The Sun is showing off now 2014-7-24

[YKSE]

In PST, one sunspot on east and two on west (noon time), there's a huge prom outside the eastern sunspot, while one prom in west has broken out, and another large prom is building up outside the small sunspot. Filaments, plage and chromospheric network can be seen in these areas, especially northwest.

In white light with 120ED, most pores are coming up on west side. Most details can be observing around the biggest sunspot, with umbra, penumbra readily seen, and some pores nearby, faculae mostly in west too, with granulations coming and going.

I love sunny vacations

[David Smith]

Good report. Cloudy here this morning, hope to get a look later.

[Floater]

Yeah, great show.

But still at odds with east and west! This morning the huge prom was about 9 o'clock on the disc and has now moved to about 6.30 o'clock. I thought that was the western limb 'cos it's the leading limb and that was how I was told to differentiate. (I think it was Stu or Shaun who taught me that, but if I'm wrong it's not their fault!)

Anyhow, wonderful stuff. The detached prom, at about 1 o'clock, started the day off much farther down, at around 5 o'clock, and the whole disc seems to be swinging round anti-clockwise. Sheesh, this is getting complicated ...

Haven't looked in white light but even in Ha the spots and what appears to me to be granulation are very evident. FLO say my Astrozap filter should be here in about a week and I'm looking forward to getting both working together.

Mind you, slim chance of this amazing weather continuing for that length of time ...

[David Smith]

Just had a quick look in the gaps between the clouds, that prom is huge!

[Floater]

It sure is, Dave.

Finally overcame my laziness and swapped scopes on my mount to look in white light. Really interesting set of sun spots in the northeast area. Using a 24-8 zoom gave me a range of mags from 20-60x which were all good but trying a 6-3 zoom was going too far (80-160x) and was difficult to focus at 80x and nigh impossible at 160x.

I also tried viewing with a neodymium filter which was fine but didn't add much to my experience and was no use with the 6-3 zoom as I couldn't get focus at all since the filter kept the eyepiece too far out of the focuser.

I'm now back to Ha and have noted that the largest prom is now close to 6 o'clock and the detached plume on the northeast limb has moved to around 1 o'clock. I know the sun rotates anti-clockwise (viewed from the north) but hadn't appreciated that the disc viewed from earth also seems to spin anti-clockwise. Any of the solar gurus care to comment, please? Is that correct?

Whatever, it's a blast to watch (pun intended)!

[Mark at Beaufort]

Thanks for the Heads up - just been outside with the PST and yes there is fine large prom coming out of the southern hemisphere.

[YKSE]

I'm now back to Ha and have noted that the largest prom is now close to 6 o'clock and the detached plume on the northeast limb has moved to around 1 o'clock. I know the sun rotates anti-clockwise (viewed from the north) but hadn't appreciated that the disc viewed from earth also seems to spin anti-clockwise. Any of the solar gurus care to comment, please? Is that correct?

I am wondering about that too, my guess is like this: iIn PST, the view is like viewing from a Newtonian, i.e. 180 degree rotated correct image; while through a Heschel wedge, it's like through a diagonal (refractor etc), the image is erected, i.e. top and bottom mirrored comparing to the view in PST. That's how I get the sunspots in two scopes fit.

[Floater]

Ooh, my head's starting to hurt. :-)

I'm pretty sure that the view through my Solarmax is right way up but left and right are switched (mirror image). And certainly the TV76 (which I use for the white light sessions) gives me the same 'mirror image'. The object - sun in this case - moves from right to left in my eyepiece and this was how I was told to know what was east and west. The leading edge/limb on my left would be west, as the sun is travelling west across the ecliptic.

Was happy enough with that but just thrown as to why the disc of the sun seems to turn anti-clockwise, too. Can't get my head round trying to figure out if the earth's orbit has something to do with it. I'm prolly just a bit thick. It's certainly not spoiling my enjoyment of viewing, but grappling with these things and learning a bit more each day is a large part of the fun for me.

My future plan is to use my Dob for white light and I know the view will be 'upside down'. As for any other idiosyncrasies, I'll have to wait and see!

All part of the game, eh?

[YKSE]

Ooh, my head's starting to hurt. :-)

I'm pretty sure that the view through my Solarmax is right way up but left and right are switched (mirror image). And certainly the TV76 (which I use for the white light sessions) gives me the same 'mirror image'. The object - sun in this case - moves from right to left in my eyepiece and this was how I was told to know what was east and west. The leading edge/limb on my left would be west, as the sun is travelling west across the ecliptic.

You're of course right about left and right switched view through a diagonal, that's how we compare the view with correct image(star charts). Here, I guessing,  the view through a PST is like through a Newt, as shown in the picture here,

http://www.telescope.com/Articles/Equipment/Telescopes/Image-Orientation/pc/9/c/192/sc/194/p/99816.uts

We're comparing the Upside-Down (Newt) view with a Backwards (diagonal) view, therefore it's Top-Bottom mirrored images.

[Floater]

Okay. Got it. (I think!)

[Floater]

Yup. It's falling into place, now.

Just had a look at David Smith's shots (good stuff, David!) through his PST so that let's me see the difference between the PST and the Solarmax. It's still going to be a bit of a devil when we say things like 'prom at 4 o'clock' though ... 'cos that will be 8 o'clock for me! (Won't it?)

[YKSE]

More show in H-alpha today (morning 25th)

Two huge proms in East, two in West too, with the big one detaching from the limb. minor proms in north and south too. very active surface feature too.

In the white light, sunspots and pores are not as many as yesterday.

[Floater]

Good morning, YKSE (?). Yes, gorgeous again. Got a post in earlier.

Fabulous stuff - right side up, back to front or any which way!!

[YKSE]

It was the EP view when I described the orientation, thinking over again, it might be better to describe EP view with clock position so that it makes less confusion.

[Floater]

For one who enjoys solar observing you certainly seem to have picked a cracking time to have a holiday ...

[YKSE]

Absolutely Gordan.

Comparing the positions of the sunspots, it has moved noticeablly closer to the center, if these bigger sunspots (seen i H-alpha) don't disappear, they should be very close to the center in two or three days.

[Mark at Beaufort]

I have often tried to work out the correct orientation of the Sun through different scopes. I produced this chart in photoshop to help me. I just hope that I got it correct!!!!!

I appreciate that the angle of the Sun can change and you can use the free software 'Tilting Sun' to get it totally correct. Member Bizibilder uses this software when he submits Solar photos in white light.

[YKSE]

On 2014-07-24 at 20:42, YKSE said:

I am wondering about that too, my guess is like this: iIn PST, the view is like viewing from a Newtonian, i.e. 180 degree rotated correct image; while through a Heschel wedge, it's like through a diagonal (refractor etc), the image is erected, i.e. top and bottom mirrored comparing to the view in PST. That's how I get the sunspots in two scopes fit.

Yepp, I think that my impresion about view through PST was correct, see the post by David Knisely here:

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/26253-the-sun-orientation-with-a-pst/?p=333186

The Sun's orientation through a PST is like in a Newt through Baader film, i.e. 180° rotated as in a map, and it is left-rght mirrored through scopes with a diagonal.

[Mark at Beaufort]

I improved on the chart that I produced in 2014. The new one helps me define the degree location of items better.

[MoonNut]

Wow, very useful, thanks for sharing!