Wednesday 8 August 2012

ar11538, ar11540 and the Mega Filament - 8th August

ar11538 ar11540 by Mark Townley
ar11538 ar11540, a photo by Mark Townley on Flickr.

Over the past couple of days a mega filament has been visible on the surface of our star. This cool ribbon of plasma floats above the main hydrogen alpha layer held aloft by magnetic fields. It stretches further than the earth to moon distance. It is also joined by a series of resonably active regions and their accompanying spots.

This image is a 6 pane mosaic taken with the 127mm SS @ 1900mm DMK31. It represents quite an achievement for me as i've been doing considerable work to minimise the sweet spotting associated with the PST etalon. Given that 6 panes are able to be stitched together seamlessly i'm happy this has been achieved.