Solar Observations April 1

[Eris]

Hi all here is a collection of Solar images taken in Hydrogen Alpha, Continuum and Ca II K on April 1. Although the sky was clear the wind was awful, buffeting the mount and scope. The seeing deteriorated as the session went on so that’s my excuse.
The gear used is as follows.
Orion ED 80T CF and a SolarMax II 60mm single stacked
Filters Lunt B600, Baader Continuum coupled with an Astronomik IR block
There are more images but I've hit the limit I can put on.
31032022 was the UTC date.

[RichardJ]

Hi Gerard,

What a wonderful range of images :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
You’re going to put SOHO out of business;)

Richard :)

[John W]

Nice set of images Gerard. Well done. Regards John W.

[Averton]

Great set of images Gerard. Love the detail in the white light images. Were these taken with the Orion ED80? What was the ERF? What was used for the magnification for the close up images? What camera are you using? Apologies for all the questions :)

[Eris]

Thanks Richard, John, Clare and Peter for your kind replies. Much appreciated.

Clare and Peter the WL images were taken with an Orion 80ED coupled with a Baader Continuum filter and Baader Solar film. The close ups were using a Teleview x2.5 Powermate. The camera was a ZWO 174MM.

Attached is that Solar Prominence image this time with the inclusion of the Earth for size comparison.
Cheers

[Averton]

Hi Gerard,

Thanks for the information. Its obviously a nice set up as it is creating great images.
The last image with the Earth certainly puts the size in perspective. Those prominences really are just astoundingly large. Glad we are 150 Million km away :)

[Maberly1959]

fantastic images, i have only looked at the night sky, haven't the equipment to view the sun, love your work. thanks for sharing

[Eris]

Hi Amanda there is a cheap way to safety observe the Sun with minimal equipment by using the projection method. This is where the image of the Sun is projected onto a white card or screen. Aiming for the Sun is fairly straight forward by placing a minimal telescope shadow on the screen to align it with the Sun.
NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN AS IT CAN CAUSE PERMANENT EYE DAMAGE WITHOUT APPROPRIATE FILTRATION. DARK FILTERS ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH.