Solar lunch by Borders 12/20

by Michael Swartz

The sky looked bad on the way there. fog still lingering around Milpitas. Fog in Milpitas? I was getting depressed as I got closer to McCarthy Ranch. When I got there it still didn't look good. I went and get my Taco Bell lunch and then found a nice parking space. I got out, with some hesitation I opened my trunk and looked around. It wasn't promising but I thought. I have to commit! Maybe then the skies will part and I can see the sun.

So I began setting up my gear. No sooner did I put the eyepieces in my binoviewers did I suddenly feel the heat of the sun on my neck. A miracle? I don't know.. but I quickly pointed my scope at the sun and enjoyed some really nice prominences and filaments. The sun spot I watched yesterday had split in two. There were two long filaments and the longer of the two had to be at least 200,000 miles long.

I was there from 12:00pm to 2:00pm and the clouds thinned about 6 times. I got some nice views. And maybe a dozen people stopped when the seeing was good and had views of the sun that filled them with questions and comments of awe and amazement.

It was fun.

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Posted on sf-bay-tac Dec 21, 2004 00:05:09 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 24, 2005 19:41:29 PT