Category: prominence

New Active Region

2011 05 09, 1429UT-1550UT
Solar NOAA 11203, 11204, ??, 11209, 11208

www.pcwobservatory.com

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA – Erika Rix
DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell, ETX70 AT w/tilt plate and white light glass filter.

All sketches done scopeside and flipped in Photoshop to match standard orientation. H-alpha sketch created with black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, Derwent charcoal pencil, black oil pencil. White light sketch created on photocopy paper with 0.5mm mechanical pencil and #2 pencil.

Transparency made it nearly impossible to view prominences at the start of the session with the thin layer of cirrus creating a milky white sky. There were small breaks that allowed me to sketch in some of the detail on a western prominence, that later as the transparency improved, showed an abundance of thin whispy structure that wasn’t captured on paper. By that time, I was already working on a full disk sketch in h-alpha. Seeing was terrific until I started on the white light observation, but had I set up the ETX at the beginning of the session to let the scope adjust to the warmth, it would have been much better by the time I observed with it. As it was, I observed in the observatory for protection of the wind as I view with a shade attached to the objective and wanted to avoid vibration.

There is a possible new active region between 1209 and 1208 that, while observing in white light, had several little spots forming an elliptical shape with pointed ends like a football. I noticed facula around 1208, but the seeing was so bad that I couldn’t make out a definite shape. The umbra of the preceding spot in that region was displaced, as was the preceding spot in 1203. I didn’t notice any sunspots in 1209 during my observation, but that may have been the result of the seeing.

The band of active regions is still putting on a nice show in h-alpha with more-defined plage around them.

The Active Sun

– Object Name: Sun
– Object Type: Star
– Location: Lith, the Netherlands
– Date: 5-5-2011
– Media: white pastel, black paper, PhotoShop CS5
– Telescope: Coronado P.S.T.

Today was a nice clear day in Holland. The sun was shining bright, so i aimed my brand new solar telescope (Coronado P.S.T.) at it to see some Solar Flares. There where many flares visible, and also some sunspots and other details on the surface.
This is my first solar sketch in H-Alpha. The original sketch is black & white, and i changed that colour in PhotoShop.

Clear Skies!

Rutger Teule
www.rutgerteule.com

Our Star Revealed

2011 05 05, 1230 UT – 1515 UT
Solar h-alpha, NOAAs 11203, 11204, 11205, 11207 and prominences

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA – Erika Rix, www.pcwobservatory.com
Temp: 22.5°C, Humidity 38%
Seeing: Wilson 4, Transparency: 3/6

DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell, ETX70 AT w/tilt plate and white light glass filter.

H-alpha sketch created scopeside with black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, Derwent charcoal pencil, black oil pencil. White light sketch created on photocopy paper with 0.5mm mechanical pencil and #2 pencil.

The Sun was a little too low in the observatory for me to stay inside at the beginning of the session, so I pulled all my gear onto the grass. It was probably the best move anyway, since it warmed up quite a bit during the session.

I started off with the Maxscope for an overall view. The prominence at the western limb caught my eye initially, but it was the prominence on the eastern limb that really put on a show. It was nearly three times taller than the other and had the faintest wisps of filament reaching out connecting the brightest three areas of that prominence section.

The h-alpha full disk was filled with filaments and plage within the band of active regions. I’ve flipped the views of both the white light and h-alpha full disk sketches to match the standard view (at least a little more so as I didn’t rotate it completely) for comparisons with SOHO views. In white light, there were three distinct areas of faculae, one each on the western and eastern limbs and one around AR 11207. I couldn’t detect 1205 in white light and although the Sun had rotated slightly, I’m fairly sure 1207 is indeed that designation in my sketch and not 1205. Prenumbrae were noted around the preceding spots in 1204 and around the entirety of 1203.

Sun Over Sweet Lake City

Object Name: sun
Object Type: star 😉
Location: Sweet Lake City, The Netherlands
Date: 25 april 2011
Media: graphite pencil, enhanced with Photoshop

Attached you’ll find two images:
1) A sketch of the sun I made this morning using a Lunt LS75Ha etalon filter and a B600 blocking filter mounted on a Takahashi FSQ-106ED. The sketch was made between 8h30 and 9h00 UT viewing trough a Vixen 13 mm LVW (magnification 41x).
2) The same sketch, though then colourized and enhanced with Photoshop CS4.

Thanks for watching!

Maurice Toet
www.dutchtdeepsky.com

Red Forest on the Sun

Today I’ve made a h-alpha sketch through my 60mm H-Alpha telescope. At 78x (9mm plossl) the large proms on the edge of the Sun’s disk showed a lot of detail. It was pretty hard to keep up with the constantly changing structures, when I finished the lower “tree” the little prominence above the main group had totally changed its shape! The drawing is made between 12.30 an 12.45 UT from Deventer, The Netherlands using a red pastel pencil on black paper.
Object Name Sun
Object Type Star
Location Deventer, The Netherlands
Date March 20, 2011
Media red pastel pencil on black paper
Kind regards,
Roel Weijenberg
www.roelblog.nl

Hugh Prom Lift Off SW Limb

This afternoon, I saw a huge prominence lift-off on the sout western limb. I was lucky enough not only to view it but also to sketch it. It all happened so fast, I was amazed by the whole phenomenon!

When: Saturday 19 March 2011
Object name: Prominence SW of the sun’s limb
Location: Arnhem/Holland
Optics: Lunt 60 PT single stack
Eyepiece: 10 mm Pentax XW barlowed with Baader Abbe Zeis 2x
Media: Pastel red Conté a Paris no 3 on Black paper
Seeing : Great

Sketch by: Joost Becker

Sunspots and Proms, Filaments and Plage

2011 03 08, 1703 UT – 1945 UT
Solar h-alpha, NOAAs 11164, 11165, 11166, 11169, prominence sequence 240 pa (11165)

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA – Erika Rix
www.pcwobservatory.com
Temp: 16.8°C, Humidity 34%, SE winds 8mph
Seeing: Wilson 3.5 w/moments of 1, Transparency: 1-2/6
Alt: 44.5°- 36.4°, Az: 168.1°- 221.1°

DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell

H-alpha sketch created scopeside with black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, Derwent charcoal pencil, black oil pencil.

It was a nice surprise to see the Sun out and the thin clouds scattered enough for a solar session, especially with 4 active regions present. I didn’t pull out a white light filter. It certainly would have made a great comparison to the h-alpha views with all the sunspots scattered about. The fibrils in NOAA 11166 were outstanding and plentiful, reaching out through plage in wide arcs. 11164 looked etched near the limb with stark contrast between the filaments and plage.

It was 11165 that kept most of my attention today with its area of prominence changing so rapidly that I’m fairly certain portions of it erupted and then collapsed on itself. Two times sections had broken free and floated off. During those times, a sketch was completed every 5-10 minutes.

I would have liked to have stayed out for at least a few more hours, but the transparency became too horrendous to pull detail out of the prominences and full overcast skies was soon to follow.

The Angry Sun

Observer: Saeid Aghaei
Date: Mar 06, 2011
Time: 11:20 (Tehran: +03:30 UTC)
Location: Tehran ( Lat.: 35° 44.962’N, Long.: 51° 26.653’E, Elev.: 1350m)
Optic:
Telescope: Lunt Solar Telescope
Aperture: 60mm
Focal Length: 500mm
Eyepiece: 6mm, 15mm , 25mm
Object: The Sun, Sunspots 1164 & 1166
Object Type: Sun spots, Solar prominences
Media: HB graphite pencil, and white paper

Description: Coloring in Photoshop, without any retouching.