March 24, 2023: Solar lunchbreak with flare

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Managed to catch some rays during lunchtime, setting up the Coronado SolarMax-II 60mm. The first thing that struck me was the range of spots, filaments and plage areas on the disk, along with some prominences sticking out from the limb. One particularly long one could be seen at the 9 o'clock position, with a smaller one at 6 o'clock. The large AR with two huge sunspots on either side, some distance below the centre of the disk also showed two curved filaments that almost touched each other. At 13:20 local time (11.20 UTC) I suddenly spotted a bright, linear structure that almost seemed to link the two filaments together, almost like a spark arcing across the gap between them. It subsided after about 10 minutes, and spaceweather confirms there was a minor flare (C1.01) at that time. Really nice to have spotted it