A Quick Look in Calcium- 8th October

[marktownley]

Wow, 7 weeks (not counting the eclipse) since i've been able to observe the sun, that's too long! Todays weather forecast was for a cloud out, but predominantly high pressure seemed to be punching some gaps in the offensive cloud base. I decided to get the scope out and see what I could see, despite us having a blank disk on GONG. I went with the 40mm scope in CaK as wasn't too optimistic about what the seeing would hold with all the cloud about. The air was very clear, and as a result it was quite easy to see the chromosphere and proms in CaK, click on the images for a scroll around the full size versions on Flickr.

cak-fd-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

cak-fd-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

limb-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr

limb-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr

limb-orange by Mark Townley, on Flickr

There just wasn't enough time for anything else with the clouds. I've finally bothered to save the money for the Lunt50 I want to get for my Ha full disks, but this run of dire weather has got me twitching to buy a new tonearm for my turntable - decisions decisions!

Hope everyone is well!

Mark

[Carbon60]

Hi Mark, Glad you managed to get some sun today. Very nice CaK FDs and close views, including those CaK proms.

Decisions indeed..... Solar imaging has been a challenge recently, getting the time and opportunity between work, cloud and rain.

Stu.

[Montana]

Lovely full disc and nice to see some prominences and surges on the edge in CaK wow! you saw the Sun raining here this morning and solid grey cloud all day (as per usual for weekend). July was my last outing, although I did see the Moon on Thursday evening and collimated the C11 but I was under the umbrella twice during that hour as well.
Alexandra

[Derek Klepp]

Cheers Mark cloudy and humid down here.

[marktownley]

Thanks Stu, Alexandra and Derek. It was nice to get a brief look at the sun yesterday, i've just (foolishly!) looked at the weather forecast for the week, and while it's not the wettest it looks to be another cloud out - doh!

[grimble_cornet]

Great set of Calcium images Mark - you even managed to capture the surge prom

I didn't get the chance to use CaK before the gap closed but wondered if the rather large, active proms would show. Based on the short animation I did (and far better ones from other people), both proms were changing rapidly and, from my limited experience, they seem to be the ones which show up best in CaK. Don't pretend to understand the physics very well but..... I've had some massive but 'stable' proms which were impressive in Ha but pretty much invisible in CaK and some very 'fast changing' ones which were more impressive in CaK than in Ha.
This seems to be the case especially with coronal loops as in the image below.......... what's you experience with proms in CaK?

[David_The_Bears_Fan]

Nice capture Mark. A brief gap in the cloud cover here too, you really have to grab your chances at the moment.

Turntables, tonearms and vinyl never really did it for me but I do love my Arcam / KEF CD /Amp / Speaker combo

[marktownley]

Hiya Mike, pretty much what you say - energetic proms certainly seem more visible in CaK, with the quiescent ones that bit harder. More to the key with visibility is good sky transparency.

[banjo]

superb photos Mark,
the transparency of heaven should not be better than in Ha to make Cak ?
Paul

[eroel]

Mark:
Clean and sharp images.
Best regards,
Eric.