Active Areas and Prominences

Today's image shows active areas and prominences on the sun.  Seeing was not very good today; there was lots of moisture and ripples in the atmosphere.  The active area towards the center is AR 1564, which is capable of producing M-Class flares.

Neil Armstrong--A True and Modest Hero

I was driving by campus today and went by the statue of Neil Armstrong outside Armstrong Hall.  I pulled over and my daughter (a 6th grader who was with me) and I spent a few quiet moments with the great man.  It is wonderful to see how many people have taken the time to bring something to the statue.  It was one small step forNeil and a huge cosmic leap for the rest of us!  Thank you, Mr. Armstrong, for showing us how it should be done!

Full Disk H-Alpha

This is my first attempt to stitch together a full-disk image in H-Alpha,  It's definitely not up to the standards of the folks in the Yahoo PST group, but it's here, warts and all, as an illustration of my evolution as a solar imager.  My photo package does not autostitch a panorama, so there was lots of layer switching and moving around of images to make this pic.  I'm not sure I'll do it again as it is incredibly time-consuming!

See-through Prominence

The limb of the sun can be clearly seen though this prominence.  The quiet sun can still have some surprises!

Observatory Part 9

I took this picture this evening of the moon rising over the Walnut Ridge observatory.  As you can see, the building shell is pretty much complete with the front weatherboard (a 6 x 1) attached and the doors installed.  I have to adjust the doors to properly align them, but they open quite smoothly.  Here's another shot of the observatory in better light:

There;s still lots to do--I have to install insulation and put up the internal stud and finish walls.  I have lots of caulking to do and, most importantly, I have to build the roll off frame. But for now, I feel quite pleased at the way the building has come out.

Observatory Part 8

We made very good progress over the last 2 days.  The roof is now on the observatory and weather boards have been fitted on the sides and front.  The view inside shows that there's going to be a lot of caulking to do!

As you can see, I still have some screws to put in to seal the top frame to the walls completely.  The gap at the back between the roof frame and the top frame will be sealed with the rubber sealing material used on garage doors. The front gap above the door frame will be sealed with a 1 x 6 and the same sealing material as the rear.

The front and rear weatherboards also function to keep the roof frame from sagging.  A 10 foot long 2 x 4 that is unsupported sags significantly.  The weatherboards are 2 x 4s attached at right angles.  While attaching them, we pushed the roof frame up to remove the sag and screwed the weatherboard in as we went along with decking screws.  Tomorrow, if I get time, I'll attach the front weatherboard and install the doors.

Reversed image of a Streaming Prominence

This streaming prominence on the edge of the sun hints at action to come as it moves onto the visible solar disk. The image below was taken an hour later and changes are quite apparent.