Category: Ha filtered

Sunny Day Flyby

Sun and jet

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

Solar prom collage

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.

Eastern Limb Arrival

NOAA 10980 arrival on Eastern Limb

NOAA 10980 arrival on Eastern Limb
By Erika Rix

2007 12 31

Solar

NOAA 10980 arrival on Eastern Limb

Erika Rix

There were a few events of activity on the Eastern limb that day and it was reported
by Spaceweather.com that a C8 class flare “hurled a “bright CME into space.”

Gary Palmer had an excellent animation on the site the next day if you haven’t seen
it yet.  www.spaceweather.com 

Evidently excitement started about 0110 UTC.  I observed from about 1850 UT – 2005
UT.  The following sketches reflect that observation period.

Here is the animation I created with my sequence of sketches of the Eastern limb.  It
lasted from 1900 UT – 2000 UT. 

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper

White Conte’ Crayon and pencil

White Prang pencil

Charcoal

White vinyl eraser

Scanned in Photoshop, adjustments made on contrast and brightness as well as
cleaning stray marks

Animation created in Animation Shop

Fire and Ice

Sun Ha

The Sun in Ha light on January 4th, 2008
By Erika Rix

2008 01 04
PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA
Erika Rix
Solar

It was a beautiful sight today with the Sun gleaming off the snow. The snow was
melting fast as the temperature was slowly rising. Unfortunately, the snow didn’t
melt fast enough off the observatory roof, so I had to just drop down the upper part
of the southern wall and leave the roof completely on, otherwise, I would have had
to deal with water dripping on my gear in the observatory. As it turned out, it was
a good way to keep the winds at bay today, plus I’m sure kept me warmer in the more
enclosed space.

There were four very bright plage areas on the disk in h-alpha. One from NOAA 10981,
another large intricate plage structure for 10980, then a very thin bright one that
reached over to 10980 just inside the Eastern limb. The final was toward the West. I
could see a dark “spot” being cradled by the plage in 981, and by viewing in white
light, there was most definitely a small pore that appeared almost elongated. With
all the haze today plus winds during my white light filter session outside of the
observatory, it was difficult to tell if this elongation was another very tiny pore
just beside the larger one, or if it was just blurred from the conditions outside.
In any case, both to the NE and the SW of this dark dot were faint markings
resembling contrast of faculae. I couldn’t confirm what the markings were with this
observation.

 The Sun in white light

In white light, I could see no other evidence of active regions.

Getting back to h-alpha in the observatory, there were six areas of prominence
around the limb that I could see. With the haze and poor seeing conditions, I had to
wait for moments of clarity and steadiness to get good definition for closer looks.
Patience definitely proved to be valuable today.

The prominence to the SE just below the AR980 was very faint and fan-like. To the
very southern portion of it, it became brighter. I could almost make out all the
connections to each section of it.

Then at the western limb, slightly to the south was a very sharp brighter prominence
with several fingers reaching out like flames. I really enjoyed this one.

The show stopper of the session was most definitely the plage with a few dark thin
filaments looking as if they were separating the plage in AR980 and onward to the
eastern limb.

It’s said that a new solar cycle has begun, making it number 24. We’ll see, but it’s
looking promising.

A Solar Christmas

Solar Christmas

A Christmas Day solar collage
By Erika Rix 

2007 12 25

Solar

Erika Rix

PCW Memorial Observatory

Lat 40.01, Long -81.56

 It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to observe, but I was fortunate today to get
out behind the Maxscope to soak up a bit of Sun in the observatory.  Even with the
low altitude of the Sun at 26.5 degrees, the winter is still my favorite time of
year for solar observing.  

In the ENE region just inside the limb was a short, but thickened filament visibly
reaching out beyond the limb with two hairline branches, forming an intricate
network of prominences.  At lower magnification, this filament looked like two
separate sections.  Increasing magnification from 19x to 57x, the outer portion of
this filament looked like an elongated “X” with hair-like branches connecting to the
inner filament that swooped to the north.  The prominences consisted of two
brighter, almost “A” shaped areas with several very faint, wispy lines reaching out
to each other as well as other areas of the limb edge. 

Adjusting the outer Etalon, I observed a network of hairline fibrils across the disk
that, along with spicules, made a beautiful show of dark mottling across the
Chromospheric network.  There was an area of plage to the NE quadrant of the solar
disk.  It was separated into two sections, at times looking like three, with a few
very tiny dark dots around it.  I didn’t get out my white light filter for
cross-reference, so am not sure if these dark dots were actually pores.

Reaching further NNW, were more filaments, much thinner than the NE filament, but a
little more obvious than fibrils. And then off the limb was a very bright prominence
(at the bottom left of the sketch) that at first glance looked like a pair of cat
ears peeking over the limb.  The peaks of it first appeared to be swaying to the
East, but then forty-five minutes later, the two peaks turned toward each other.
Bumping up the magnification allowed me to see the amazing intricate structure of
this prominence.

