Was this a solar flare? - Sunday afternoon's Ha Sun

[DrRobin]

Hi,

A late session for me, spotted this on the first of 12 mosaic shots, by 10 minutes later it had nearly gone, but when this picture was taken it was brighter than the surface. I have tried to orientate it correctly, but was it a solar flare?

Robin

[Steve Ward]

There was a big but brief event there on the GONG data , big build up of bulging loops that got sucked in again ... sorry for the less than scientific description ...

http://halpha.nso.edu/movie_all_C.html

[allcart]

Have a look here Robin. Guess what.....You caught a flare.

http://halpha.nso.edu/movie_all_M.html

[Steve Ward]

Just checked the SDO latest 48hr video and there was a very bright flash / flare there right at the end ...

[Luke]

Well that's a beauty! Well done, Robin.

[Montana]

Well caught!!! post flare loops but very brief, great timing

Alexandra

[nytecam]

Well caught - I initially thought, from old terminology, a flare described a brief very bright surface feature on the disk but Wikipedia includes prominence features on the limb as your pic - well done

[DrRobin]

Thanks guys,

A very lucky capture indeed. I am still processing all of the pictures, hope to show the prom's development and demise, but first a full disc mosaic, 12 panes, 1.5x barlow, Lunt 60 double stack, DMK41, Autostitch, Paint.net.

The sun seems alive just at the moment and there was me thinking it had peaked.

Robin

[DrRobin]

Hi,

Three pictures of the short lived but spectacular prom. All pictures Lunt 60 double stack, 1.5x barlow, DMK41.

Robin

The first picture was taken at 17:57

The second picture at 17:58

The third picture was taken at 18:18

[DrRobin]

Hi,

The best of the rest.

Robin

Double stack, 0.8x FR, taken at 17:52, the big prom is only just starting.

The best of the proms.

[anthony]

Great images all!. Really like the processing.

[DrRobin]

Thanks Ant, I have had a very good run of lucky shots.

Robin

[AstroWolvy]

nice catch

[lukebl]

Very nicely captured.

I realise that I was observing at exactly the same time and captured that flare too, although your images of it put mine to shame!

[DrRobin]

It looks as though it was only there at that brightness for a few minutes as it didn't show up as well on the full disc shots, taken about 5 minutes before, was really good on the two close ups and then when I went back it was a shadow of it's former self. I looked at it for another few minutes but it faded all of the time.

So yes Luke, put your pictures up, it will be interesting to see what it looked at from another loaction and another time interval. What I should have done, once I saw it was just stay on it and got enough for a time lapse, I realise that now, slightly too late.

Robin

[lukebl]

.....So yes Luke, put your pictures up, it will be interesting to see what it looked at from another loaction and another time interval. What I should have done, once I saw it was just stay on it and got enough for a time lapse, I realise that now, slightly too late.

Robin

OK. Here is my modest image (PST, IMG132e cam, c 500 frames @ c.15fps, captured through thin cloud). It's there at about the 5 o'clock position. It was captured at around 17:30 UT, which coincides with the time the flare appeared on the SDO website (check out the 48h movie). It only seems to have been present for a few tens of minutes around this time before dissapating.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice capture of that flare. Just missed seeing it.

[DrRobin]

Hi Luke,

Very nice a great capture, but I think it would have had to have been later than 5:50pm, according to the video it started as a bright blob at around the time I caught the full disc DS, grew to a maximum at about 6pm (the time I took the two close ups) and was gone a few minutes later. Unfortunately, the movie jums by an hour or so, just after the peak. It just shows you how lucky I was, a window of only around 5 minutes when it was at it's best.

Robin

[lukebl]

I managed to extract some of the frames from the SDO 48h movie, and the flare definitely peaked at around 17:30UT. These three frames are timed at 16:44, 17:28 and 17:58. As you see, there was nothing present in the first frame, and it had completely disappeared just over an hour later.

I take my hat of to you, Robin! At the time it looked to me just like a normal prominence, and I would have just passed it off as such if you hadn't pointed out how short-lived it was.

Have you sent your images to Spaceweather.com?

[DrRobin]

Hi Luke,

Thanks for the stills from the movie, do you know what wavelength they were in? The times on the stills are UT, which I think is UTC or GMT, so we would be an hour ahead. It seems to have the event starting at 16:44 and lasting for over an hour, but that would by 17:44 BST. I think the visual (well Ha visual) lasted for a much shorter time.

I have heard of these before, Alexandra pointed one out to me, I missed by minutes and Mark [T] put up a superb picture. I am really going to have to be more on the ball in future, next one I see I am going to stay on it to see what happens. I should have guessed it was something like a flare, an ordinary prom is not as bright as the surface.

Robin

Robin

[lukebl]

Hi Luke,

....Thanks for the stills from the movie, do you know what wavelength they were in? .....

According to the website, the wavelength of the SDO images is 304 Angstroms.

Just to be clear, my image was captured at 17:30 UT/GMT, i.e. 18:30 BST