A Backyard View of a Solar Prominence

Hydrogen-alpha photo of the Sun by Alan Friedman

An enormous tree-shaped prominence spreads its “branches” tens of thousands of miles above the Sun’s photosphere in this image, a section of a photo acquired in hydrogen alpha (Ha) by Alan Friedman last week from his backyard in Buffalo, NY. Writes Alan on his blog, “gotta love a sunny day in November!”

Check out the full image — along with an idea of just how big this “tree” actually is — here.

Coolest. Sun Pic. Ever.

Alan Friedman does it again — and this time with a brand new camera! — in his latest photo of our home star, guaranteed to blow your mind. Check out the full image here.

Image © Alan Friedman. All rights reserved.

Solar Nirvana

The Sun in hydrogen-alpha on Nov. 6. © Alan Freidman.

Hot off the presses, here’s a stunning full-disc solar photo by the inimitable Alan Friedman, taken on November 6, 2011 from his location in Buffalo, NY. Absolutely gorgeous!

The enormous sunspot region AR 1339 can be seen just right of the center of the Sun. It’s nearly 17 times wider than Earth!

Hydrogen alpha (Ha) is a specific wavelength of light (656.28nm) emitted by hydrogen atoms. By filtering for just this wavelength of light, details of the Sun’s photosphere can be made out whereas otherwise they’d be lost in the glare of our home star.

Alan uses a special telescope and camera mount to capture his amazing images. See more photos – and order large-scale art prints of them – on his site AvertedImagination.com.

Image © Alan Friedman. All rights reserved. 

 

 

Sun Pass

The ISS crosses the disk of the Sun. Click for full-size version. © Alan Friedman.

Astronomy hobbyist and solar photographer extraordinaire Alan Friedman captured a wonderful image of the International Space Station transiting the edge of the Sun’s disc during a Winter Star Party in Florida on March 1, 2011. Taken with a solar telescope that images the Sun in hydrogen alpha light, the image above clearly shows the ISS with solar panels outstretched – as well as the space shuttle Discovery docked in its lower center! Fantastic!

But this was no chance snapshot…precision timing and positioning were required. Alan explains:

“I was scheduled to give my talk 12:30-1:30 – the transit centerline was 69 minutes later, 20 miles to the north on Marathon.With help from Brian Shelton and Mark Beale, I finished my talk, jumped into the car with solar imaging gear and we got set up just in time to catch it. I underestimated the narrowness of this event. We were about 5000 feet south of the centerline in a good location… another 500 feet and we would have missed it entirely. Lucky day!”

– Alan Friedman

Lucky, perhaps, but a less-skilled photographer might have missed the shot entirely! Don’t sell yourself short, Mr. Friedman.

The dark silhouette of Discovery is visible at the center of the ISS

To think…the ISS is 220 miles above the Earth, the Sun 93 million miles further. And here they are together in perfect focus. Talk about from here to infinity!

Alan’s images have been frequently featured on spaceweather.com as well as BadAstronomy.com, the Huffington Post,  several installments of Astronomy Picture of the Day…and, of course, here on Lights in the Dark! (And lots more places too.) You can see another solar image by Alan taken during the Winter Star Party here.

Be sure to check out Alan’s astrophotography site AvertedImagination.com for more great images and fine art prints of his photos available to order!

Image © Alan Friedman. All rights reserved.

Detachable Prominence

Image of a detached prominence on the Sun. © Alan Friedman.

Here’s the latest image of the Sun from photographer Alan Friedman, showing incredible surface detail as well as the remnants of a detached prominence that had erupted from active region 1166 on March 3, 2011. This image was taken during a Winter Star Party event in West Summerland Key, Florida.

“A close-up look at the Florida sun, captured during the Winter Star Party, showing active region 1166 and a tremendous detached prominence. I had to use my body as a windscreen to block the 30 knot winds from buffeting my 90mm Ha solar telescope.”

– Alan Friedman

Alan’s fantastic solar images are taken with a specialized telescope that images the Sun in hydrogen-alpha light, providing a look at the intricate features of the Sun’s chromosphere…the layer just below the super-hot corona and covered with fast-moving fine filaments of plasma called spicules. His images have been featured on spaceweather.com as well as BadAstronomy.com, the Huffington Post,  several installments of Astronomy Picture of the Day…and, of course, here on Lights in the Dark! (And lots more places too.) You can see the previous solar image from Alan taken in October 2010 here.

Check out Alan’s astrophotography site AvertedImagination.com for more great images and art prints!

Image © Alan Friedman. All rights reserved.