The Sun

Well, its been a while since I posted anything here.  I've been so busy lately (or for like the past 6 months!) so its taken me a while to post anything.

Several months ago, back in August actually, I took out my Hydrogen Alpha telescope.  Its a Coronado 60 mm double stack telescope.  This means it actually has two Hydrogen Alpha Filters on it; by stacking one on top of the other it has a much sharper image and can see finer detail in solar features.  During the summer I was able to set up the telescope together with my ASI 174 camera and take some great pictures of the sun.  The one I'm most impressed with is of an active region on the sun. The atmospheric conditions where just right and I got amazing details!

The lines running north-south are prominences seen edge one.  Around the bright yellow parts in the middle, the solar surface is curved around the sun spots.  The curving is due to the interaction of the Sun's magnetic field with the plasma that makes up the sun.  The charged particles twist and curve around the magnetic field lines in the same way they form Aurora Borealis (and Australius) here on Earth.