H Alpha Solar Observing

[Ed McDonough]

Has anyone ever done any H Alpha solar oberserving? I started doing this a few years ago and it's absolutely addicting. The sun looks different every day and you don't have to worry about those late afternoon clouds rolling and and ruining a planned stargazing session.

A picture of my setup is attached. If anyone wants to take a look contact me and we'll get something arranged.

[Tom Hmel]

Have the pleasure of doing some H Alpha Observing with Ed's equipment and to say the least it was most interesting.

[Ed McDonough]

We did a little program this morning up at Robinson Preserve with Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources. We had 2 nice filaments, a sunspot with lots of activity surrounding it, and a very nice prominence at about 11:00 shooting off into space. The highlight though had to be an airplane streaking by!!!

The sun is heading towards solar minimum right now so that was a lot of activity, all things considered. I don't image (way too much work) but Aedan Stockdale took a few shots on his DSLR. They were nice but don't due justice to the view through the eyepiece. I'll see if I can post them after he sends them to me.

The next event is planned for 9/23 also at Robinson Preserve. I call it a day/night doubleheader with our season opening event at GT Bray that same evening.

[Ed McDonough]

Here's an image taken by Aedan Stockdale yesterday at Robinson Preserve through the solar telescope. This was through high thin cloud cover and doesn't quite match the clarity through the eyepiece, but you get the idea.

[Wolf Schutze]

I've got a Coronado PST that I break out occasionally. It's absolutely fascinating looking at the face of the sun.

This thread just gave me the location idea for the 21st eclipse, Robinson. The museum is closed on Mondays so their loss. Robinson would probably love it though.

Wolf.