Solar Activity 30 Apr

[brianb]

Back from a short holiday without access to my scopes, but facing a processing backlog caused by shooting too much Moon the evening before I went away - and a hard drive failure - and a serious shortage of clear skies.

Anyhow the "drought" ended yesterday (April 30) when the sun shone from clear blue skies after morning showers which cleared around lunchtime.

CaK overview suggests a rather more active Sun than during my previous imaging session on April 21st.

1258 UT. PST CaK, prime focus, DMK41

The bright patch of plage in the north east quadrant contained a small group of spots which were visible in white light

1339 UT. WO FLT 110, Lunt B1200 CaK diagonal, x2 barlow, DMK21

1330 UT. WO FLT 110, Lunt solar wedge, Baader solar continuum filter, 2x barlow, DMK21

This active area (subsequently numbered 11064) had an interesting filament to its west

1314 UT. Solarscope 60, 2x barlow, DMK21

The "old" active area (11063) appeared blank in white light & there was only a small CaK plage to mark its position, but minor activity in Ha including a small "eyebrow" filament:

1315 UT. Solarscope 60, 2x barlow, DMK21

The Lunt solar wedge also showed up faculae at the west limb; the same area is shown in white light & CaK for comparison

1333 UT. WO FLT 110, Lunt solar wedge, Baader solar continuum filter, 2x barlow, DMK21

1343 UT. WO FLT 110, Lunt B1200 CaK diagonal, 2x barlow, DMK21

Not very much in the way of prominences but the north east limb looked active:

1322 UT. Solarscope 60, x2 barlow, DMK21

But the Ha "highlight" was in the south east, a group of filaments including a long straight "stab wound"

1317 UT. Solarscope 60, x2 barlow, DMK21

Transparency very good. Seeing bad, strong boiling but with occasional steadyish moments. Temp 16C, wind N force 1-2 with occasional gusts to force 3 during which the seeing improved noticeably.

[moocher]

CaK shots are the pick of the bunch for me......

Alan:)

[sheri_barri]

Those are superb Brian! The CaK especially is a cracker!

Cheers,

Sheri