Comments on: GORGEOUS solar eruption!

By: Patrz, plama! | Θ,Słońce,Sol,Sun,Солнсе,Sonne,Soleil,Ήλιου

Patrz, plama! | Θ,Słońce,Sol,Sun,Солнсе,Sonne,Soleil,Ήλιου — Thu, 10 May 2012 07:19:06 +0000

[...] zdjęcie przedstawia protuberancję, tę samą co w artykule GORGEOUS solar eruption! w Discover Magazine z 16 kwietnia [...]

By: Kayla I

Kayla I — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:22:31 +0000

What would this look like in visible wavelengths?

By: Ron Haskell

Ron Haskell — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:14:51 +0000

Well, that will certainly toast up a few marshmallows. Though I’m also wondering if it fried a few phone circuits; our outgoing POTS LD service (MCI) has been intermittently unavailable for the last two days (message=”all LD circuits are in use”).

By: Jess Tauber

Jess Tauber — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:23:31 +0000

GEORGE LASSOES STORK!

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:45:04 +0000

Did this run backwards in the end, or do the loops collapse / get sucked back down along the magnetic fields that create them?

By: Wzrd1

Wzrd1 — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 06:00:58 +0000

The more I see these things, I recall further Brother Cavil’s speech…
“Brother Cavil: In all your travels, have you ever seen a star go supernova?
Ellen Tigh: No.
Brother Cavil: No? Well, I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the Universe. Other stars, other planets and eventually other life. A supernova! Creation itself! I was there. I wanted to see it and be part of the moment. And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? With these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull! With eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum. With ears designed only to hear vibrations in the air.
Ellen Tigh: The five of us designed you to be as human as possible.
Brother Cavil: I don’t want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to – I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can’t even express these things properly because I have to – I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me! I’m a machine! And I can know much more! I can experience so much more. But I’m trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!”

Then, I remember, I KNOW we observe these things in those frequencies and can gather that information, rather than be flooded with too much information at once.

By: Wouter

Wouter — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:05:25 +0000

Is it me or does it look like the stamp tool from photoshop in the left bottom corner?

By: sunspotter

sunspotter — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:09:52 +0000

Robin – I agree with vince that a white-light filter is a great way to see sunspots, but a double-stacked Coronado PST would yield incredible views of an event like today. The double-stack gives you a very narrow <0.5A passband. You will also be able to see quite a bit of surface granulation on a good day (or if you have the $ to spend on aperture)

In fact, to quote someone on the San Diego Astronomy Associtaion mailing list earlier today:
"If you have h-alpha, prepare to use it now." I didn't get a chance to look through a PST during the event today, but some days I can sit and stare at the sun for hours. (with the right equipment, of course)

Plus if you get both (wink wink) you will be all set for both the annular eclipse next month and the venus transit in June, and the envy of budding solar observers everywhere!

By: vince charles

vince charles — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:35:11 +0000

Robin/Cindy- With any functional Hydrogen-alpha filter, you’d see a great deal for prominences at the limb, since you’re seeing them against the blackness of space. However, that’s about it besides sunspots, which can also be seen with much cheaper white-light filters. (Or even the old pinhole trick- practically free.) To see prominences anywhere other than the limb, you’d need to spend the extra money for a narrowband hydrogen-alpha filter, or possibly other types entirely. These are harder to make consistently, and cost more.

Personally, I found a good deal on a white-light filter, and that’s good enough for me. For anything else, an internet connection is the best “filter” there is.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:44:59 +0000

Cool! My students were looking at the Sun today around 11 AM EDT (with a solar filter on an 8″ Meade). The kids were asking if they could see a flare or a prominence and I said that they needed to see it in different wavelengths.

Perfect timing as I’m covering sunspots and flares tomorrow!