April 2, 2014: Solar tea break with detached prom on western limb

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Just had a short session whilst sipping a nice cuppa (Keemun black, strength: result looks like strong coffee) using the LS35 to see what was going on on the sun. Despite slight haze, seeing was excellent, with the little solar scope showing very crisp and stable detail on the disk. Almost in the centre an AR with a couple of big sunspots showed up, with magnificent swirling lines surrounding them. northwards near the eastern limb, another AR with sunspots showed up. Southwards near the eastern limb a very long filament snaked its way across the disk, the first of a sequence of long filament on the southern half of the disk. To the north, a similar sequence could be seen. The eastern limb showed just a single prom slightly southwards. On the western limb a huge wall-like prom stood out along the limb, and to its south a ghostly shape of a detached prom stood out clearly.

The seeing was good enough to use the XF8.5 at 47x, but I felt 40x with the MV20 and Meade 2x TeleXtender was a touch crisper. I hope to have another look at lunchtime.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

had another look over lunch. Loads of students and colleagues dropped by. Details were more or less the same, but the detached prom had changed shape from a complex branched structure to a more-or-less linear shape (parallel to the limb. Close to the large wall sticking out of the western limb (which had split into a larger, northern section and a smaller southern), a very bright spot developed on the surface close to the limb round 12:45 local time. It faded after ten to fifteen minutes. Lots of bright patches seen close to the sunspots near the eastern limb too.

[Pete Presland]

Very nice detailed reports, sounds like a pretty active sun still. must get into habit of taking the PST to work more.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Thanks Pete. It is pretty active and I might have another look immediately after work