Full Sun In a Grassy Field

Full Sun In a Grassy Field

Solar h-alpha, AR1023 and 1022: 2009 June 23
Sketch and Details by Erika Rix

2009 June 23, 1500UT – 1625UT
Solar h-alpha and White light, ARs 1023 & 1022
Erika Rix
PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA

H-alpha 1546 UT, DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell
Temp: 27.7°C
Seeing: Wilson 4.5, Transparency: 5/6
Clear with light cirrus, light breeze N
Alt 52.1 Az 103.5
Sketch created scopeside with black Strathmore Artagain paper, white
Conte’ crayon and pencil, white Prang watercolor pencil, black oil pencil.

White Light Sun

Solar white light, AR1023 and 1022: 2009 June 23, 1621UT
Sketch and Details by Erika Rix

White light 1621 UT, ETX70-AT with tilt plate, 21-7mm Zhumell and 2.5x
SA Barlow
Temp: 30.2°C , Humidity 84%
Seeing: Wilson 2.8, Transparency: 5/6
Clear with light cirrus, winds NE 9mph
Alt 58.5 Az 112.1
Sketch created scopeside with white photocopy paper and #2 pencil.

Solar Comparison

Solar H-alpha and white light comparison: 2009 June 23, 1500UT-1625UT
Sketch and Details by Erika Rix

This morning, I moved the solar rigs outside for better seeing
conditions. After all the rains and then full sun today, the coolness
of the grassy fields would be a significant improvement over the hot
wood and carpet from inside the observatory. It appears my decision was
the correct one because I started the solar session off with h-alpha and
was able to not only increase mags to a 7mm, but used a 2.5x Barlow
toward the end of the
h-alpha session for deeper observing. The seeing became much worse
about an hour later when I began my white light filter observation.

Both active regions were obvious and 1023 almost looked like an “X”
shaped plage with a hint of a spot to the western crook of it. There was
another plage on the other side of that spot with a very prominent
filament reaching to the west, although very small with a more obvious
spot at the eastern start of it. Moving west across the disk, AR1022
was almost a “U” shaped plage resembling a pair of oxen horns with the
way each side of it curved outward.

There were many prominences, all fairly small, but they popped in and
out as I moved the Sun in my FOV for optimum clarity of features.
Speaking of the tilting of the Maxscope’s Etalons, I observed with Alan
Traino at a star party this weekend and had the chance to use a pressure
tuner on their 60mm Lunt h-alpha scope. What a great design! And I was
very impressed with the flat FOV, making it so much easier to pull out
details. Thanks Alan for supplying the scopes for us to try out. Wish
I had had more time to play with the pressure tuning scope as well as
the CaK.

The solar disk was speckled with network details and there were several
filaments, although again, very slender or very small.

The view with the white light filter was a little harder to discern
because of the dramatic change in seeing. Although I got a good focus,
I only had slight moments of seeing to make out a little bit of detail
within AR1023. What first looked like two oblong sunspots in that active
region became two pairs of sunspots. The preceding pair was the larger
with the following pair the smaller. There may have even been a third
little spot in the preceding pair but seeing prevented me from really
honing in on those two sets. There were no faculae that I could make
out, although there was a hint of contrast around both sets of spots as
well a faint line reaching from the preceding to the following pairs.

Promise of a New Solar Cycle

Solar Cycle 24

The sunspots of Active Region 1007
Sketch and Details by Michael Rosolina

The Sun has been very quiet for months now as we are in solar minimum but there are signs that new Solar Cycle 24 is beginning. Active regions of a new solar cycle typically appear at high solar latitudes and have a polarity reversed from active regions of the old cycle.

The sunspots of Active Region 1007, rendered in this white light sketch, has these characteristics. It appeared at a high latitude and magnetograms revealed its reversed polarity. In addition, AR1007 was the fourth active region in a 30 day period to meet these requirements. Solar observers around the world are happily anticipating more activity in the coming weeks and months.

