Solar Activity 22 Feb

[brianb]

The morning was cloudy (despite the forecast) but the Sun partially broke through after lunch. There was interference from drifting cloud, and the seeing was just plain bad - activity in the jet stream being the first sign of the approaching storm forecast for Wednesday.

Solar activity continues to run down. AR 1049 remains the only active area containing "white light" spots, but it appears to be starting to decay. It is also rapidly approaching the solar limb. However the associated faculae are visible in white light.

2010 Feb 22, 1412 UT. 80mm, 4x Imagemate (f/24), Baader solar film (ND5.0) & solar continuum filter, DMK21.

2010 Feb 22, 1450 UT. Solarscope 60, 4x Imagemate (f/32), DMK21.

2010 Feb 22, 1457 UT. 60mm, 3x barlow (f/25), Lunt B1200 CaK diagonal, DMK21.

The long lived quiescent prominence on the north west limb persists:

2010 Feb 22, 1437 UT. Solarscope 60, 2x barlow (f/16), DMK21.

There is interesting low but bright prominence activity at the west limb:

2010 Feb 22, 1438 UT. Solarscope 60, 2x barlow (f/16), DMK21.

But the highlight remains the huge filament/prominence in the south east quadrant. The prominence element has become quite faint and I was unable to capture it and the surface in a single shot, so a montage will have to do!

2010 Feb 22, 1431 UT. Solarscope 60, 2x barlow (f/16), DMK41.

Just for completeness, here's the CaK overview:

2010 Feb 22, 1342 UT. Coronado PST CaK, prime focus (f/10), DMK41.

Transparency fairly good but with intermittent drifting cloud. Seeing bad, jet stream smearing and significant boiling. Temperature +3C, wind SE force 2-3.

[Space Bat]

Lovely images

Like the CaK

Chris

[Dave Smith]

Agree with Space Bat, lovely images. That is the most interesting CaK image that I have seen, plenty of contrast.

Dave

[sheri_barri]

Nice images! The CaK is especially sharp!

[Pete Presland]

fantastic pics