Solar eruption today

[Peter Drew]

Did nobody else witness the spectacular outburst on the Sun today? I thought it would be all over the solar section!  I turned my Ha scope on to the Sun at my first opportunity at about 12.15 and was immediately confronted by an intensely bright eruption which rapidly evolved into an enormous column full of fast moving globs of material.  The whole appearance changed practically in real time.  It seemed to be coming from just over the approaching limb so hopefully it signalled the arrival of an active area.  The sequence lasted about 20 minutes and I think I caught it shortly after it started.  Rather exciting after a long period of fairly low activity.  Reprising it on GONG showed that it was indeed short lived.      🙂 

[BGazing]

Wow, you made me rewind the data. Eruptive prominence, lovely!

It's overcast here all the time with showers for the past week...and likely to continue that way.

[Stu]

Really glad you caught it Peter! Very frustrated I didn’t set the scope up today as it was beautiful here.

[Davey-T]

Missed it but some pic's on Solar Chat also looks like something active coming around on SOHO.

Dave

[Alan White]

Reminded me to go look for Solar Chat, thanks Dave.

 

[laudropb]

Yes I did catch it Peter. I was trying out a new double stack on my Lunt 50 when the bright eruption caught my eye. There was a second smaller episode later on as well

[RichieP]

Apparently a small solar flare occurred today 

 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/new-sunspots-herald-increased-solar-activity-cycle-sdo

 

Perhaps some sunspots to follow 

[Highburymark]

3 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

Did nobody else witness the spectacular outburst on the Sun today? I thought it would be all over the solar section!  I turned my Ha scope on to the Sun at my first opportunity at about 12.15 and was immediately confronted by an intensely bright eruption which rapidly evolved into an enormous column full of fast moving globs of material.  The whole appearance changed practically in real time.  It seemed to be coming from just over the approaching limb so hopefully it signalled the arrival of an active area.  The sequence lasted about 20 minutes and I think I caught it shortly after it started.  Rather exciting after a long period of fairly low activity.  Reprising it on GONG showed that it was indeed short lived.      🙂 

I think we need a single location to post solar events on SGL now that activity is increasing. I’m never sure whether to use the general ‘heads up’ forum (as I did today) or this one. Quite often in recent months there are separate threads running on the same subject.  Maybe all solar events should be posted here - under solar?

[Rusted]

There is a disturbed area right on the limb at 10 o'clock. Darker depressed area?

[Merlin66]

The consensus is that we’re about to see a significant AR coming into view.

clouded out down here....

[wheresthetorch?]

Small sunspot just appearing. (Not my photo - from 'The Sun Now' app.)

[Stu]

14 hours ago, Highburymark said:

I think we need a single location to post solar events on SGL now that activity is increasing. I’m never sure whether to use the general ‘heads up’ forum (as I did today) or this one. Quite often in recent months there are separate threads running on the same subject.  Maybe all solar events should be posted here - under solar?

That was the idea of the Celestial events heads up section Mark. If people post in there then you can follow the forum and get alerted to it. I know it is for other events too but there aren’t so many that it’s impossible to follow. Would that work for you?

[Stu]

1 hour ago, wheresthetorch? said:

Small sunspot just appearing. (Not my photo - from 'The Sun Now' app.)

Thanks for the heads up. Just popped both Ha and Whitelight scopes into the AZ100 and saw exactly this (well a bit better actually 😁👍)

[Highburymark]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

That was the idea of the Celestial events heads up section Mark. If people post in there then you can follow the forum and get alerted to it. I know it is for other events too but there aren’t so many that it’s impossible to follow. Would that work for you?

Ok - no worries Stu. It’s just the shock of having so much solar activity to report suddenly 😁

[Stu]

Tee hee!

On that note, I’ve just watched what I assume was a small flare form very quickly, initially as two bright spots away from the surface. It developed as I watched, elongating in two directions then fading away, all in the space of about ten to fifteen minutes. Probably the beat I’ve seen of these, and was in a similar place to the one I saw this morning so presumably there are an active region there?

[Alan White]

Is that in Ha Stu?

 

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Is that in Ha Stu?

 

Yes it was Alan. A very quick moving bright prominence basically. Really great to see.

[Alan White]

Just now, Stu said:

Yes it was Alan. A very quick moving bright prominence basically. Really great to see.

I see an Ha set up in my future, long term, but I keep missing these things in only WL.
Don't get me wrong, WL is and was great today, but I want more, sounding like Oliver now 🙂

[Stu]

26 minutes ago, Alan White said:

I see an Ha set up in my future, long term, but I keep missing these things in only WL.
Don't get me wrong, WL is and was great today, but I want more, sounding like Oliver now 🙂

I’m a big fan of White Light too Alan, the detail can be gob smacking when conditions are good and there is an AR visible. The faculae and small spot was good to see today, even looked a little 3D with the spot nestled into the sip of the faculae.

I have recently rediscovered my enthusiasm for Ha though. The views in my PST Mod are amazing, plenty of nice proms around to look at today for example. I would like some full disk views at some point, and probably a double stack but the high power views this scope delivers in binoviewers are fabulous.