2008 01 25, 1205ST –1330ST (1705UT – 1830UT)

Solar H-alpha 012508

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56

NE and the SE limbs

Sketch Media: Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.

Added –25 brightness, +5 contrast after scanning in color at 300 dpi. I then turned the image into monochrome. I scanned initially in color to eliminate cross hashes that the scanner creates in grayscale. Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun insert.

The NE and the SE limbs are still at it. Snows and overcast prevented me from viewing yesterday, but on the 23^rd of January, two proms on the NE limb were spread out a little further from each other and the one that was around 55 degrees PA had two very bright upright legs to it with a faint line of connection in between them. Today, there is a very tall fainter prominence around 45-50 deg PA that looks like two hands pressing against each other with a small prominence just north of it by about 2-3 degrees. Then around 55-60 degrees PA (maybe even a little more distance than that) was a brighter prominence defined by a very bright tall slender arm on the northern side of it with a few shorter slender arms jetting out to the southern portion. The base of the main southern portion was about twice as thick as the northern arm.

To the SE around 135 degrees was a very bright cone shaped prominence about half as tall as the two proms on the NE limb. The inside of the cone appeared hollow. Bumping up magnification, and adjusting the T-max, I noticed a small, round, faint cloud just to the south of it, reaching up above by about half its height. I lowered magnification again for better contrast and it didn’t take long for me to notice a few other portions of it. Playing with the zoom eyepiece, I soon found a happy medium in magnification to tease out as much detail as I could, bringing out this prominence to fuller glory. It was huge and very similar in shape, only much fainter, to the prominence in this same area two days ago.

I was hoping to see some sort of evidence from the pore that the Hinode captured. Of course, it most likely is too small yet for me to see and even so, with the poor transparency today, I imagine it would have been difficult even it were visible for my scopes. After my H-alpha session, I pulled out the ETX70 for a white light view and couldn’t see any evidence with pore nor facula. Something I did see, however, was a claw like marking just inside the limb about 25 degrees in the NNE quadrant. I’ve included a close up view of what it looked like. There were dark areas resembling a filament that had dissipated.

All in all, I observed 7 different areas of prominences around the limb. The NW section of limb appeared rough and turbulent with the long section of short prominence weaving up and down off the limb.

Erika Rix is a Freelance Observer for Scientific Frontline®

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