H-alpha 27-8-15 Sketch

[Qualia]

By all accounts, Spain has suffered one of the worst summers in last twenty years or so. There's been a lot of cloud, general mugginess, storms and for many regions, uncomfortable fluctuations in temperatures. Thankfully, under such frustating circumstances I haven't been here that much over the past two months. However, arriving in Spain near the beginning of this week things are beginning to look up; clear blue skies day and night and a reasonable temperature at this time of year.

The Sun has been putting on a rather spectacular display and never two days are the same. It's amazing to think that around a million Earths would fit into this relatively small disc seen in the eyepiece and that just one of those seemingly tenuous prominences would engulf and drown our planet much as an ocean wave does a tiny pebble on the beach. Using a small 12.5mm ortho eyepiece giving about 0.8 TFOV, you begin to get the idea that the Sun really is travelling over 200km a second; a brief look, quick sketch with chalk or pencil, nudge the alt-az mount and back again.

The sketch was made with chalks and a brown pencil on black paper. I took a photo, downloaded it and blackened the background:

[Dave In Vermont]

That's an incredible 'sketch!' You most certainly don't need a camera if you can render that by hand - regardless of using a photo as a template. I'll just be swiping it for my Solar-Collection, if you don't mind,Rob.

Please show us more!

In awe,

Dave

[Pig]

Nice one Rob   I have just set my scope up and had a look through and your sketch is exactly what I saw, just a tad Van Gough-esque

[David Smith]

Beautiful sketch Qualia.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Lovely sketch!

[laudropb]

Great sketch. It's nice to see a drawing to compare to the images usually posted.

[Luke]

Lovely, Rob! Really love the cheerful colours too   Nice texture on the surface as well. Thank you for the view.

Do you get easy enough all year round viewing in Spain? Here Sol does the limbo around the telegraph poles in the darker months though I am lucky that with a lot of ducking and diving in the garden I can just make it all year around at the weekends.

[Davey-T]

Lovely sketch Rob, nice to see you back, just managed a couple of vid's through the LS60DS before it clouded over here.

Dave

[Pete Presland]

Wow that is one of the best solar sketches I have seen, top marks to you!

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

[bob-c]

that's nice rob.

                        bob.

[Scott]

A very pleasant way to spend your afternoon Rob. nice

[Qualia]

I really don't appreciate it but thank you so much for your kind support and warm words. It's encourage like this that not only makes one want to do and be better but what makes SGL such a lovely place. Thank you again

- - - -

Luke, Spain is such a vast country - I think it's about x5 bigger than England (not the UK) the distance from east to west similar to London to Prague - and is the second most mountainous in Europe. Under such conditions, the weather can be significantly different from one region to another but on average I think Spain has about twice as many clear days than the UK. However, the northwest of Spain will probably be very similar to what you guys experience. I've been living the past year down in Valencia/Alicante about an hour from the coast and I've found it to be quite a muggy place. The days can be extremly clear but as they cool a misty cloud often builds up ruining the evenings. Surprisingly, along with February, I've found July and August to be the worst months for this.