I used 15×70 binoculars equipped with Baader AstroSolar film filters to observe the Sun for this sketch. (Remember–NEVER look at the Sun directly–always use filters or telescopes specifically designed for solar observing) HB and 2B pencils were used for the sunspots and a blending stump was used to darken the solar limb. The template is a 100mm circle.

Object Name: The Sun/AR1007
Object Type: Active region sunspots
Location: Friars Hill, WV USA
Date: 2 Novenmber 2008

May 4, 2008 Solar Collage

Sun

H-Alpha Sun
Sketch and Details by Erika Rix

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp: 54.0°F / 12.2 °C
Winds: 5.8 mph NW, clear turning to partly cloudy
Humidity: 53%
Seeing: very poor 2/6
Transparency: 4/6

Equipment:
Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell, ETX70AT, 8mm TV Plossl

Sketch Media:
H-alpha – Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

White light pores created in Photoshop.

New active region in the ESE quadrant was visible with two crescent shaped plage facing each other during the h-alpha observing session. In white light, seeing was very poor making it invisible at first glance. Eventually my eyes were able to see two dark specks in the AR, appearing to be only umbrae, with the more easterly one slightly darker and thicker.

No faculae were noted in white light.

Of the prominence activity in h-alpha, the long line of southern prominences had filament reaching out over the disk on the far western edge. The large eastern edged prom in this line was leaning at a crook to the east (right) in my FOV. It was also the faintest of the four more prominent prominences around the Sun’s limb.

A Freckle on the Sun

Mercury-Solar Transit

Mercury-Solar Transit
Sketch and Commentary by Jeremy Perez
Move cursor over sketch to see labels.

On Wednesday, November 8th, 2006, Mercury was due for a solar transit. Now, in my neck of the woods, that just happens to be a work day. So I planned to set up the scope during lunch in the parking lot, or outside the lunchroom. The only thing I needed was a solar filter. A couple years ago, a very kind and generous amateur astronomer from Phoenix, Scott Kroeppler, sent me a couple small Baader solar film samples. Other than some casual, unmagnified looks at the sun, I hadn’t put them to good use. Until now. I stayed up the night before, rigging these two 1-inch square pieces of solar film and a sewing hoop to an 8 inch square piece of foam core. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but the next morning, I pulled into the parking lot at work, put my mangy, home-made solar cap on the front, and got a handheld look at the sun for the first time through my own scope. Not only did it work great, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a huge sun spot easing over the solar limb.

So I got to work, and then about 15 minutes before the beginning of the transit, I put it all together on the patio outside the lunch room where I had the best opening between all the trees. I didn’t start quite early enough, because by the time I got everything set up and the solar cap taped on securely, Mercury was already well inside the solar disc. It looked just like a printed period against blue-white filtered circle of the sun. It had entered just south of the massive sunspot I noticed earlier. A couple fainter sunspots rested on the opposite side. At that point, I made my first solar sketch, and noted how easy it would be to really exaggerate distances and proportions across the sun’s face. I was excited to see that light, textured, filamentary features were visible around the sunspots. As I studied these features, I noticed that it didn’t take long for Mercury’s motion to become apparent.

Over the next 45 minutes, I invited passing coworkers to have a look. They all seemed happy to get a look at the transit, particularly after reading about it in the newspaper the day before. As folks walked up to the eyepiece, I tried to coach them a bit with the sketch to be sure they didn’t confuse the sunspot for Mercury. Quite a few commented on how very tiny the little planet appeared. Several of them were even able to make out the two relatively faint sunspots over on the western limb as well. After a little more than an hour, I moved the scope to an out-of-the-way spot, and went back to work.

