WPO -  the sun in hydrogen H-alpha light

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2005WPO Jan Feb Mar* Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Totals
daily obs got PST - 5 15 9 18 20 22 23 22 18 12 164 days
pics/month  - - 15 30 21 51 57 54 49 77 56 27 437 pics
% days clear - - 36%* 50% 29% 60% 65% 71% 77% 71% 60% 38% Ave=56%
* from 2005 Mar 17
2005 Jan - long promised and now acquired a diminutive Coronado PST [personal solar telescope] for viewing and recording the sun in red hydrogen Ha- last done with a monster homebuilt spectrohelioscope nearly three decades ago!  Above are the total prom observations for 2005

The sun is very dynamic and whenever possible warrants close attention - you may see something unique.  The dark filament [2005 May 16 below] appeared immediately after a bright flare near a sunspot and both faded away within about 20 minutes.  Images below via Minolta Dimage 7.

2006 mar 11- 2006 mar 2 - 10 2006 feb 24-mar 1 2006 feb 14-17 2006 Feb 9-14 2006 Jan 31-Feb8 2006 Feb 5-28 proms 2005 Dec 16-31proms 2005 Dec 10-12proms 2005 Dec 3-9proms 2005 Nov 24-proms 2005 Nov 19-22proms 2005 Nov 15-18proms 2005 Nov 12-14proms 2005 Nov 7-proms 2005 Nov 1-5proms 2005 Oct 28-31proms 2005 Oct 26-27proms 2005 Oct 20-25proms 2005 Oct 17-19proms 2005 Oct 15-16proms 2005 Oct 10-12proms 2005 Oct 4-9proms from 2005 oct 2-3proms from 2005 sept27-oct1proms from 2005 sept22-27proms from 2005 sept19-21proms from 2005 sept14-18proms from 2005 Aug 29-Sept 2proms from 2005 Aug 26-28proms Aug 23-25proms Aug 16-21proms from 2005 Aug 11-14proms from 2005 Aug 7-9proms from 2005 Aug 3-5proms+spots+filaments 2005 Aug 1/2proms from July 25proms from July 19eruptive proms from July 17 2005bright flare+proms July 12 2005proms from July 10 2005proms from July 8 2005proms from July 7proms from July 4proms from 2005 June28proms 2005 June 20-27proms from2005 June 17proms from 2005 June 9proms from 2005 June 8proms from 2005 June 6proms/plages from 2005 June 3proms from 2005 May 31proms/filaments from 2005 May 16prom from 2005 May 12closeup of proms Apr 29 onwardscloseup of proms Apr 20 onwardscloseup of proms Apr 17 onwardscloseup of proms Apr 9 onwardsproms from Mar 28proms - Mar 18-proms - Mar 16/17
Prom above erupts over 10 minutes and 'rockets' 0.1 solar diameter into space !

2005 June 8 - an experiment to shows how the PST performs with the 40mm OG stopped-down with a card mask to 27mm and 16mm apertures.  There was a very slight loss of resolution and proms very faint without a black head cloth at 16mm aperture.  The images below via 40mm and 16mm aperture stops with eyepiece focal length of 25mm fl or 12mm fl with exposures increased to account for dimmer image.  Perhaps a mini-PST is possible!
test on PST with reduced OG size via a stop.

easy PST viewing indoors thro double glazing

Straight out of the box - the sun put on a fine display with two large eruptive looped prominences over a large sunspot on the western limb that were seen to change in almost real-time over an hour.  Two quiet prominences near the north pole, bright active regions around sunspots and long dark filaments [prominences silhouetted against the disk] also seen.  Viewing in comfort from the shaded conditions indoors seems to increase contrast without obvious loss of image quality through double glazing.  Outdoors a simple clock-drive keeps the sun centred and 'static' from a seated position.

Early attempts on a low winter sun to capture images via afocal and Barlow projection into a Canon 300D DSLR camera don't do the PST justice.   Projected image 14mm diameter @ f/40 image onto sensor's 7.4 micron pixels.   Image scale ~1 arcsec/pixel - 40mm OG res ~ 3"arc sampled by 3x3pixels.

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