2010 07 02 – NOAA 11084 | PCW Memorial Observatory

2010 07 02 – NOAA 11084

2010 July 2, 1540 – 1850 UT

Solar h-alpha and white light – NOAA 11084

PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio USA – Erika Rix

Solar h-alpha and white light – NOAA 11084

DS 60mm Maxscope, LXD75, 21-7mm Zhumell, ETX70-AT, tilt plate

Temp: ~ 26°C, Humidity 60%, Seeing: Wilson 4.5-3, Transparency: 4/6

Clear, slight breeze, Alt: 61.2-57.5, Az: 66.1-230.8

H-alpha sketch created scopeside with black Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, white Prang watercolor pencil, Derwent charcoal pencil, black oil pencil. White light sketch created with white card stock, #2 pencil, ultra fine black permanent marker.

NOAA 11084 in the SSE quadrant looked almost like a spiral galaxy on the Sun. It was only after I came inside from my session that I looked it up on Spaceweather and read that the images from SDO (http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/) showed a “pinwheel canopy” over the sunspot in that region. The image from SDO is stunning and it was pretty exciting to see the comparison of that image with the views from my Maxscope. The swirl (if putting a cardinal orientation to the disk) made its way outward from west to north, to east, and so forth. In the center was the sunspot itself. The next layer beyond the sunspot was a brighter ring encircling the spot. From there the magnetic lines reached outward in long swirls.

Off in the NW quadrant, the very long filament appeared to be in sections, connected by thin strands. There were several filaments, but two thicker ones reached over the limb forming smaller bright prominences, one ~30°pa and the other ~110°pa. Of all the prominences scattered about the limb, the impressive views were on the Eastern limb. I wish I had done a series of close up prominence sketches from the Eastern limb. They changed quite a bit over the course of my observations today. There is one close-up sketch of the center prom within that group that I completed in between the full disk sketch and my white light observation.

In white light, I could find no faculae. The umbra of the spot in 1084 was a little rough and flattened slightly. At first glance it looked almost perfectly round. The penumbra’s fibrils were detectable and the outer edge of the penumbra was flattened a little on the eastern border.

Paul joined me for the latter portion of my session and hooked up his DSI III Pro to the Maxscope while I studied the white light view with the ETX.

I haven’t a clue what the temps were today during my session. My thermometer/hydrometer went missing shortly after I set up my gear and I later found it with the sensor chewed off…compliments of Freckles, the youngest 4-legged member of our family.