Yesterday Morning's Sun in H-Alpha, 2002/7/31

Started by Dave Mitsky, 08/01/2002 01:56PM
Posted 08/01/2002 01:56PM Opening Post
I spent some time observing the daystar through my friend Tony Donnangelo's 102mm f/8 Takahashi FS-102 on Wednesday
morning, 2002/7/31. We got a bit of a late start so the seeing was already beginning to slide somewhat. Nevertheless we still had some great views of the major sunspots (39, 44, and 50) currently dominating the solar disk as well as those
comprising the three long chains that are so very prominent. Sunspot 44 was easily visible without optical assistance
through a white light solar filter.

We began our session at approximately 14:45 UT using Tony's Lumicon Solar Prominence Filter H-alpha rig (see http://www.lumicon.com/Store/showdetl.cfm?&DID=22&Product_ID=2868&CATID=5), which is probably the cheapest route available to observing the sun in the light of hydrogen alpha. One drawback of the Lumicon filter is that it has a rather narrow bandpass of 1.5 Angstroms which limits its utility. OTOH, no heating is required.

Despite the strong activity the sun has been displaying recently, no extraordinarily striking prominences could be seen but there were quite a few small ones including what looked like a broken loop prominence with a spike extending from one end.

When we switched to a Baader AstroSolarâ„¢ full aperture filter the views of the sunspots were enhanced. The three chains of sunspots were truly impressive. Around 15:10 UT we closed up shop.

We used a 12mm Tele Vue Nagler type 4 (68x), a 9mm Tele Vue Nagler type 6 (91x), an 8mm Orion Lanthanum Superwide (102x), and a 5.2mm Pentax SMC XL (158x) for the H-alpha observations and the 9mm Nagler type 6 and 5.2mm SMC XL for
the white light observations.

Dave Mitsky

Chance favors the prepared mind.

De gustibus non est disputandum.