Our Sun May 21st 2010

Had a beautiful clear day for the most part here.I decided to bring the scope out and take some images of the sun in H-Alpha
The image below shows a long filament which is hot gas that is suspended by magnetic field which has a tendency to be rather unstable.Also shown to the lower left of the equator is a new sunspot that has yet to be designated a number by The Solar and Heliospheric observatory.

The sun throwing a tantrum as seen on the eastern and western limbs

Image credit;Andrew

information credit;SOHO

Sunspots and CME’s on May 5,2010

I have again been quite busy and when time does allow,I try to make some time to bring my scopes out.With our Sun becoming a little more active (and the weather cooperating) I take a chance and set them up.I started observing the sun on May5th at around 1pm’ish and immediately noticed some interesting areas that grabbed my attention.Through the PST these areas appeared as white blotches that indicated that sunspot formation was possible.While,I had my solar scope tuned to the sun,I decided to connect the white light filter to the big scope and noticed a small sunspot formation on the western limb of the suns northern hemisphere.

click image to enlarge

The next image in H-Alpha  is oriented pretty close  and matches the above image…

click to enlarge

I tried to show in the previous post the CME that I had images of but,I couldn’t make out the ejection to well either.I am still astounded at the idea of actually capturing this event.I just wish I had a better alignment so I could have made a real time lapse movie instead of the jumpy one I have…lol.

Their were many different prominences  scattered around the disc and even see one form in the same video.The CME was rather odd to see forming.I noticed a bulge that slowly kept growing until like a bubble in a glass of soda,popped sending a huge disc of material into space. Look at the image below and you can plainly see the disc of ejected material as it was blown off into space.

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The next image shows the disc of plasma has dissipated into space but,a large prominence has also formed near the same area.My observations think of it as pulling the cork from a champagne bottle and all the built up has a recoil effect?!.

Click image to enlarge

Coronal mass ejection

I caught a huge eruption on the surface of the sun while taking stills.This explains why the movie is so jumpy…lol.Take a look at the 2 O’clock area (dark spot is there too) and look very closely and you will see material being blown off into space. I apologize for the quality but,remember it is from stills and I had not planned on making a movie 🙂

This video was shot on May 5th .

This according to http://www.spaceweather.com

CINCO DE MAYO BLAST: With May 5th winding down, magnetic fields on the sun wound up and erupted, producing a bright coronal mass ejection (CME).

The eruption came from a spotless region near the sun’s southwestern limb.

The billion-ton cloud is not heading directly for Earth, although it could deliver a glancing blow to our planet’s magnetic field on or about May 8th.