A Spot Dancer in AR1410 and 1413

This movie show AR 1410 and 1413 captured at 1 minute intervals on 5 feb 2012 from 1811 to 1940 UT. I used the Tak 102 with the double stacked Lunt 75mm Hydrogen alpha filters. Good seeing conditions prevailed, and the active regions exhibited some fine action with dark fibrils dancing above hot plage. The motion of prominences can be seen on the limb, and I kept the exposure on the bright side to capture the prominence action. 600 frames were captured every minute, and processed using avistack batch processing. The capture software was Lucam Recorder, which has a cross hair feature, and a great timer for capturing time-lapse avi files. I use a laptop cooler during capture and processing to keep the computer nice and cool. this seems to keep the capture frame rates in the high 50s, and allows for faster avistack processing. I cooked some pork chops and watched the big game on TV as my laptop toiled away on the long list of avi files.  I then used Corel Paint Shop to adjust the brightness during post processing. It has a great batch process feature that allows me to adjust 1 image to suit my tastes, save the changes, and then automatically apply the adjustments to the other images used for the movie. Before brightness adjustment and cropping, I ran the frames through registsax several times to get good registration.My imaging day started early, as I was up before dawn to align the mount and avoid field rotation (my cat Spoofy helps me get up early).  Note the rotation of the surface. Just click on the image to launch the giff

Prominence and Filament 29 Jan 2012

After a long absence, I  finally had some time for solar observation. it was an outstanding view, with 2 large filaments and several prominences. High barometric pressure created fine seeing conditions, with a few high thin clouds impacting sharpness. Both movies were made with the Tak 102 and a doublestacked Lunt 75mm hydrogen alpha filter. The prom was captured at 1 minute intervals from 1930-2022 UT.Tthe filament was captured from 1814-1924 UT. The high clouds forced me to adjust the brightness to eliminate flashing. i can do this on the fly by keeping an eye on the live histogram numbers and adjusting the gain, or adjusting the brightness during final processing

Prominence 29 Jan 2012 1930-2022-Desktop

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QRF on the Limb 26 June 2011

 

This beautiful quiet region filament (QRF) appeared on the eastern solar limb on 26 June 2011. I captured this time lapse at 1 minute intervals from 2052-2155 UT. I used the Lunt solar 75mm double stacked hydrogen alpha filter. Note how the spicules adjacent to the QRF are aligned with the long axis of the filament, forming a filament channel. Plasma is moving along the axis, with a large anchor point near the center, and other smaller anchor points. A knot of material at the bottom (lower) end shows erratic motion and may be less stable than other areas of the filament. Another filament feature that can be observed in this movie is the chromospheres heating that occurs beneath the filament as material in the filament blocks energy radiating from
below.

Part 2 Ten Days with Two Active Regions, May-June 2011

On 3 June, I made the movie seen below. The ARF in 1226 has darkened considerably, and shows a modest amount of plasma flowing along its axis. The plage in 1226 has brightened and the area is still showing action.  1227 now shows an ARF with material flowing clockwise and counter clockwise in a circular area around the small dark core that had developed between the areas. The upper end of the filament exhibits increased motion, and running penumbral waves (RNP) can be seen radiating from the pnumbras near the dark cores.

Shown below is a movie made on 4 June 2011, and changes in the active areas are apparent. Motion of the ARF near 1226 has increased considerably, with material streaming from an area of bright plage near the core. A small bright point can be seen as it fades in the penumbra. At 1227, the ARF has faded slightly but still maintains its circular shape, and the core that had developed between the spots has decreased in size. RNP can still be seen in the cores.

On 6 June, the areas neared the western solar limb. The movie below shows AR 1226 on the right, and AR1227 on the left (this is reversed from the rest of the series). The ARF in AR 1226 shows a pronounced increase in darkness with a moderate amount on plasma movement along its axis. The plage beneath the filament has brightened. The circular filament has faded and now contains
less material, but still shows plasma moving in both clockwise and counter clockwise directions. The dark core that had developed between the spots in the above movies has disappeared.

Conditions on 7 June did not support solar time lapse imaging, but did allow capture of this still image of the active regions as the
closed on the western solar limb. By the time this image was captured, the ARF near 1226 had exploded is a spectacular display. Here is a link to a SDO movie of the event

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_3u_0NN7OM

The image shows the ARF in 1226 is now a thin line, and may be reforming.  The circular shaped filament has now darkened and has morphed again, resuming its previous U-shape.

Part 1 Ten Days with Two Active Regions, May-June 2011

 

From 27 May 2011 through 6 June 2011, two active regionscrossed the solar disc. These areas,designated AR1226 and 1227, were studied with time lapse movies of the regions that were captured over a ten day period using the Solarmax 90 double stacked Ha filters. The first movie shows the area as it appeared on the eastern solar limb on 27 May 2011. It was made at 30 second intervals and shows a boiling area of magnetism and hot plasma.

