2012 06 01 – NOAA 11493 and NE Prominence
Two spots were obvious in 1493 with slender filamentary lines reaching to the north of the preceding spot. Although there were a couple other small darker areas within the plage close to the limb, I couldn’t confirm that they were sunspots in h-alpha. The prominences off the eastern limb were short and dense with very faint lines of plasma stretching out in three different areas next to them. Transparency was decreasing and it became very difficult to differentiate the orange glow surrounding the disk from the faint lines of prominence reaching high above the limb.
Sketch created at the eyepiece with black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ crayon and pencil, white Prang color pencil, Derwent charcoal pencil, black oil pencil.
Active regions 1490, 1492, 1495 and 1494 formed a line across the solar disk and 1486 was set apart from them on the preceding limb. I should have taken the time to do a full disk sketch to record the long dark filaments observed, set dramatically against the lightened background of the chromosphere.
Earlier today, a coronal hole opened up on the Sun to the NE quadrant (the dark area to the left side of the image). The solar wind released from the Sun’s magnetic fields should reach Earth June 5-7th. SDO captured an image of it at 0600UT. The image also shows the hotter regions of 1493 that will show as plage in my sketch. I never tire of looking at views from SOHO or SDO. There is so much information packed into the images, not to mention the sheer beauty of them.
Photo Credit: NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory Coronal Hole
PCW Memorial Observatory - Erika Rix 