sunspots in Ha - 20 sept

[smerral]

Just managed to capture these shortly before sunset. AR 11295 and AR 11300 (near the limb):

AR 11301

[Montana]

Wow! these are beautiful!

We had a fabulous sunset last night, it was totally cloudy but the sky just suddenly went flaming red for 15 minutes, quite spectacular.

Alexandra

[markt]

Nice shots!

[ScubaMike]

Great images. They really show how dynamic the Sun is.

I gotta get me one of these Solar Scopes.

Does the aperture really matter? I.e. PST vs Solarmax 60/90.

What does the larger aperture give you that the PST wouldn't?

[Merlin66]

The larger aperture gives better surface resolution. The SM60 has 50% more resolution than the PST...Bigger is better, but unfortunately far more expensive!!

There are two aspects to solar Ha imaging...the surface resolution (as above) and the Ha resolution - the clarity of detail visible within the Ha band. The PST is somewhere around 0.8 -1.0 A - good for proms, but not great for the surface features. A Ha resolution of 0.4-0.5A gives spectacular detail on surface features.

This is usually obtained by double stacking the etalon filters.....more money!!

HTH

[smerral]

Exactly as Merlin says - I have contemplated double stacking but the filter is over £700!!!

[Black Knight]

Great images Smerral, great stuff!

[sheri_barri]

Very nice images.