Huge Solar Prominence
Posted by JAC on 3/18/2010, 5:58 pm
| Actually saw this thru a telescope today - was on the lower left side. Supposed to be one of the biggest observed. Very cool!  For the second day in a row, astronomers are monitoring an enormous prominence rising over the northwestern limb of the sun. "Twenty-four hours after I first saw it, it is still alive and more monstrous (in a beautiful way) than ever," reports Alan Friedman, who sends this picture from his observatory in downtown Buffalo, New York: The magnificent arch stretches more than 20 Earth-diameters from end to end. Our planet would easily fit through any of the "little" plasma gaps evident in Friedman's photo. The size of the prominence makes it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes, and many observers say it is a mesmerizing sight as it surges and seethes through the eyepiece. Monitoring is encouraged.      |
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