This next movie was made at 30 second intervals on 31 May 2011 and shows the area as it presented itself onto the solar disc. Note the dark, U- shaped active region filament (ARF) forming to the left of 1227, and a less pronounced ARF just to the right of the dark core in 1226.  This movie was made with the Tak 102 operating at 800mm focal length ( the cmax barlow I normally use on the
nosepiece of the imager was removed).

By 1 June, the ARF near 1226 was less apparent, and subflares can be seen exploding beneath the filament.  The ARF near 1227 has darkened and a new ARF is visible nearby, probably broken off from the U- shaped filament seen in the movie of 31 May. A new dark sunspot core has developed between the cores of the other 2 areas, and this new feature seems to be associated with the U shaped filaments.

How To Place A Black Disc On A Solar Prominence Image

These 3 solar prominence movies were made on 20 May 2011. A large prominence had rotated into view on the solar limb. Two movies of this solar feature were made, both captured at 30 second intervals. This movie was made with long exposure settings to capture the fine detail in the portion of the prominence suspended in the corona. It was captured from 1723-1801 UT.

 I used Corel Paint Shop Pro to place a black disc onto each image to make the prominence stand out.  First open all the images and select the first one. Select the “ellipse” option from the tool bar and use a mouse to draw the ellipse on the image. To make the ellipse black, use the materials palette and select “background fills and colors”. After the ellipse has been placed on the image, I use the pick tool to adjust the size, shape, and rotation. When you are happy with the size and shape of the ellipse and its position, use the edit menu to copy it onto the clipboard and then click on the next image. Select “paste as new vector selection” from the edit menu. Use the mouse to position the disc on the screen. It will be transparent so you can get the position perfect, and then click on the image. For the rest of the images, click on the image and place the disc by selecting “ repeat paste vector selection” from the edit menu. This will automatically place the black disc at the same position in each frame, and makes a nice, smooth movie.

The next movie (shown below) used shorter exposures and a double stacked 90mm etalon to capture details of the disc with the prominence hovering above. Images were obtained from 1908-1927 UT. Of interest is the activity at one end of the prominence, while the opposite end appears more active.

One way I target solar features for time lapse study is by viewing the solar GONG network H alpha movies available at this link http://halpha.nso.edu/  by watching the most recent movie, I can see which solar features are most active. The movie made below shows solar prominences that were targeted after seeing them exhibit a lot of motion on the GONG movie. This movie was made with a single 90mm etalon at 40 second intervals

AR1203 in CaK and Ha

I present here 2 movies made on 1 May 2011. The first was made with a Lunt Solar CaK diagonal at 30 second intervals from 1618-1640 UT.  AR 1203 is the subject. The 30 second intervals allow us to study the motions in the middle chromosphere. Of interest is the lack of RPW (running penumbral waves). Cloud-like features can be seen floating above  chromosheric  grains. I would like to write more about these features, but CaK time lapse movies seem to be a rare item.

This next movie shows AR1203 using a 90mm double stacked hydrogen alpha  filter. It was made at 30 second intervals on 1 may from 2328-2356 UT. An emerging flux region shows a modest amount of plasma movement, and RPW can clearly be seen in the penumbra of the sunspot.  These movies give the impression that outflow is present, but scholars have found that sunspots also exhibit inflow. These sunspots are complex magnetic structures that are fascinating to study in time lapse images.

I have found that a  30 second interval is much better for the study of fast moving plasma. Although the time frame is shorter, the rapid motions are easier to observe, and the movies appear smoother. For slower moving features, the playback rate can be increased (to maybe 30fps?). also, i was imaging under poor seeing conditions, and i sharpened the Ha images to counter the “mushy” images.

Penumbral Waves in AR1203

In an effort to study running penumbral waves at high cadence and magnification, a Cemax Barlow was screwed into the nose of the DMK, and then inserted into a Televue 2.5x Powermate. This allowed imaging at a long focal length (3000mm?). Outflow from the penumbra of AR 1203 is clearly visible. A light bridge in the umbra appears to be effected by the waves, and masses of material can be seen flowing into the super penumbra. This movie was made on 30 Apr 2011 at 30 second intervals from 1838-2009 UT with a Tak 102, a double stacked Solamax 90 Hydrogen alpha  filter, and a DMK CCD.

A High Cadence Prominence and the Exploding Filament

Here is a movie made at 30 second intervals using the double stacked Solarmax 90s. The high cadence provides a smooth movie with plasma detail visible as it moves along magnetic field lines. Compare the above movie with the exploding filament movie shown below. It was made at 1 minute intervals with the same gear

Filament Movies 9 April 2011

Sunshine and time off work gave me an oprtunity to make some animations with the Solarmax 90s today. So many features were present, it was tuff to choose one as a time lapse target. i settled for these 2 filaments. both movies were made with the double stacked Solarmax 90/BF10, a Takahashi TSA102, and a DMK CCD. This fat worm-like filament was captured from 2126-2215 UT on 9 April 2011

The giff below was another larger filament that was visible, but it was not as dense. these filament movies made with the double stacked 90mm filters show alot of depth and detail, and a great 3D effect.