At about 20 minutes before the end of the transit, I raced outside to find that the sun was completely hidden behind trees where I had the scope set up. With a bit of scouting, I moved the whole thing into the parking lot about a hundred yards to the north where I had a clear vantage. And here I got to watch that perfect little dot edge closer to the western edge of the sun. At about four Mercury diameters from the edge, the whole shebang began to sink behind a tree-lined ridge a mile to the west. So I missed seeing Mercury merge with and disappear into the darkness on the other side of the sun. It was still a fascinating event to witness, and since Mercury won’t do this again until 2016, I’m glad I was able to fit it in.

The sketch at the top of this post was overlayed onto a digitally generated disc with limb darkening that estimates what I saw through the eyepiece. The next time I sketch the sun this way, I’m sure I’ll want to include the lighter features, which will mean generating that limb darkening manually and erasing through it.

Subject Mercury – Solar Transit
Classification Planetary/Solar
Date/Time November 8, 2006, 12:33 – 04:54 PM MST (November 8, 2006, 07:33 – 11:54 UT)
Observing Loc. Flagstaff, AZ
Instrument Orion SVP 6LT Reflector (150 mm dia./1200 mm F/L)
Eyepieces/Mag. 25 mm (48X)
Conditions Clear, breezy
Seeing Ant. IV

The Makings of a Coronal Mass Ejection

Sun

Sun-White Light

Sun – Featuring NOAA 10987, 10988, 10989
Sketches and Commentary by Erika Rix

2008 March 26, 1335ST – 1452ST (1735UT – 1852UT)
Solar H-alpha and White Light
PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56
Erika Rix

Temp: 57.0 °F / 13.9 °C
Winds: West 18 mph gusting to 25 mph
Humidity: 33%
Seeing: 5/6
Transparency: 2/6
Alt: 50.4 Az: 157.5

Equipment:
Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell
ETX70 AT, tilt plate, 8mm Televue Plossl

Sketch Media:
H-alpha – Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.
Added –5 brightness, +30 contrast after scanning in color at 300 dpi. Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun insert.

White Light – white copy paper, #2 pencil, .5mm mechanical pencil, photographed sketch instead of scanning for better contrast.

It was said that today NOAA 10989 produced an M2-class eruption causing a CME. I have to say that each of the three active regions had very bright plage seeming to curve around the dark specks of sunspots within each region. It’s not often I get such a great view of the sunspots themselves in h-alpha, but today 10988 had the largest umbral area and they all had one or two smaller dark spots. I could hardly wait to pull out the ETX70 with a white light filter to see the sunspots themselves in much greater detail.

Prom activity was very modest. After 3-4 strolls around the limb tweaking the Etalon, 6 areas of very small prominences came to view. The filaments on the disk were showy, especially the large blotchy one to the south of 10988.

With the white light filter, facula was clearly viewable around 10989, reaching out in several directions. Penumbrae were seen in most of the sunspots. I had hoped to increase magnification for a closer view, but with transparency becoming worse, as well as viewing in white light in the front yard rather then in the protection of the observatory, the white light view was already too soft. Increasing magnification would have made it impossible.

Dances on the Limb

Prominences 021108

Solar H-alpha sketch collage 2008 02 11, 1214ST -1304ST (1714UT – 1804UT)
By Erika Rix

2008 02 11, 1214ST -1304ST (1714UT – 1804UT)

Solar H-alpha

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 /  Long: -81.56

Erika Rix

Temp:  14.0 °F / -10.0 °C

Winds:  WNW at 8.1 mph, light scattered and later completely overcast

Humidity:  49%

Seeing: 2/6-5/6

Transparency:  2/6

Alt: 35.9   Az: 176.9

Equipment:

Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell,

Sketch Media:

Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

Added -25 brightness, +5 contrast after scanning in color at 300 dpi.  I then turned
the image into monochrome. I scanned initially in color to eliminate cross hashes
that the scanner creates in grayscale. Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun
insert.

