Solar Activity 16 Mar

[brianb]

Very poor conditions today, just a short gap in low / mid level cloud during which the sky was very milky (probably the thickest cirrostratus I've ever tried to image through) and the seeing was poor to downright bad.

AR 1054 continues to decline slowly, the trailing spot group has now lost all its penumbra & the penumbra of the leading group is starting to decay.

2010 Mar 16, 1035 UT. Solarscope 60 @ f/24, DMK21.

2010 Mar 16, 1058 UT. FLT 110 @ f/21, Baader solar film (ND 5.0), DMK21.

2010 Mar 16, 1105 UT. FLT 110 @ f/21, Lunt B1200 CaK diagonal, DMK21.

[Note: I was unable to use Avistack to process these last two images due to continually changing exposure caused by drifting cloud ... the registration region boundaries dominated the image when I tried! Back to good old Registax with 2 point alignment. But most of the "soft" quality is due to really poor seeing, I think a jet stream was moving in.]

The interesting activity in the north east sector continues:

2010 Mar 16, 1037 UT. Solarscope 60 @ f/24, DMK21.

But the highlight of the day is the large prominence on the west limb - not quite as large or as bright as the recent monster, but pretty spectacular nontheless:

2010 Mar 16, 1038 UT. Solarscope 60 @ f/24, DMK21.

CaK and Ha overviews:

2010 Mar 16, 1027 UT. Coronado PST CaK, prime focus (f/10), DMK41.

2010 Mar 16, 1049 UT. Solarscope 60, prime focus (f/8), DMK41. (Nothing significant in the southern portion omitted from this image.)

Transparency poor with thickening cirrostratus, interference from low / mid level cloud increasing. Seeing poor to very poor, deteriorating. Temp 10C, wind S force 3-4.

[NickH]

All your hyperlinks have not worked Brian...can still directly get to them though..

Great shots!

[brianb]

All your hyperlinks have not worked Brian

Sorry, editing error. Just fixed it.

[NickH]

Superb...well presented!

[beamish]

That's some tasty collection you've got there Brian !