAR FILAMENT: It is, arguably, the second biggest thing in the solar system. A filament of magnetism almost 1,000,000 km long is stretching across the face of the sun. Only the sun itself is bigger. Stretched out, the line would fit 67 Earths!
The Suns surface has been very interesting to follow the past few days. A fascinating solar filament stretching across the surface is one of the longest recorded, over 700,000 km long. Solar filaments are made up of unstable plasma held above the solar surface by the Sun’s magnetic field.
I was able to observe it for 2 days in a row and marvelled over its sheer size, looking like a tear in the Suns surface. On this day there was also an interesting filament like region near the west limb that was wide and appeared dimensional in light and dark values. The “wishbone” prominence to the north appeared to be from beyond where the limb was visible, the top portion reaching toward the observer.
H-alpha Full Solar Disk
60mm Lunt 14mm 35x
February 8, 2015 1920-1940 UT
Seeing Wilson 4/5
Transparency 2-3/4
Cream colored sketch paper, grey & white Conte’ Crayon, 2B & 6B pencils and #2 pencil. Contrast adjusted in Photoscape.
I think what I like best about solar observing is you never know what you will find going on! This large prominence at the eastern limb appeared extraordinary in its detailed and lacey appearance. Seeing was very good and at higher magnification a network of bright areas appeared, much like a picture of a neuron cell with branching filaments extending in all directions. Tilting Sun Graphics are used to denote prominence location.
Solar Prominence
1/10/15
h-alpha 60mm Lunt
Maui, Hawaii
0945-1020 HST (1945-2020 UT)
Black Canson paper, white & black charcoal pencil, watercolor pencil & Conte’ Crayon
Tilting Sun Graphics
Cindy (Thia ) L. Krach
Haleakala Amateur Astronomers
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Objet: Sun
Objet Type: Sun Ha
Location: Panama city, Republic of Panama (Central America)
Date: December 24 , 2014
Media: graphite pencil , white paper and Phto Zone to invert, color tone and text.
Telescope: Meade Coronado PST – H alpha, 40/400.
Ocular: 13mm
Solar prominences and filaments on and near the limb – November 16, 2014Solar prominences and filaments on and near the limb (colorized) – November 16, 2014
Aloha!
Another Sunday morning spent happily with the Sun. Today the first prominence that struck me was one that had the appearance of a very fine “tree” near a “bridge”. The details & seeing were excellent today and I could make out swirling and looping details within the prominence, a lacy network of light and dark. The prominence could be seen spilling onto the solar surface as a filament.
I usually just cant leave done alone, so I tried some different things to colorize and experimented with Photoscape software. I fell upon the magic button – something called color balance. What fun to add color and see more of what I observed in the eyepiece!
Solar Prominence
Lunt 60mm PT
14mm & 6mm
11-16-14
Maui, Hawaii
Black Strathmore paper, Conte’ white crayons and watercolor pencils
Photoscape Software
