April 6th H Alpha

[paulastro]

I had a brief session this morning, six minutes from 8.41 am, short but by no means my shortest session!    Both pics with the Lunt 60mm DS, Olympus E-M5, single frames, 500 asa, the first at 1/50 sec and the second on 1/15 sec.  The long filament is very nice.  It would stretch over half way across the sun if it was straightened out. 

 

[MarsG76]

Excellent detail for single image shots.. I like the composite with the flares. nice.

 

[Pete Presland]

Excellent discs.

[Davey-T]

Super detail  for single shots, no joy here.

Dave

[Ibbo!]

Well done

I set up for an hour last night just about got focused but no avi

today set up got hailed on

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice one. The lower part of the ">" sign I reported is quite clear, the upper less so. I found it hard to tune my SM-II 60mm DS to get both visible in equal contrast.

[xtreemchaos]

great shots Paul, theres a lot more going on in Ha than WL. well done six min well spent. thanks,  charl.

[Montana]

These are great nice to see plenty of activity even without spots

Alexandra

[laudropb]

Very nice, detailed images.

[paulastro]

4 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Nice one. The lower part of the ">" sign I reported is quite clear, the upper less so. I found it hard to tune my SM-II 60mm DS to get both visible in equal contrast.

Many thanks Michael.  That's  a great report you posted - only just read it.  Yes, the lower part is clear as you said, and whilst I'd noticed parts of the top bit it wasn't until you mentioned it that I perceived the whole thing.  Interesting also that where they joins in the West  (in my pics at least) there looks to be small bits of filament forming a circular join to the two elements rather than them just meeting each other at a point.  The resolution of my screen is not that good, but when I sit back from the laptop a bit I can see the whole thing much clearer - with the gaps of course.

On other occasions I've  imaged, what looks like a patterned lines  indicating the  position of a filament (sometimes with adjoining 'branches' etc) where no actual surface filament is present.  The pattern often reminds me of the sleepers of a railway line with no rails.  When I first noticed this, some time ago now, I wandered if they were some photo artefact but when I've checked on GONG they are usually there also.  I've always thought they were probably activity at a different level which would perhaps be similar to a filament seen higher, or lower, in the sun's atmosphere.  I could be quite wrong of course.  For my own use in my notes I refer to them as being 'ghost filaments'.  Sometimes the extent of these ghost filaments can be extensive and complicated with several branches going large distances across the sun's surface.  There are often also only visible when the images are enlarged somewhat and could be overlooked at lower image scales.

When I have the time I'll see if I can find any good examples in my images and post them up so you can see what I mean.  It may take a little while though as I've never bothered to record their presence as a tag to any of my pics!

[paulastro]

3 hours ago, Ibbo! said:

Well done

I set up for an hour last night just about got focused but no avi

today set up got hailed on

Thanks Steve, we've had hail and sleet here since I observed this morning, snow and thunder later I expect

[David Smith]

Nice work for a 6 minute gap!