Great white light & H-alpha seeing and 1.9M class flare

[Victor Boesen]

This noon I went outside to observe the sun in white light and H-alpha. At first my expectations were low due to horrible conditions I had a couple days ago. I was quickly proven wrong and with my 8.8mm eyepiece in the Lacerta WL wedge on my 102mm APO the surface granulation immediately stood out as I racked out my focuser! After getting properly focused I now turned my attention to the ARs on the surface which all had very unique looks to them. A small region on the western side around the ecliptic had a very fine penumbra while a larger region just east of that had a number of wonderful small "islands" among the granulation.

Towards the limb, both on the eastern on wester, two small sunspots were bathing in a large area of faculae which was quite obvious at around 80X magnification with an OIII filter installed.

Turning over to H-alpha I had just received an alert on SpaceWeather about a flare which I hoped to catch before I was too late. Luckily I had previously set my Quark to heat up, before placing it in the diagonal. I expected the great seeing in white light to hopefully also reflect in H-alpha and I wasn't wrong here. I quickly focused on the sun and found a very bright flare around the ARs I had just been observing in white light, amazing! The amount of ARs and faculae on the surface in white light, now turned into a flare, filaments, small prominences and amazing surface detail in H-alpha. Just like in white ligth, I tried to catch a photo of the flare with my phone.

I also tried recording a short video which can be found by clicking this link.

While packing up I was very satisfied with the observing session, and I enjoyed every bit of it! The ability to do both white light and H-alpha is great, and I do still plan to get a skytee or similar to have a WL/H-alpha setup with my Evostar 72ED and Tecnosky 102 APO I can switch back and forward from
Thanks for reading this far, hope you enjoyed it!

Victor

[andrew s]

Nice work. Regards Andrew 

[Stu]

I’m not surprised you enjoyed every minute of that @Victor Boesen, it sounds like a fantastic session. When the seeing is excellent like that for solar it makes such a difference and the detail visible is amazing.

A dual headed mount with the 102 and 72ED on would be great, I guess the 72 gives full disk views with the Quark does it? I love my Tak and PST mod side by side as I’m sure you know 🤣.

Your pictures are very good; capturing Ha like that is really not easy as I know from experience. I presume that is just a portion of the surface, framed by the field stop rather than a full disk? It’s hard to tell. The flare looks amazing 👍

[JeremyS]

That’s excellent Victor 👍🏻

[Victor Boesen]

Thank you everyone for your kind words!

59 minutes ago, Stu said:

I love my Tak and PST mod side by side as I’m sure you know 🤣

I know I can count on you Stu And thank you!

Yes, the H-alpha image is limited by the Quark field stop. The 4" doesn't give a full disk, however my Evostar does, while including some spare room for proms

[Stu]

Just now, Victor Boesen said:

I know I can count on you Stu

🤣🤣🤣

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice indeed!. Had a look in H-alpha over lunch, and the seeing was great here as well. Those two bright lines in H-alpha almost looked like two parallel scratches in the surface, revealing the heat inside

[Victor Boesen]

10 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Very nice indeed!. Had a look in H-alpha over lunch, and the seeing was great here as well. Those two bright lines in H-alpha almost looked like two parallel scratches in the surface, revealing the heat inside

Must have been great through the tri band?? Your description is spot on!! Never seen a flare like this before, wish I had caught it from the start but what more can you ask for. Hopefully won't be my last flare though!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

20 minutes ago, Victor Boesen said:

Must have been great through the tri band?? Your description is spot on!! Never seen a flare like this before, wish I had caught it from the start but what more can you ask for. Hopefully won't be my last flare though!

I was at work, so only had the 60mm Coronado at my disposal, but the view was stunning

[Victor Boesen]

35 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

I was at work, so only had the 60mm Coronado at my disposal, but the view was stunning

Excellent nonetheless! And must be a great job if you "only" have a 60mm Coronado at disposal

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

45 minutes ago, Victor Boesen said:

Excellent nonetheless! And must be a great job if you "only" have a 60mm Coronado at disposal

I have my own Coronado in my office, the bigger guns are at home. It is a great job, however 

[RobertI]

Inspiring report Victor. Your dual setup would be the business, it's making me think how I could do the same.   I had some amazing white light views through my 102EDR during the summer, I was surprised at how high the magnification could go - 180x and I was seeing some lovely sunspot detail. 

Edited December 21, 2021 by RobertI

[Victor Boesen]

1 hour ago, RobertI said:

Inspiring report Victor. Your dual setup would be the business, it's making me think how I could do the same.   I had some amazing white light views through my 102EDR during the summer, I was surprised at how high the magnification could go - 180x and I was seeing some lovely sunspot detail. 

Thanks a lot Robert! A dual scope setup is certainly something I will be doing in the near future.

I found that last day I could comfortably observe at 106X. While 152X was still within the limits of seeing, in fact I stayed at this magnification for some time studying the penumbra of one of the mentioned ARs, I found 106X much more comfortable and steady. At this magnification all ARs were in the fov which was also quite nice!

[Highburymark]

Excellent report Victor. Thanks for posting.

[Paz]

Great report, I am interested to see how an OIII filter compares for showing detail compared  to the baader solar continuum filter that I normally use. I'll try my OIII next time I'm out.

[Victor Boesen]

2 hours ago, Paz said:

I am interested to see how an OIII filter compares for showing detail compared  to the baader solar continuum filter that I normally use. I'll try my OIII next time I'm out.

Thank you! I was actually gifted a solar continuum filter for Christmas yesterday and went to try it out today. First impression is that the view is noticeably more green, whereas the OIII was more green/purple. I found there was only a slight difference in contrast where the SC comes out on top. I noticed that faculae was brighter and easier to observe and so was solar granulae and details in active regions. I felt like the view through the SC was brighter as well, but this comes down to the bandwidth of your OIII I suppose where my Castell OIII has quite a narrow band compared to other filters.

I will most likely write up a post at some point comparing the two since I think many people including myself are/have been curious whether the SC is worth the money over an OIII.

Victor

[PXR5]

Great images and report Victor 🙂

[Pete Presland]

Excellent report, lots of activity at the moment to view, if this cloud ever lifts!

[Neil H]

Amazing Victor love the video as well as the images 

[wookie1965]

Wow great capture I've not seen the sun for a few days now enough to get my Scope and herchel wedge out. 

Some really fantastic images and video there though. 

[Victor Boesen]

Wow, thanks everyone (@PXR5, @Pete Presland, @Neil H & @wookie1965)!! Really glad you liked it! We've been very lucky with the weather the last couple of days here in Denmark and I've spend some great time with my new Baader classic ortho 10mm and Solar continuum filter yesterday and today (post coming soon).

Hope you all manage to get a chance to observe the current ARs. They look amazing!

Victor