At first glance in h-alpha around 10x magnification, only two prominences, SSE and
West, popped out at me.  I didn’t waste much time with the 40mm eyepiece since I
usually use it for initially getting the Sun in the FOV.  At 19x the eastern
prominence looked like two fingers curling towards each other with the southern most
of the two a little brighter.  Taking the magnifications to 57x I could make out a
very faint thin line connecting the two and also noted the strands of contrasted
prominence within the two fingers at 33x. Seeing was much worse at the higher
magnifications but I had moments where it settled for a detailed view.

Moving South at low magnification, the prominence appeared to be two separate
entities with the westerly portion of it looking like a hook or letter C opening up
to the East.  Increasing magnification with the zoom eyepiece, I was amazed to see
with slight averted vision at first several connections between the two.  After
discovering them, I could actually look at them straight on to make out the delicate
network of strands.  It was truly beautiful and very delicate.

A similar thing happened to me with the western set of prominences.  The most
northerly of the four on the western limb grew almost twice in size with a
magnification of around 33x.  The prom itself didn’t grow, but rather my ability to
see the actual size of it with a modest magnification.  The additional length of it
disappeared at 57x.

The little set of prominences at the NNE limb became brighter as the session went
and also became better defined with the lower one (more northerly) turning from a
fuzzy little thumbprint into a thin branch reaching to the one that was more to the
East.

I noticed a dark round dot around 40 degrees on the disk from the East and pretty
much on the equatorial line.  It was very small and tweaking the Etalon did not show
any signs of plage.  Other than that, there were no significant surface details such
as plage or filaments to me visually.  The disk was alive with hairlike structures
and a mottled appearance, very pretty.

Fire and Ice

Sun Ha

The Sun in Ha light on January 4th, 2008
By Erika Rix

2008 01 04
PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA
Erika Rix
Solar

It was a beautiful sight today with the Sun gleaming off the snow. The snow was
melting fast as the temperature was slowly rising. Unfortunately, the snow didn’t
melt fast enough off the observatory roof, so I had to just drop down the upper part
of the southern wall and leave the roof completely on, otherwise, I would have had
to deal with water dripping on my gear in the observatory. As it turned out, it was
a good way to keep the winds at bay today, plus I’m sure kept me warmer in the more
enclosed space.

There were four very bright plage areas on the disk in h-alpha. One from NOAA 10981,
another large intricate plage structure for 10980, then a very thin bright one that
reached over to 10980 just inside the Eastern limb. The final was toward the West. I
could see a dark “spot” being cradled by the plage in 981, and by viewing in white
light, there was most definitely a small pore that appeared almost elongated. With
all the haze today plus winds during my white light filter session outside of the
observatory, it was difficult to tell if this elongation was another very tiny pore
just beside the larger one, or if it was just blurred from the conditions outside.
In any case, both to the NE and the SW of this dark dot were faint markings
resembling contrast of faculae. I couldn’t confirm what the markings were with this
observation.

 The Sun in white light

In white light, I could see no other evidence of active regions.

Getting back to h-alpha in the observatory, there were six areas of prominence
around the limb that I could see. With the haze and poor seeing conditions, I had to
wait for moments of clarity and steadiness to get good definition for closer looks.
Patience definitely proved to be valuable today.

The prominence to the SE just below the AR980 was very faint and fan-like. To the
very southern portion of it, it became brighter. I could almost make out all the
connections to each section of it.

Then at the western limb, slightly to the south was a very sharp brighter prominence
with several fingers reaching out like flames. I really enjoyed this one.

The show stopper of the session was most definitely the plage with a few dark thin
filaments looking as if they were separating the plage in AR980 and onward to the
eastern limb.

It’s said that a new solar cycle has begun, making it number 24. We’ll see, but it’s
looking promising.

Solar Cornucopia

H-Alpha Sun

Solar Observation – November 23, 2007
PCW Memorial Observatory
By Erika Rix

Well the new active region doesn’t appear to have a designation yet (or even if it will), but I was able to make it outside for a few hours to observe. It was only scattered clouds during the observation and a little windy and chilly. But with the Sun at a very low altitude of approximately 27 degrees, it was still a struggle against time to observe in both h-alpha and white light before the trees obscured by view.

