Prominence Flames

Activity on the sun seems to be increasing daily.  I took this single-exposure image this afternoon; the sun's disk is deliberately overexposed to enhance the detail in the prominences. The air temperature was 101.4 F and the heat index over 104.  The laptop kept shutting down due to overheating.  Seeing was much better than of late, so there are some compensations to the heat!

"New" PST mount

I've been using the PST on a Manfrotto camera tripod.  It works well, except it's hard to "drive" to particular parts of the solar disk for imaging.  I was digging in the garage today and I found my old (over 30 years) manually-driven equatorial mount for a 60 mm refractor.  I cleaned off the cobwebs and set it up.  The tube ring is too wide for the PST (but the locking is on an adjustable screw, so there is some latitude on tube size).  I tried wrapping the PST tube in cloth, but it was too slippery and the scope slipped down in the ring.  Then I found an unused packet of insoles for running shoes. One side is of a soft material, the other a nonslip rubber.  I wrapped the PST with it (rubber side to the scope), put it in the mounting ring and adjusted the locking screw until it was tight.  The result is in the pic above.  The mount is a little more wobbly than the Manfrotto, but it is easier to move the scope to desired areas on the sun's disk; tracking in one plane using the slow motion control is also easier than fiddling with 2 planes on the Manfrotto. You may also have to adjust the orientation of the PST, as parts of the mount block the solar ranger in some orientations.  It's not a bad solution, overall.  I'm sure you can find these old scopes and mounts in garage sales for less than $25, so this might be a solution for anyone on a budget who wants to track equatorially.  You can also see the modified Lifecam in a shorty barlow in this pic.

July 4 Fireworks!

This image shows a "bridge" running between two prominences on the edge of the sun.  There was lots to see on the sun today:  huge filaments, crackling active areas, and the gushing fireworks of prominences.  Here in Indiana, we're not allowed to set off personal fireworks due to the extreme heat and dryness (the heat index was over 100 degrees F when this pic was taken!), but with displays like this on our star, it's hard to be disappointed!

Swirling Chaos

Here is one last pic from today's imaging session.  It shows the swirling chaos of gas around AR1515.  The wonderful thing about H-Alpha imaging is that you get to see the sun as a "living" star. The individual spots in this image are several times the size of earth.  The fact that earth would be a tiny dot in this maelstrom gives a vivid idea of the real power of the sun.

Huge Filament

A huge filament near to the edge of the sun, with a couple of prominences.  This image was captured during this afternoon's imaging session under very poor seeing conditions.

AR1515 with Prominence

Captured this afternoon, this image shows AR1515 looking very active, with an edge prominence.  Seeing was horrible.  Weather conditions were 90s with a very unstable, shimmering atmosphere.

Cookin' With Gas!

Solar activity is picking up, with close-to-X-Class flares erupting from AR1515.  The image about shows extreme brightening on the sunspot group on the right; this is possibly a flare in progress.  Unfortunately, I'm back to the summer haze and cloudiness of Indiana again, and this image was taken in very hazy conditions.  The weather clouded over soon after this capture (PST + Lifecam).