March 25, 2014: Solar lunchtime, or when averted vision is needed on the sun

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Just had the scope out to grab a few peeks at the sun in H-alpha. Following this morning's session I was expecting little more that a series of small proms, with interesting differences in appearance, and some nice activity on the disk itself, when I spotted a faint structure on the south-eastern limb (quite far south). I switched to low magnification (20x, using the MV 20mm), and confirmed the presence of a very large, ghostly loop of plasma. It must have stood out by something like a third of the radius of the sun, forming a narrow elliptical structure, best seen in averted vision (of all things!). The other structures were more-or-less like my previous report, but to the west of a prom on the north-eastern limb, I also spotted some faint hints of structure. Clouds rushed in before I could confirm it, but at least a student from the microbiology department got to see her first prom.

I hope to grab another look later in the afternoon

[Pig]

Nice capture Michael, completely clouded out here today   The cloud has only just started to clear so I doubt I will get a chance now.