Paul opened up the observatory for me and by the time I got my scopes switched on the LXD, he was coming in with a cup of hot tea for me and Riser was curled up in a ball at my feet on his blanket.

The first thing I noticed in the Maxscope was a small bright plage area almost dead center in the solar disk. Bumping up the magnification, I found that it was actually broken off into two sections with fainter “arms” reaching to the east and west of it. There were hints of two darkened spots on either side of it, but I couldn’t confirm it in that bandwidth.

There were three areas of prominences on the Eastern limb, two that are included in the close-up sketches. On the western limb, there were just a few very tiny areas that looked like little spikes.

Just north of the prominence at approximately 90 degrees was a bright patch of plage, almost oblong with the western edge outlined a slightly darker hue. A very thin line of filament branched inward from the limb just north of the 90 degree mark, but could not see it extend outward off the limb against the dark background.

The prominence on the 140 degree mark had a fairly broad sectioned filament running north to south about 15 degrees inside the limb. It was broken into three obvious sections as well as a few very thin lines of filament in the same area.

After a brief few moments enjoying the countryside view from the drop down southern wall of the observatory, I grabbed my clipboard, a few pencils, my empty cup of tea and marched off to the house in my slippers and knitted hat, with Riser following close behind.

The ETX is stored in the house for a few reasons. The observatory isn’t quite big enough to house all the scopes plus it’s easy access for white light viewing to just drag the already set up scope outside from the living room.

Within minutes, I was sat behind the ETX with my sketchpad on my knee, recording what the new active region looked like in white light. There were two dominant smaller spots with an additional fainter spot just off of the larger one. Then, reaching out to the other side of the spots were long thin faint lines. I didn’t notice faculae, but I imagine the dark lines may have been the contrast of border from faculae.

The views were slightly softened today, so it was difficult to view granulation, but limb darkening was very noticeable.

h-alpha sketch media: black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white Conte’ crayon for disk surface

white light media: copy paper, number 2 and .5mm mechanical pencils

White Light Sun

A Capacity for Opacity

Ha Sun 

2007 08 26, 1700-1928 UT

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio

Equipment used:

Internally Double stacked Maxscope 60mm, WO Binoviewers, 20mm WO EP’s, LXD75.

Meade ETX70-AT, 21-7mm Zhumell, glass white light filter.

Seeing above average with only a few moments of quivering, transparency above average.

Temps 80.1 °F / 26.7 °C to 78.1 °F / 25.6 °C over course of observation.

Winds 4.6 mph – 6.9mph NNE/ 11.1 km/h.

Clear progressing to mostly cloudy by the end of the session.

Humidity 54%

Sketching media: The white light sketch was done on copy paper with a number 2 pencil.

The Ha sketch color sketch was done using black strathmore paper with color Prang pencils.
 

Word for the day:  Opacity

According to my heavy, red, weathered Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (tenth
edition), opacity is defined as:

“n, .1: the quality or state of a body that makes it impervious to the rays of
light; broadly: the relative capacity of matter to obstruct the transmission of
radiant energy..2b: the quality or state of being mentally obtuse: Dullness.”

I kind of got a kick out this.  It appears that with one word, I can attempt to
discuss opacity of the Sun and yet at the same time try not to create opacity while
doing it.

Studying the Sun, as well as anything worthwhile, can be very confusing and
sometimes overwhelming.  It helps to understand the basics such as knowing that the
Sun is a giant ball of gas.  It has several layers starting at the inner most called
the core. The majority of the Sun’s core consists of hydrogen.  By nuclear fusion,
the hydrogen is converted into helium.  The key here is that in doing so, energy is
created. Energy equals heat.  All in all, when we think of the Sun, we think of
radiation, or electromagnetic radiation to be more specific.  Radiation is a process
that transports energy.  Electromagnetic radiation is a radiation that carries
energy through empty space by means of waves at the speed of light. 

