24-11 : Huge Display

[Rob Sellent]

After the aggressive winds of last night the sky today is calm, deep blue and very warm. Sitting out for breakfast in the garden this morning was just a little too hot in direct sunlight.

In terms of white light the Sun continues to be dormant but in H-alpha there has been some pleasing shows this week, culminating in a spectacular firey display this morning. At both 4 and 10 o'clock two huge wisps of flames stretch out into the cold darkness of space. With the aid of a Baader Microguide, I estimate that they're respectively around 80,000km and 150,000km in length the latter cascading back to the Sun's surface visually forming an enormous structure like that of an acute triangle. Further prominences are on display at just after 12 o'clock and around 5 o'clock. The former fan like the latter a very active surge. Needless to say, surface detail isn't that great in either white light or H-alpha. There are no sunspots and only a very casual showing of a filament or two.

I've made a sketch but don't have time to scan it in at the moment. I'm off to an olive pressing farm to exchange my olives for oil but if you get a chance today, hopefully you'll be able to see the structures I've mentioned. If there's any interest, I'll post up a sketch latter this afternoon

Edited November 24, 2019 by Rob Sellent

[Stu]

Thanks for the report Rob. Sketches would be great when you get a chance; I'm unlikely to be able to see it through the thick cloud we are sitting under...

[Davey-T]

Thanks for that Rob, mostly spectacular cloud / rain here 

Sketch would be appreciated 

Dave

Edited November 24, 2019 by Davey-T

[Rob Sellent]

Not too sure if this will work in digital format but worth a try.

The solar disk is a piece of weighted paper placed over a sheet of rough textured paper and then shaded very lightly with graphite and a soft cloth. Prominences and filaments are made with blending stubs and soft pencils while plage and other lighter areas are made with gentle dabs of a putty-like rubber. This method is suffice for my notebook.

Back indoors a photo is taken of the sketch and then loaded into Gimp. Background is blackened and a number of distinct layers of yellows, reds and oranges are layered over each other to create the orange peel effect. The disk is then feathered around the edge to give that blurred/astigmatic effect. Prominences are touched over with a small, almost transparent soft brush and then softened further with Gimp's smudge add-on. 

Hopefully the image size is tolerable on most monitors (aboout a 1,000 pixels wide) and that within reason there is an acceptable idea of the visual encounter yesterday morning:

 

 

Edited November 25, 2019 by Rob Sellent