Solar prominence sequence 24 May

It's been so long since I've had any good sun that I was worried I'd have forgotten how to set up the equipment. In the end I just let my mind wander and muscle memory took over.

This prominence complex wasn't the largest on the limb, but it was quite interesting. It was changing fairly fast, so this sequence represents one hour of flat-out sketching: as soon as I'd finish one frame I'd start the next.

Derwent white Graphitint pencil on black Strathmore Artagain paper. Two frames per sheet, combined in Photoshop.

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

Jeff - thanks for sharing. I'm amazed at the dynamic changes in just a few minutes. Lovely sketches.

That's fantastic Jeff!
Very nice work!

Thanks, Dave and Michael!

-- Jeff.

Hi Jeyjey, love these posts. I was just wondering a couple of things:

-Those sketches are what you're seeing with your naked eye yes, I mean through the scope obviously but you're not using a camera?

-I'll have a 4" Celestron 102 SLT soon and was wondering if I made a solar filter like this:

www.cosmoscopio.com/solarfilter.html

From BAADER AstroSolar , would I be able to get a look at the same prominences you are or does it require more specialised equipment, filters etc?

Thargor --

Thanks!

Yes, the sketches are naked-eye. Sadly, you won't be able to reproduce that view with solar film. Solar film produces a white-light view (all wavelengths, but only a fraction of a percentage of the brightness of each), while those were done in h-alpha (a single wavelength, but most all of the light at that wavelength).

The budget entry into h-alpha viewing is the Coronado PST. It won't quite give you the views I've sketched (for instance, you won't be able to see the spicules, which are the short "hairs" along the sun's edge), but you will be able to see the prominences (with a bit less detail) and some surface detail. They are still pretty addictive.

You can also get front-mounted h-alpha filters to go on your 4" refractor, but I think they're in the €800 to €1000 range.

The Baader AstroSolar film is regarded as the best bang-for-the-buck for white-light viewing. The sun is currently at solar minimum though (it goes through 11-year cycles), and so there's not much to see in white light. H-alpha, in contrast, pretty much always has something going on, although it's also better at solar maximum (or so I'm told -- I've only been doing h-alpha for about a year).

Cheers,
-- Jeff.