May Day!

Mayday, Mayday… nice prom on the sun today!

Here is a quick unprocessed look through my solar telescope, Little Big Man, at how the chromosphere of the sun looked this morning.

Winter Sun

A hibernation project… a warm weather sun set aside to work on during the cold, sunless days of January. Captured June 10, 2012, completed today.

Gotta love a sunny day in November!

Get a Grip

A big handle of hydrogen plasma jutting out from the edge of the sun today… hot stuff!

Solar!

My portfolio is up. This collection of prints is from a wonderful show of sun connected work at the Photo-Eye Gallery in Santa Fe. I’m excited to be a part of it. More information on the show and the artists can be explored from their homepage.

Alien

I caught this monster stalking the edge of the sun last week. BIG and frighteningly beautiful, it haunted the limb for three days before disappearing. 

A Different Light

Amateur telescopes come in a couple of flavors. On the right, the view in white light, showing the surface or photosphere. White light filters show sunspots, brighter plage regions at the edge of the sun and in good seeing, the subtle granulation of the sun’s surface.

On the left is the view seen at the wavelength of hydrogen alpha light. Only in this narrow slice deep in the red end of the visible spectrum (656.3nm) can we see edge prominences, arching filaments, hot active regions and the beautiful convolutions of the solar chromosphere - the atmosphere of our sun. 

Add the parts up

… and you get the sun total. 

Fire

A solar brushstroke… very expressive!