Solar Activity Ist May 2024

IT'S VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN WITHOUT SUITABLE EYE PROTECTION/ FILTRATION  see 

https://www.bintel.com.au/product-category/accessories/solarfilters/

FOR DETAILS.

These aren't the world's greatest solar images.  They are basically just smart phone snaps held over the eyepiece of a telescope.   This is especially evident with the red Ha filter shots as visually through an eyepiece the Sun's chromosphere is much sharper with the granular detail of the surface evident to the naked eye and far superior to these shots.  However the white light shot does approximate well the view to the eye through the eyepiece.

White Light Filter .  The Sun's Photosphere, the layer just beneath the Chromosphere, emits this more familiar view of the disc and sunspots (right) which represent a relative cooling where magnetic field lines are twisted and converging. 

Ha(Hydrogen Alpha) filter(Coranado PST).  Visible are some features of the Sun's surface (Chromosphere).  A dark line or filament(lower left) represents active prominences that are face on, while on the limb on the right you can see prominences like wisps of flame against the black  background. 

Enhanced View where you can see these and others with a number looking detached.

Alas the Sun does set, or does Earth turn?😉  Anyway the trees provide some artistic relief. 

Here just below the filament is still visible. 

The white light filter image is from the larger and shinier telescope, a William Optics ZS 70mm refractor with solar filter attached at the front.   Red Light Ha images are from the smaller gold coloured Coranado PST(Personal Solar Telescope) which is a dedicated solar telescope with the filtration built in. The mount is a good old EQ2 mount with motor tracking in RA(Right Acsenion that enables automated East to West movement of the mount to track the sun as the Earth moves).

If you would like to step back in time 12 13 years you can see my Transit of Venus Shots.

Also from around that time you can see an image of a 'mushroom cloud' shaped prominence.