Super Solar Monday?... Big Prom on Gong!

[Luke]

Well I wonder what Monday may or may not have in store for us solar-wise, the forecast here is promising some gaps, but there is still some overnight mist to be burnt off, to complicate matters! I am hopeful!

I've checked Gong in hope for recent activity on the Sun. This has whetted my appetite no end!:

Surely not three days of solar astronomy over the Bank Holiday weekend? Good luck, would love to hear people's reports on what they see. I will try to give my account if the clouds play fair

[Pig]

I can report quite thick fog her Luke, the forecast shows lots of sun from 9am   I will pop out with the hairdryer and see if I can burn some of it away

Joking aside, it does look very bright outside so I think we could be in for a treat. My scopes are set up ready and waiting, both sporting shiny cleaned eyepieces etc ....

I will let you know how the day develops here, hopefully we can all have quite an interactive day as it isn't often most of us are off work at the same time 

[Tums]

Just going to set up shortly , a little light cloud but hopefully it'll be ok. Had my first look at the Sun on Friday and was amazed, lots of sunspots

[allcart]

Skies look fair here. Sunny at the moment but I have to wait untill 11am for a view. Having just seen the spectacular proms on display i can't wait to set up. Well worth the effort to dodge some clouds if I have to.

[Pig]

Woo hoo the sun is out, I can see it through the scopes, still a tad misty though.

Both scopes are aligned and armed with the 4mm eyepiece in the Pronto and 9mm in the Lunt

However,  I can still see a huge prom at the 8 O'clock position and another in the 5 O'clock position, its looking good

A massive explosion at the 10 O'clock position has just taken place.

I really need to cam down I shouldn't be this exited

[Luke]

Wohoo, thanks for confirming the big prom is still there Unfortunately I can't find my Zarkov cloud gun! Typical!

I have the H-a imaging gear set up and a side-by-side visual rig set up for white light and H-a on a lovely smooth Giro mount. The spots should be super cool in white light as that mass from yesterday gathers on the Eastern limb

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Totally grey here.

[Luke]

I hope the proms hold out or get even better for you, Alan. Michael, I think the clouds owe you a few gaps for your sterling reporting as our eyes on the Sun yesterday. Best of luck!

[Umbraldot]

Grey cloud out here at the moment although the forecast is good for noon onwards. Fingers crossed for another observing session. Meanwhile guys keep the reports coming in!

[Pig]

The 10 O'clock positioned prom is looking very strong indeed there is also a very large dome starting at its base and is about a couple of mm high, I think this may turn out to be massive, it is already stretching way out into space   I am going to go out because I don't want to miss anything.

[Pig]

Its still happening, beautiful detail too it its like very fine lace work.

There is also a very fine wisp that looks like it rising up to join in and may complete the arc causing the magnetic poles to react with each other, lets hope so.

There are also quite a few large proms in other areas that would normally be of much greater interest, but this one is dwarfing them into insignificance.

Back soon

Update10:08

This isn't going to disappear that fast it looks like a stayer, the dome is spreading and getting bigger. The whole prom is about 3\4 of the height it was but it is now wider with more mass

The 8 O'clock prom is trying to compete with it and is rapidly coming into view with four or five smaller spikes at its side.

The 5 O' clock prom is also going strong .

[Luke]

Wonderful reports, Shaun, thanks for them! Still grey here, but I am ready if it does clear! Off to clean the Barlow for the fourth time

[Gregnat73]

Just looking at them myself.... Very impressive! (The 8 o'clock one especially!) Could they be connected somehow? Either by magnetic fields or faint lines we can't see? They do seem to be pointing towars each other

[Pig]

Yes the 10 O'clock has settled quite a bit now, but is still very much larger

If the 2 of them join we will be in for a feast as that will be about a quarter of the whole disc

[Luke]

No joy here yet, the wind direction seems to have changed! I have a super clean barlow

[pragmatist]

Stunning stunning stunning proms today especially the northern quadrant . Even after owning a solar scope a few weeks now it still gave me a holy F moment. That 7-8 o'clock prom is amazing through 20mm and at 12mm just stunning. Best proms I have seen yet. Getting out there again now as the sun is shining.

[Gregnat73]

A quick pic of the area taken afocally with my iPhone (apologies for the quality!)

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

[Gregnat73]

And another one.... Taken through a gap in the hazy cloud!

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

[Gregnat73]

Oops that was the photo I've already posted... I'll try again!!

Untitled by g.nat, on Flickr

[Pig]

And another one.... Taken through a gap in the hazy cloud!

How bizarre your 8 O'clock is where my 10 is, must be all the mirrors.

Mine is mirrored to Luke's Gong image in the first post.

Any joy yet Luke?  Northants is not that far from you

[pragmatist]

Yes and my 7-8 o'clock was nearer 9 o clock. A tad hazy but still enjoying the solar show here.

[Pig]

I was up earlier  

[Mark at Beaufort]

Just taken out the PST. The Proms on the Sun's left (PST position) side are very impressive. Not sure how long the Sun will stay out - clouds are coming .

[Gregnat73]

Just had another look and the 8 o'clock prom (as viewed through my PST) seems to be starting to break up.

[Luke]

Wohoo, had some gaps here

I was hoping I could connect to the Internet from the garden, but no joy! So apologies for the lack of live updates! I jotted down these notes on today's exciting events so far, I wonder if that is end of play for the day our way? Conditions have been hazy, my imaging attempts are all done with a longer exposure time than normal.

Meanwhile, at the eyepiece...

From about 11.10AM: Very nice proms all round, but big proms really grabbed the eye and took the focus off the rest of the disc.

One prom looked to me like a large fountain spraying, with the spray at the top being blown across by strong wind. The other, even more impressive structure, has a lot of width to it. It looks like a swirling tornado arching around at the top. There is a thin prom rooted a bit further away arched towards it and it looks like there might be a faint connection between the two.

A large straight prom sticks out like a giant pencil elsewhere on the disc, but it was hard to look away from the centre of attention!

11.50 am Both large structures seem to have lost their fury and are forming into more passive shapes.

The tornado now looks like one large dolphin arched as it starts to leap out of the water, with about 2/3rds of its body out of the water of the Sun. The length of the its body looks to be about 15% the diameter of the Sun! Lower down the big structure is a much smaller baby dolphin, arching its body in the early stage of a leap, heading in the opposite direction to its mother as they criss-cross. The other prom looks like some kind of cartoon character with torso and head visible as it walks up the hill, its hair being blown in the wind.

12.05 The larger prom seems more compacted down now, still very bright, it feels almost like it's crouching back down, getting ready to leap, or do something rather spectacular. I think it is getting ready to do a roly poly

12.20 The dolphin is still a bit dolphin-shaped, but it then progresses to looking like a bird of prey swooping in on its prey. It then morphs into a slower moving long-winged bird gliding, like an albatross.

Now that my brain is starting to process the events, I finally spend a little bit of time taking in the other really good proms. Over on the opposite limb, there is a sweet structure a bit like London bridge. Two towers connected by a straight line at the top. The pencil-like prom from earlier looks similar, it thins at the end and is I think about 7-8%  the diameter of the Sun. On most days this would be a stellar feature, I feel like I am being spoilt rotten, even if it is a bit hazy still.

Our attempts to timelaspe image the two big proms hit the obvious stumbling block as the cloud rolls in Cloud suspends play... Time to go see if the Internet handle can be turned to start it up again...

Hope everyone has had a look-in and has had as much fun as we have. Apologies if my account is a bit OTT, I have had so much fun