To the WNW, a tiny little round prominence formed. It was very bright and dense.
Over the observation period, it reached out in a spraying fashion.  I thought this
one would change faster or maybe even break off or collapse before I called it a
day.  But the prominence stayed the same, only growing a few more tiny fingers off
the limb around it. 

There was only one other significant prominence, located to the SE, and several
spicules reaching out from the limb. 

The sketch was done on black Strathmore Artagain paper and a combination of white
Conte’ and Prang pencils, sharpened piece of black charcoal, and a white Conte’
crayon.  I sprayed it with a fixative afterwards.

Post processing after scanning involved -24 lightness, +15 contrast and then just
cropping and moving the sketches around for the finished collage.

Solar Cornucopia

H-Alpha Sun

Solar Observation – November 23, 2007
PCW Memorial Observatory
By Erika Rix

Well the new active region doesn’t appear to have a designation yet (or even if it will), but I was able to make it outside for a few hours to observe. It was only scattered clouds during the observation and a little windy and chilly. But with the Sun at a very low altitude of approximately 27 degrees, it was still a struggle against time to observe in both h-alpha and white light before the trees obscured by view.

Paul opened up the observatory for me and by the time I got my scopes switched on the LXD, he was coming in with a cup of hot tea for me and Riser was curled up in a ball at my feet on his blanket.

The first thing I noticed in the Maxscope was a small bright plage area almost dead center in the solar disk. Bumping up the magnification, I found that it was actually broken off into two sections with fainter “arms” reaching to the east and west of it. There were hints of two darkened spots on either side of it, but I couldn’t confirm it in that bandwidth.

There were three areas of prominences on the Eastern limb, two that are included in the close-up sketches. On the western limb, there were just a few very tiny areas that looked like little spikes.

Just north of the prominence at approximately 90 degrees was a bright patch of plage, almost oblong with the western edge outlined a slightly darker hue. A very thin line of filament branched inward from the limb just north of the 90 degree mark, but could not see it extend outward off the limb against the dark background.

The prominence on the 140 degree mark had a fairly broad sectioned filament running north to south about 15 degrees inside the limb. It was broken into three obvious sections as well as a few very thin lines of filament in the same area.

After a brief few moments enjoying the countryside view from the drop down southern wall of the observatory, I grabbed my clipboard, a few pencils, my empty cup of tea and marched off to the house in my slippers and knitted hat, with Riser following close behind.

The ETX is stored in the house for a few reasons. The observatory isn’t quite big enough to house all the scopes plus it’s easy access for white light viewing to just drag the already set up scope outside from the living room.

Within minutes, I was sat behind the ETX with my sketchpad on my knee, recording what the new active region looked like in white light. There were two dominant smaller spots with an additional fainter spot just off of the larger one. Then, reaching out to the other side of the spots were long thin faint lines. I didn’t notice faculae, but I imagine the dark lines may have been the contrast of border from faculae.

The views were slightly softened today, so it was difficult to view granulation, but limb darkening was very noticeable.

h-alpha sketch media: black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white Conte’ crayon for disk surface

white light media: copy paper, number 2 and .5mm mechanical pencils

White Light Sun

A Trio of Isolated Prominences

Solar Prominences
Solar Prominences
By Erika Rix

Seeing today was terrible and I tried my best to hang in there for a few good moments to see anything on the other half of the Sun. There was a small prominence, but I just wasn’t able to catch the fainter large one that others were able to see.

I did have some nice views by playing with the Etalon. There were some hairline filaments, or perhaps just darkened lines, scattered about on the disk. And three areas of proms on the eastern half of the Sun can be shown in the sketch.

Sketch done on black Strathmore Artagain paper with Conte’ and Prang white pencils. The graphic on the upper right is from Les’ Tilting Sun program. Some areas blended slightly with fingertip.

Pillars and Threads of Plasma

Prominences and Filaments

Solar Prominences and Filaments
By Erika Rix

Erika’s composite solar H-Alpha sketch from October 29, 2007, features prominences along the eastern limb as well as delicate filaments on the solar disc itself. Material used: black Strathmore Artagain paper with a combination of white Conte’ pencil for the brighter, more dramatic areas and white Prang pencil for the fainter areas.

An Equestrian Prom

Solar Prominence

This is a sequence of the large prominence on the NW limb. I was so mesmerized by it that I wish I could have spent the entire day observing it. If you look closely, you can see a prancing Arabian horse in the prominence.

I used black Strathmore Artagain paper with a combination of white Conte’ pencil for the brighter, more dramatic areas and white Prang pencil for the fainter, whispy areas. I softened the black background in Photoshop to try and erase the splotchiness of the black paper as it took away from the faintest sections of the prominences.

Erika