You see, atomic particles (created by the nuclear reactions in the core) speed up
and grow from the exchange of varying flows of electrical and magnetic fields, which
is where electromagnetic radiation originates.  Following me so far?  Here’s where I
start to get back on topic.  Electromagnetic radiation has both wavelength and
frequency.  When you multiply the two together, you get the velocity of light.  If
one of the variables increases, the other has to decrease for the velocity of light
to stay constant.

Oh, how easily it would be to dive in further with all this.  But I need to stay on
track with the first definition of opacity.  Wavelengths are compiled in what we
call a spectrum.  And this is when we get into means possible for us to view the
Sun. 

Imagine the energy being transported through a few more layers of the Sun, each
layer quite a bit hotter than the previous as it extends away from the core.  We
finally reach the layer that most call the “surface” of the Sun, the Photosphere.
Does that look Greek to you?  Well, not to worry.  It is Greek.  The Greek word
“phot” stands for light and “sphere” of course stands for round ball. 

In the photosphere, the gas is heated so much that it burns bright giving off most
of its energy close to the middle of the spectrum, creating visible light.  And it
doesn’t end there.  Reaching out from that thin layer of burning gas is the
chromosphere, meaning round ball of color.  After a brief pass through the
transition region, the energy enters the corona and then outwards as solar wind.
Each layer is visible through specialized means.  Each layer involves our word for
the day, opacity.

One evening, quite a few years back, my brother in law and I were cooking supper
together. I was in charge of the chip pan and cutting up the potatoes.  I could see
him very clearly across the room and the air was transparent and had a zero optical
thickness.

As we were talking to each other from different ends of the kitchen, we soon noticed
that we were getting harder for the other to see. In other words, the optical
thickness was getting thicker.  By the time we became alarmed to this fact, the
smoke was nearly opaque with an optical thickness of close to 9.  I could hardly see
him anymore.  As he walked toward me, I could see him more clearly and by the time
he reached me the optical thickness was perhaps a 3.

We removed the smoking chip pan that caused the smoke from the stove, opened the
kitchen windows, grabbed the dog and a bottle of wine, and sat out on the steps of
the flat, watching the smoke roll out of the kitchen window.  I don’t recall what we
ever did for supper that night, but I suppose that’s beside the point. It was a
perfect example of opacity and how I measured it. The same is done when viewing the
Sun.

The further into the Sun we look, the higher the opacity. We can only see up to
approximately an optical thickness of between 0.5 and 2.  The photosphere is said to
have an optical thickness range of close to 3/4, and it includes all the light that
we can muster from the Sun, meaning white light.  If I wanted to view through a
narrowband filter such as a hydrogen alpha filter, the optimal optical thickness
would be reached before I even gazed into the Sun as far as the photosphere.  I
would in fact start at the Chromosphere.  This is wonderful news for us in that by
using special filters, it changes the opacity from a zero to us being able to
actually see the color of the light in this layer of gas, blocking out all the other
colors that would have hidden this color otherwise.

Well now, I’ve come full circle with opacity!  And what does this have to do with my
observations today?  Well everything to be honest.  Opacity is what strives us to
find new filters for trying to tease out as much detail as we can.  And there’s
information to be had if we can look at different layers of the sun.  In my
observations today, I viewed in both the photosphere and the chromosphere.  Two
different gas layers with a temperature difference of over 4000 degrees Kelvin
(chromosphere at 10,000 K and photosphere at 5780 K).  Each will allow us to see
slightly different details on the Sun and each are important to consider while
studying it.

This first observation was recorded in hydrogen alpha.  You can see the effects of
the magnetic fields through the long fingers of the filaments holding the cooled
dense gas in place.  Although this observation is mainly in the chromosphere and
lower parts of the corona, the filaments are generally held in place by regions of
opposing magnetic polarity within the photosphere.  Of course this is also the case
for the prominences, as prominences are filaments above the limb where the gas is
set in front of the black sky instead of the disk.  Although the filaments were very
impressive on the disk itself, they were not so impressive on the limb today.
Having said that, take a look at the faint section of prominence that appears to be
floating off the limb in the WNW region.

