The Sun 29-03-09 - More fun with animations!

Main proms today lie in the NE, NW, SE and SW. The NW group caught my eye in particular as it was fairly dynamic and complex so I decided to try another animation over a few hours with video runs taken roughly every 5 miniutes when cloud and seeing allowed. The animations below are running at 1/20th sec and consist of 34 frames with footage spanning 12.36-14.54. Shooting with cnsistent gamma, gain and exposure settings gave a definite improvement in the overall smoothness of the animations an is certainly the way to go. The processing has also been perfected in Animation Shop and PSPX now so that I can get consistent results. All I need now is a wider aperture and some quality optics for some stunning animations !

The Sun 28-3-09 - AR and Proms

A nice collection of small proms fringing most of the NE limb today with the other main proms in the SE and SW. There is an emerging flux region on the NE limb but it looks quite weak and may not produce any sunspots. Over in the NW are the 2-3 small dost of plage from the last EFR which has not developed and will disappear off the limb in the next day.

The Sun 26-3-09 - Possible New AR Rounding the NE Limb

Loads of prominence activity on the NE limb today and the GOES X Ray Flux Monitor indicated a B Class Flare at around 2.30am. The small proto AR that has survived as two dots of plage in the northern hemisphere is still there in the NW quarter now, but doesn't look as though it will develop spots. Hopefully we should see what is causing all the activity on the NE tomorrow!!

The Sun 22-3-09

Not as much activity today with just one main group of proms in the west (top of disk image), all the others being quite small, faint and impossible to image in the awful seeing. The disk shows a tiny area of flux developing in the NE quarter (bottom left).

The Sun 21-3-09 - Plasmoid Sphere and Prom Animation

Some nice sizeable prom groups in the west today. The largest in the NW consisted of a high curtain of plasma and I put together a longer animation of the activity. I have the frame alignment procedure sorted now and just need to grab a consistent set of images next time using the same gamma/gain settings so that I don't get the flickering brightness changes. This animation suffers from poor seeing but I thought I would post it up so you can see the amazing leaping tadpole! Watch the upper left surface. The tadpole seems to be triggered by the foot of the uppermost prom re-connecting with the surface - not sure what this activity represents in real terms, but on reading up I discovered that this is probably what is called a plasmoid - ie. a globule of hot plasma. It travels faster than the plasma in the main loops and has a self contained magnetic field. 13 Frames between 10.52 and 12.20 UT - processed in Jasc Animation Shop 3.

The Sun 20-3-09 - Fun with Animations!

Once again there are proms in each quarter. The main multiple arch prom in the south was quiescent but changing form quite rapidly so I made a montage and short animation of the activity which can be seen at the link below. The prom animation is just 8 frames combined in Animation Shop 3. The sequence represents three and a half hours of activity in the prom.

The Sun 19-3-09 - Deja Vu

Almost a repeat of yesterdays activity with proms in each quarter of the disk, but much smaller examples today.

The Sun 18-3-09

Nice to see a good spread of proiminences all around the limb again today with a group in each quarter.

The Sun 15-3-09 Two small active regions through the murk

Although certainly sunny the weather wasn't great for imaging with no real blue sky on view, just a spread of milky white thin cloud and haze. I thought imaging would be hopeless today but I had a look on the laptop via the DMK41 camera and was surprised to see some detail on the surface in the form of two very small bright patches of plage marking two emerging flux regions in the north and north-west. The main prominences were on the SW limb, a long fringe of low complex arches and hedgerow types which all appeared very faint. Exposure times were very low to compensate for the poor visibilty and gamma/gain adjustment was tricky. Even so I was quite pleased to pull some decent shots out of the murk with the two flux areas showing clearly and the proms looking very detailed for just 700 frames with 230 stacked. All pictures taken with PST and DMK41.

St. David's Day Sun 1/3/09

Lots of prominence activity all round the solar disk today. Two main complex groups can be seen on the east and west limbs with quite faint arches, spikes and plasma curtain proms. Also in the east, close to the limb, can be seen two small spots of plage which have some very light flux when magnified and these could possibly be the precursor to a new active region. There was another area like this close to the west limb which is probably the fading AR from last week. Good to see activity picking up again! Images taken between 10.43 and 11.35 UT with PST and DMK41/DMK21.