PCW Memorial Observatory – Erika Rix

What a sunny beautiful day, regardless of the cold temps and having a cold to boot. Wrapping a knitted scarf around my face and head, I bundled up with the PST (still on loan to me by John Crilly) in my arms and headed outside.

It didn’t take long to find three prominences, two on the Western limb and one one the Eastern. Tuning it in for the best view, I put a towel over my head to block out all excess light and began my sketch. Tempting as it was to try another full disk sketch, I wanted to concentrate on the prominences instead…especially catching the “Christmas Tree” prominence on the Northeastern limb.

December 19th 2005 H-alpha sketches

It almost reminded me of a mountainside with about 2-3 little steps leading up to the highest peak. It was all very close together and difficult to render. It’s a shame my sketching skills aren’t very fine tuned to capture my view…but this will hopefully get better with practice. You’ll see a darkened splat south of that prominence with a lighter splotch on the inside edge of it. I haven’t determined what that is yet…knowing my luck it could be dust or debris on the lens.

On the Western limb, I could see a black sunspot that I think may be 835. Just west of it was the larger of the two prominences protruding outwards like a spike. And just north of that, it’s little brother, shorter and perhaps a tad more blunt.

I believe I’ve caught the colors correctly on paper as to what was in my view….almost salmon with a darker line along the limb, and added orange/not quite yellow intermingled within.

~ by Erika Rix on December 19, 2005.

Posted in Solar Observations, Solar Observations 2005
Tags: H-alpha, prominences, PST, solar sketches, Sun