2011 08 25 – Solar h-alpha, western prominences, NOAA 11271
2011 08 25, 1800UT-1900UT
NOAA 11271 covered quite a large area on the NW quadrant with plage and a few filaments. There’s a new active region coming around the bend on the eastern edge without a designation. A smaller, condensed circular plage area is to the SE of the solar disk.
There were clear skies while setting up, then changed to overcast skies immediately following. I finally got about an hour’s worth of observing in between the scattered clouds later in the day. Even scattered clouds can make sketching prominences difficult because prominences change so quickly that every minute counts. If I’m forced to stop sketching for a few minutes because of cloud cover, often the sketch will need go unfinished because the sketch is too different to the current view when the clouds move away. The differences may be small, but they are certainly there.
A full disk sketch doesn’t seem to be so rushed as far as changes go. The reason is because you’re sketching a larger area, focusing on the overall object instead of zooming in for a close up sketch. The changes in structure aren’t so obvious. Because of this, I had to wait patiently while big, fluffy clouds (dark on the bottom and brilliantly white around the edges and tops) floated by in between markings for the full disk sketch.
Sketches created scope-side with black Strathmore Artagain paper, Conte’ pastel crayon, Prang color pencil, black oil pencil.
PCW Memorial Observatory - Erika Rix 