Telescope Reviews: 2008 Jan 23r SE limb

2008 01 23, 1125ST –1240ST (1625UT – 1740UT)
Solar H-alpha
PCW Memorial Observatory, Zanesville, Ohio, USA, Lat: 40.01 / Long: -81.56
Erika Rix

Temp: 21.0 °F / -6.1 °C
Winds: variable at 5.8 mph
Humidity: 63%
Seeing: 6/6
Transparency: 3/6
Alt: 28.1 Az: 160.5

Equipment:
Internally double stacked Maxscope 60mm, LXD75, 40mm ProOptic Plossl, 21-7mm Zhumell

Sketch Media:
Black Strathmore Artagain paper, white Conte’ and Prang pencils, white vinyl eraser.
Added –30 brightness, +9 contrast after scanning. Tilting Sun program used for digital Sun insert.

The NE and the SE limbs continue to put on a display for us. I didn’t get a chance to observe yesterday for all the overcast and light snowfall, but over the past several days’ observations, it’s been very interesting to watch the changes and compare observations.

The solar disk had long u-shaped very thin filament looking lines reaching almost from the SE limb to the inward 1/4th of the disk. The opening of “u” was facing outward toward the large prominence on that area of the limb. This was the prominence that I concentrated on today for a sequence that spanned only about 45 minutes’ time. Funny, it seemed much longer than that, and as much as it changed in that time frame, I would have expected it to have been longer as well. Seeing was terrific, but transparency was only average with moments of excellent clarity as well as an orange haze all around the disk in my FOV.

Differences in the first two sketches almost alarmed me and I worried that I had made one too compact width wise and the other too spread out. There’s a chance that I may have indeed done that, although as a sketcher, I try to make my sketches as true to my observations as I possibly can. Once I recorded the last two, though, I could see the movement of the prominence indeed spreading out, getting fainter to the eastern side of it with each sketch. It was almost as if that side of the prominence was getting weaker and losing structure. I would have loved to stay out all day to record this.

The NE prominence was not quite as tall as the SE prominence, but it was easier to view, although I did have to adjust the outside etalon as there was quite a difference between the two prominences for best bandwidth viewing. I normally tweak as many things as I can with the scope to tease out details in my observations, but I normally don’t have to adjust the etalon that much between different prominences.

I observed 8 different areas of prominences around the limb total.