August 6, 2017 Solar report

[Tyson M]

Solar grab and go set ups for white light and hydrogen alpha. by SolarT RM, on Flickr

Solar grab and go set ups for white light and hydrogen alpha. by SolarT RM, on Flickr

 

August 6 , 2017 Solar session. 1045 am start.  Roughly noon finished.

I am on holidays for a second time this summer. This time it is one week and a day, strategically place within long weekend. 

Spending the night with extended family in Red Deer. Got too drunk / tired for any night observing. Woke up to some blue skies. Out comes the solar gear, and a white towel to cover my black pants and shirt (poor wardrobe choice)

Good thing I pulled out the gear from the trunk of car, dew on everything packed away - which was very surprising. Out in the sun we go! Dew disappears. 

I knew Active region 2665 survived its journey around the sun, now with the designation 2670. A killer sun spot that launched two flares last trip around. 

Out comes the white light set up , SW Equinox 80mm. Porta II. Baader click lock 2" to 1.25" adapter , 1.25 lunt Herschel wedge with Baader solar continuum filter. 

Eyepieces used. 32 mm highlight plossl, 22 panoptic, 13 mm nagler with Barlows. 

32mm plossl - plenty of black space around a green sun. Slight pepper look to the surface , the solar granulation cells. Too far away though for my liking. 

22mm Pan. Okay but not as good as it was in the Ha scope. Had some dew I blasted off though. Umbra and penumbra visible. Granulation present. Plenty of black space around a green sun. 

13mm nagler. Now we are talking. Fine granulation detail visible. This eyepiece is the right combination of magnification with black space around for Hand tracking with slow motion controls. Nice detail in the sunspot 

13mm nagler with 3x TV Barlows. Barely able to get a full disk of the Green sun around , if I pan my eye in every direction around the field stop. It is the best high power view of AR2670. Sunspot looks like cell division, umbra about to split into two. Maybe in a day or so. Almost like a Xmas tree in shape. Left side larger than right side. There is a small black umbra speck not in the large group but close to the left side. 

13mm nagler with 5 x powermate. Views dimmed but plenty of detail in umbra and penumbra. Looks like there are actually two small minute specks besides the larger "half" of active region 2670. 

Also, the potential splitting of the spot appears to be complete. A tiny green line of sun "appears" to run across the black expanse of the Umbra only visible at high power.

Packed away white light set up. 

 

Took a water break and came back out and set up the Ha scope. LS60THa with zoom eyepiece , 22 Pan and 13 mm nagler. 

 

First up was the zoom. The pumped it up higher mags, and was floored. A very busy disk. Each time I think the sun can't surprise me, it shows me something that does. 

A massively thick prominence about 11-12 o clock. I pulled out the 22 Pan. Razor sharp. It looks like the base of it has 4 or 5 stems that all connect into a massive prom. Like two major proms merged together. 

Also. Beside massive prom, about 1030-11 o o'clock, two twin small proms. This region looks insane, I needed another witness, so I got my gf's auntie to come look at the view which she agreed was very crazy to see. 

Proms also at 9 o clock. The second biggest one. Looks like a tent.

At 5 and 6 o clock, small little proms. 3 o clock another prom medium sized with irregular shape. 

The surface was very sharp in the sweet spot. Plasma all across the disk. Two large filaments by active region 2670. 

 Time for new eyepieces. 13mm nagler. 

It is here I see two more smaller filaments and some light red areas which looked like plage by 2670. More smaller proms and the irregularities spikey chromosphere show nicely. 

Closer inspection on massive prom group at 11-12 o o'clock show about 5 stems connecting a fainter base. That 1030-11 o clock smaller prom twin section beside it are actually 6 small prom stems coming up off the disk. 2 of the 6 I would say are medium sized. 

Further observations get my mind thinking. It looks like massive prom kind of reminds me of a horse rearing on its hind legs. With a man holding the head with the reins trying to bring it down. 

I wish I had my imaging set up to document this, I may consider sketching for solar work now, to compliment imaging when I don't want to lug out the gear.

Thanks for reading and clear skies.