February 4, 2015: Superb views of filaments and huge detached prom

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Just had a look at the sunwith the SM-II 60mm, and thoroughly enjoyed it (along with a visitor, a few PhD students and secretaries). There are a lot of filaments visible, especially on the eastern half of the disk. Several plage areas stand out nicely too, and a solitary lareg sunspot can be seen just north of centre. A small but bright plage area t its west seems like it could become active shortly. A series of four proms can be seen on the western limb, and one or two others on the east. One looks more or less attached to a filament on the eastern limb. The best prom was high up in the north east: a huge if faint detached prom, showing some fine internal detail with this bigger scope. It is quite a way from the surface, really surprised to see it there.

We even went up to 80x with the SLV 5mm, and the disk showed lovely detail. Well worth a look

[Davey-T]

Nice report Michael, Sun is playing hide and seek behind the clouds here, can't decide whether to set up or not.

Dave

[Peter Drew]

Michael. Did you see the big prom lift off at around 12.00 ? Lucky to catch it myself as it was relatively short lived. Well shown on GONG. 

[Davey-T]

Set up in the end but no joy, couple of seconds of viewing big filament coming round the corner. no chance of imaging, had Skyris 274 for two weeks and not got to use it yet.

Talk of a "Hyder Flare" whatever that is ?

Dave

[Moonshane]

Michael. Did you see the big prom lift off at around 12.00 ? Lucky to catch it myself as it was relatively short lived. Well shown on GONG. 

I saw this I think Peter. It was just above a large filaprom. starting as a large loop it increased in size and width and eventually threw material out with a single pillar left. amazing.

[Floater]

Ah well. Guess we can't all win 'em all ... But glad you folks got good views.

Clouded out today. :-((

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I apparently just spotted the aftermath of the event. Nice to hear some people caught it.

[Davey-T]

So what's a Hyder Flare and did anyone see it ?

Dave

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

So what's a Hyder Flare and did anyone see it ?

Dave

It's the other side of a Jekyller flare

Proper explanation here:

http://www.ips.gov.au/Educational/2/4/1

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

On reading that more closely, I think I may well have seen such a phenomenon last year.

[Davey-T]

Just tried to look on Solar Chat to see if there's any mention of it but it doesn't seem to be working. 

Can somebody try it to see if it's just me ?

Dave

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Just tried to look on Solar Chat to see if there's any mention of it but it doesn't seem to be working. 

Can somebody try it to see if it's just me ?

Dave

Just wanted to go on SolarChat, but it appears to be down

[Moonshane]

Here's my rough sketches from today. the high loop eventually seemed to fling off material and then became a column made of two joined sections. I could not keep up with the changes!

[Peter Drew]

Shane. Yes, that was the one, very short lived for the size. 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice sketch. Had another look late this afternoon, and the detached prom is still going strong

[Moonshane]

I just wish my hands and pencil could sketch to the quality of what I see!

[Peter Drew]

One thing I have noticed, is that you need to keep the object  from drifting in the FOV in order to detect real change in appearance otherwise slight differential tuning as it drifts gives the impression of change.    

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have just realized that the flare up must have been after my first observation, not just before (forgot about time difference).