Sun in Hydrogen Alpha / CaK
With Coronado 40 / Lunt 60mm CaK
Uploaded 8/18/11


 

 On
            Sunday the seeing was much better, and I took advantage early
            before the seeing became worse from the oncoming heat of the
            sun rise. This set was taken between 8am and 9am, and is right
            now the best seeing time for solar work. These are also some
            of the highest resolution Calcium shots so far, the 3x Barlow
            kept its sharpness right til 9am. At that point I switched to
            the Hydrogen alpha 40mm because it is less affected by seeing
            in red wavelengths. 

Click on Images for a larger 1024 x 768 view




                  

                  
Full
                  disk view with the Lunt 60mm in CaK wavelengths. From two halfs
                  combined with iMerge. Flats applied for a more uniform disk.


                  
On
                  the very right edge is our last look at AR1289, which has been
                  spectacular in producing flares and aurora here on Earth. But
                  now there is a huge new spot complex just above center on this
                  image. It is AR1295 and the surrounding group, seen here in a
                  sea of faculae. Just below center is AR1299, I call the "Shrimp
                  sunspot" because it looks like two eyes looking back at
                  you.




With 3x Klee Barlow on Both Scopes
Below left:  AR1289 moves off the disk, with a smaller spot group following.
Below right:  In Halpha light the scale is a bit smaller, but large filament spans this field on the left

 


                  


                  




Below Left:  Two part composite with the Klee showing the full extent and detail of AR1295
Look how nicely iMerge blended the two, and rounded all the corners!
Below Right:  Same spot group, but in H alpha light showing minor flaring action all over!

 


                  


                  







                  

                  
AR1294
                  which is on the lower right corner has very little substance
                  in the white light realm, but plenty of faculae action around
                  it.





                  

                  
On
                  the oncoming limb, while there were no sunspots or filaments,
                  a very nice prominence was visible.





                  

                  
This
                  unnamed region has no spots, but could be the site of a future
                  outbreak. Here we just see a disturbance in the magnetic fields
                  as a clump of faculae.


AR1299 which is just below the center of the disk looks like the eyes of a shrimp in both views.
Lower Left:  Calcium shot showing intricate details in the spots and faculae
Lower Right:  Halpha view, with low level activity around the spot

 


                  
 


                  




Instrument:  Coronado  40mm Ha or Lunt 60mm CaK
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200
Camera:  DMK 1024
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing 8/10, Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature: 75F
Processing: Registax 6, Photoshop CS2
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