29th March H-alpha Sketch & Observation

[Qualia]

I usually don't start observing the Sun until it is reasonably high on the zenith, working on the same logic as night time observations. But today, due to other compromises, I started early and had finished by mid-morning. To be honest, I didn't notice much difference in terms of atmospheric interference other than a little haze of morning mist away from the Sun in the sky.

The Sun was lightly peppered with sun spots and around the active regions the plage was quite bright, especially the plage right on the edge of the western limb. The prominences this morning looked so delicate and there was a gorgeous display both north and south. I didn't have time to measure any feature but there was no doubt about the scale of what I was seeing. Those gentle looking plumes were boiling and exploding with hot plasma which positively dwarfed our planet.

All in all, an extremely enjoyable way to begin to a rather pleasant day. It is amazing to have such an opportunity to witness a star up close like this. Regardless of how familiar we are with the Sun, it always has the generosity to brighten our days and to present itself in some new and surprising manner.

From an insightful comment from Stu, I've scanned the image in with a little more resolution. I'm not sure how it will appear but hopefully it'll look a little sharper and less messy than yesterday's offering. Please let me know.

The sketch was made with chalks on black paper.

[Pig]

Excellent sketch Rob, it almost looks like it is happily boiling away  

I have always found the sun looks better when it is rising as apposed to when its setting, quite the opposite of night sky targets as you mentioned above.

Mind you I would accept any sunshine at the moment

[Stu]

That's much better and clearer to me at that resolution Rob. Really nice sketch, you seemed to have sussed doing Ha very nicely [emoji3][emoji274]

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice sketch. Glad you got to see the nearest star again.