A little solar viewing

by Michael Swartz


Well today was really a nice sunny day.

I met my good buddy Jim Everitt at Burger King for a little fine beef and soda today. Jim just got his Coronado filter set for his Orion short 80 and we were really wanting to try it out on a nice bright naked sun. So we set up our scopes in the parking lot at BK and enjoyed the view for an hour or so.

Today there was this really interesting prominence. It was a huge event. It looked like it had a large circular base at one point and almost looked like a giant ring of fire. Later, as the angle changed it began to look somewhat like a crown. Then a couple hours later as it appears more in the edge of the solar disk it looked like a huge curved wall that extended waaaay up, over and then back down. It was massive. And the structure that could be seen in it was just amazing.

Additionally, there were smaller prominences, filaments and spots here and there. There was another area where the surface activity could be seen very clearly modeling the magnetic tides. The pattern was quite striking. Now and then we could actually see smaller events happening too. Great fun! We got some strange looks too and even shared the view with a few passers-by.

Even with the wind the view was great. And since we were near the San Jose airport now and then we were treated with a bird or airplane exhaust passing through the field of view.

Fremont, CA

Gear: Obsession 18" for the night,

Tak Sky90 w/SolarMAX90 for the day.