NOAA 10969’s plage intertwined and reached out with crooked fingers. 

White light 

The next observation was using a white light filter where over 99.999% of the Sun’s
light is blocked out, making it possible for me to view the photosphere.  This is
called white light.  You can see NOAA 10969 in the cooler layer.  The chromosphere
becomes invisible to me again.  The two dark sections of umbrae within the penumbra
of this action region were very prominent.  I could see a darkened outline of the
penumbra and it had an almost rectangular shape with curved corners.  Of particular
interest was the very faint darkened area to the right of the sunspot.  This happens
to me fairly often, seeing little bonus features like this.  I’m still not sure what
causes it.  Normally I would think it was contrast from faculae that I was unable to
discern.  Normally we can only see faculae closer to the darker limb regions. But
often I can see an outline of contrast suggesting faculae present when the active
region is toward the center of the disk.

This time it is a little different.  If I didn’t know any better, it looked like a
thick triangular cooler region next to the sunspot.  By this I mean cooler than the
photosphere, hotter than the umbra, and only just slightly hotter than the
penumbrae.

With so much to learn concerning the sun, at least we learned one new word.  It’s a
start in the right direction anyway. 

Erika Rix

Two views of the nearest star

 Colored Ha Sun

You can see the effects of the magnetic fields through the long fingers of the
filaments holding the cooled dense gas in place. Although this observation is mainly
in the chromosphere and lower parts of the corona, the filaments are generally held
in place by regions of opposing magnetic polarity within the photosphere. Of course
this is also the case for the prominences, as prominences are filaments above the
limb where the gas is set in front of the black sky instead of the disk. Although
the filaments were very impressive on the disk itself, they were not so impressive
on the limb today. Having said that, take a look at the faint section of prominence
that appears to be floating off the limb in the WNW region.

NOAA 10969’s plage intertwined and reached out with crooked fingers.

Sun white light

The next observation was using a white light filter where over 99.999% of the Sun’s
light is blocked out, making it possible for me to view the photosphere.  This is
called white light.  You can see NOAA 10969 in the cooler layer.  The chromosphere
becomes invisible to me again.  The two dark sections of umbrae within the penumbra
of this action region were very prominent.  I could see a darkened outline of the
penumbra and it had an almost rectangular shape with curved corners.  Of particular
interest was the very faint darkened area to the right of the sunspot.  This happens
to me fairly often, seeing little bonus features like this.  I’m still not sure what
causes it.  Normally I would think it was contrast from faculae that I was unable to
discern.  Normally we can only see faculae closer to the darker limb regions. But
often I can see an outline of contrast suggesting faculae present when the active
region is toward the center of the disk.

This time it is a little different.  If I didn’t know any better, it looked like a
thick triangular cooler region next to the sunspot.  By this I mean cooler than the
photosphere, hotter than the umbra, and only just slightly hotter than the
penumbrae.

2007 08 26, 1700-1928 UT

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio
Equipment used:

Internally Double stacked Maxscope 60mm, WO Binoviewers, 20mm WO EP’s, LXD75.

Meade ETX70-AT, 21-7mm Zhumell, glass white light filter.

Seeing above average with only a few moments of quivering, transparency above average.

Temps 80.1 °F / 26.7 °C to 78.1 °F / 25.6 °C over course of observation.

Winds 4.6 mph – 6.9mph NNE/ 11.1 km/h.

Clear progressing to mostly cloudy by the end of the session.

Humidity 54%
H-alpha sketch was rendered using Prang colored pencils and Black Strathmore
Artagain paper.  White light sketch was created with photocopy paper and a number 2
pencil.

Erika Rix