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.
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
An H-alpha solar observation including prominences, a large active region with sunspots and filaments – October 26, 2014
Aloha!
This week has been fascinating observing the giant sunspot region 2192 making its way across the solar disc. I was working today to demonstrate the details of the intricate swirls of magnetic activity around the sunspot and filament regions. I utilized the Tilting Sun graphic again for this observation though it is reversed from a standard view to demonstrate my view through the eyepiece.
Solar Observation 10-26-14
Maui, Hawaii
h-alpha Lunt PT 60mm 83X
Black paper, white charcoal, black and white oil pencils, wax pencils and watercolor pencils
Tilting Sun graphics added in Photoscape
Solar prominences including a spiraling prominence – October 12, 2014
Aloha!
Todays Sun was bursting with excitement along the eastern limb. The more northern triple arch was very bright and dense in appearance. There was some activity near the equator that as I watched began to develop a bright spike. Then to the south, so beautiful and delicate in appearance, a spiral shape twisting off the limb. This was very exciting to sketch and time was spent creating and erasing to get it just right, trying to capture the spiraling effect.
I have been trying different techniques to capture the Sun recently. Graphite pencil on white paper is my current favorite method to get the smallest details my eye can see. A brush with charcoal was used to get the mottled surface of the solar disc.
Modeling after Erika Rix, I added a Tilting Sun graphic to show where the 2 major prominences were located on the solar disc.
Cindy (Thia) Krach
Solar Prominences
10/12/14 0900-0950 HST
Lunt 60mm PT
35x-83x
White paper and graphite pencil
Inverted & colorized in Photoscape
Tilting Sun software
Two large solar prominences on the limb – October 4, 2014
Object Name: Sun
Object Type: Solar prominence
Location: Deventer, The Netherlands
Date: October 4, 2014
Media: pastel pencils on black paper
As the days shorten rapidly and the sun gets more south every day, the warm afternoons are coming to an end in the Netherlands. On what could be the last sunny and warm day of the year, the active Sun was the obvious target for an astronomical sketch. I set up my modded 60mm Unitron/Polarex refractor and sketched two large prominences on the western edge of the solar disk. The prominences were of the “stable” and relatively long lasting type, but still a lot of internal swirling and changes in brightness could be seen in both at high magnifications. Due to seeing conditions magnifications were limited to about 80x-100x. I made two separate sketches, but got the idea of combining them in a composition when photographing them afterwards.
