July 9 2021 Observations

[DeepSolar64]

Session time is from 14:35 to 15:40 UTC. Intermittent. The skies are mostly cloudy with approaching thunderstorms coming in from the NW. The seeing is just below average. The temperature is 79F ( 26.1C ).


Coronado SolarMax II 90 DS. 32x, 44.5x, 64x and 89x ( Ha )
The Sun has calmed down a lot in the last couple of days. AR12840 has now vanished around the NW limb with the rufflage of AR12837 being visible very near the NW limb. A filament is also seen there. AR12839 is visible as a small plage in the NW now well across the CLM. I can also see a fairly bright but small bi-polar plage in the SW at nearly the same solar longitude as AR12839 is. I can see a small plage in the far SE.

I can see a few filaments scattered about the solar disc. A number of them is seen dipping across the northern hemisphere beginning at a faint prom in the NE and ending at another faint prom in the NW. I can also see three filaments SE to SW of the small bi-polar plage in the SW quadrant.

There are a few noteworthy proms today. The SW limb has three nice ones. Two north of a single one to the south. GONG Cerro Tololo shows their general form. Another noteworthy one is a really bright prom on the NE limb. SDO imagery shows a system located there on the solar limb. I can also see another low bright prom on the NW limb above the now invisible AR12840.

The mottles are easy and I can see the spicule layer circling the limb.


Celestron NexStar 102GT w/Altair wedge and 540nm filter. 55x and 110x ( WL )
I can only see a single tiny pore marking the location of AR12839 in the NW. The far SW shows a small facula with a small embedded spot in it's NW side and two tiny pores in it's SE side. I could only see the spot at 55x with 110x bringing the pores into view. I can see the faculae to AR12837 in the NW and another patch of faculae in the SW. I see no spots or pores associated with these.

The granulation is visible but the seeing is not good enough to get a good view of them at high power.


It's starting to rain as I finish typing this report.

Carpe Cerevisi!

James

GONGha+SDOHMIc_7-9-21.JPG (185.54 KiB) Viewed 372 times

[Ivan]

James, thanks for the report, it was fun to read. Some of the filaments that you see, I can hardly guess in my photos. Unfortunately, the Sun has slowed down, hopefully not for long.

Ivan

[DeepSolar64]

Ivan,
I am surprised they are not easily seen in your images. Your photos are often superior to the NSO GONG images I use for reference.

James

[Ivan]

Thanks for the compliment, James.
Large and not dense filaments closer to the limbus sometimes I can hardly distinguish even after processing.

For example, in my photo from July 9, in the northeast, at the edge of the disc, there was a filament that (as it seemed to me) was part of a highly visible prom. Thanks to GONG, I knew it was there, but without this information, I would have thought it was just a processing defect. True, this does not happen often.

Ivan

[MAURITS]

Thanks for the report James.

[DeepSolar64]

Ivan,
I can often see the filaments visually better than my images pick them up. I have a hard time in processing on getting them to show up. I wish I knew a way to increase contrast in an individual part of an image. Some way to make them darker without adversely affecting other parts of the image. I use GIMP in my processing. I also have issues getting plages to stand out in an image.

James

[Montana]

Excellent report James! hopefully I can help with your problem when I get round to answering Jordan, but you will have to find the equivalent in GIMP, remember, if you have a problem just ask

Alexandra

[Ivan]

Excellent report James! hopefully I can help with your problem when I get round to answering Jordan, but you will have to find the equivalent in GIMP, remember, if you have a problem just ask

Alexandra

Alexandra, I'd love to hear your recommendations for filaments too.

Ivan

[Ivan]

Ivan,
I can often see the filaments visually better than my images pick them up. I have a hard time in processing on getting them to show up. I wish I knew a way to increase contrast in an individual part of an image. Some way to make them darker without adversely affecting other parts of the image. I use GIMP in my processing. I also have issues getting plages to stand out in an image.

James

James,

I also don't know the correct answer, but sometimes using the "darken" tool in Photoshop (choosing a low intensity of about 5-8%) I simply manually darken the desired fragment.

Ivan

[DeepSolar64]

Thanks Ivan and Alexandra. I'll look in GIMP to see if it has a darken tool.