Step into the spotlight for too long and you might forget what the sun feels like.
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Hey I'm Ken, sketch artist, art, civil rights, equality & science enthusiast live blogging his interests. New Yorker from uptown Manhattan, originating from the Dominican Republic.
The Violent Violet Sun
“After dodging clouds and hailstorms all week I was able to record my first solar image at the CaK wavelength… 393.37nm in the violet end of the spectrum. I see almost no detail visually due to my eye’s poor sensitivity at this wavelength. But the camera sees good!” — Alan Friedman
22° Solar Halo by Nejra Utrera
Solar prominence in CaK light (Calcium II K)
I present more awesome solarphotography and calcium filters from my friend Kokehtz / Álvaro for you to marvel at :)
Light from singly-ionized calcium ions in the Sun’s upper photosphere and chromosphere (up to 2000 km altitude). Because the blue Calcium K Line (393.3 nm) is sensitive to magnetic fields, magnetically active structures show up in high contrast against the surrounding chromosphere. Places where moderate magnetic fields exist show up bright whereas images of high magnetic fields are dark.
Image Copyright: Álvaro Ibáñez Pérez
In this CaK image, you typically see brightness along the edges of large convection cells called supergranules and in areas called plages. Dark sunspots are also visible.
Spots on the sun are areas of high magnetic field which appear dark to their surroundings (5,800K) due to their cooler temperature of around 3000-3500K. Spots consist of a dark central region (umbra) and are surrounded by an annular region of dark and bright filaments called the penumbra. Within a developing active region (sunspot group) tiny spots form initially without a developed penumbra and are called pores. These are usually relatively short lived or can develop a penumbra and become a fully developed spot.
The chromosphere is a place of high solar activity. In the course of a few minutes we can observe changes in the ejecta and prominences, in the path of the filaments, and as matter flows following very characteristic arches. Chromosphere is also visible in the light emitted by the ionized calcium, in the violet part of the solar spectrum in a wavelength of 393.4 nm. This light comes from calcium atoms that have lost an electron.
The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 1:32 pm EDT on May 3, 2013. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation.
Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. This disrupts the radio signals for as long as the flare is ongoing, and the radio blackout for this flare has already subsided.
This flare is classified as an M5.7-class flare. M-class flares are the weakest flares that can still cause some space weather effects near Earth.
Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment, as the sun’s normal 11-year activity cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum, which is expected in late 2013.
A corona mass ejection (CME), associated with a solar flare, blew out from just around the edge of the Sun today in a glorious roiling wave (May 1, 2013).
The video, taken in extreme ultraviolet light by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft, covers about 2.5 hours. SOHO’s C2 and C3 coronagraphs shows a large, bright, circular cloud of particles heading out into space.
STEREO spacecraft, from their different perspectives in space, observed the flare. CME’s carry over a billion tons of particles at over a million miles per hour.
Here is a look at sole sub-flaring on AR1734. — Andrew Devey
ISS Transits The Sun
The photo depicts a black cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), a loner, sitting quietly on a withered branch.
The sound of birds, the sight of dead trees in the backwaters of the Wisla river—I savor the taste of spring. — Kamila
Here is a close up of the principal sunspot in AR1734. — Andrew Devey
AR 1734 forming what looks to be a ghoolish face owl.
May 5th 2013
Turned in this orientation, sunspot 1734 has a definite owlish look. But who gives a hoot, this grand active region looks fantastic from every perspective. — Alan Friedman
Sun in CaK light in 3D
To view the 3D image are simple instructions:
1. Place the image in the center of the screen (view image by itself for better results). 2. Position yourself at a normal distance from the monitor. 3. Now cross your eyes slowly. . Now make the two central circles overlap in one. 5. When you’ve got, focuses the central image while keeping the two overlapping images. 6. You will see that the Sun in three dimensions.
Light from singly-ionized calcium ions in the Sun’s upper photosphere and chromosphere (up to 2000 km altitude). Because the blue Calcium K Line (393.3 nm) is sensitive to magnetic fields, magnetically active structures show up in high contrast against the surrounding chromosphere. Places where moderate magnetic fields exist show up bright whereas images of high magnetic fields are dark.
In this CaK image, you typically see brightness along the edges of large convection cells called supergranules and in areas called plages. Dark sunspots are also visible. — Álvaro Ibáñez Pérez
Sunspots
This was imaged with my Astro-Physics 152mm and DayStar Quantum PE .5 Angstrom filter and Flea2 video ccd camera. These images were taken 1 hour a part. — Randy Shivak
Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the photosphere of the Sun that appear visibly as dark spots compared to surrounding regions. They are caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection by an effect comparable to the eddy current brake, forming areas of reduced surface temperature. They usually appear as pairs, with each sunspot having the opposite magnetic pole than the other. [**]
The Diamond Ring Effect
The Baily’s beads effect is a feature of total solar eclipses.
As the moon “grazes” by the Sun during a solar eclipse, the rugged lunar limb topography allows beads of sunlight to shine through in some places, and not in others. The name is in honor of Francis Baily who first provided an exact explanation of the phenomenon in 1836. The diamond ring effect is seen when only one bead is left; a shining diamond set in a bright ring around the lunar silhouette.
In this high resolution view of totality during the November 2012 solar eclipse, as the moon moves across the sun, you can see the diamond ring, bailey’s beads, prominences, the solar chromosphere (the thin red surface layer of the sun) and the inner solar corona.
Our solar system’s miasma of incandescent plasma, the Sun may look a little scary here.
The picture is a composite of 25 images recorded in extreme ultraviolet light by the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory between April 16, 2012 and April 15, 2013. The particular wavelength of light, 171 angstroms, shows emission from highly ionized iron atoms in the solar corona at a characteristic temperatures of about 600,000 kelvins (about 1 million degrees F).
Girdling both sides of the equator during the approach to maximum in its 11-year solar cycle, the solar active regions are laced with bright loops and arcs along magnetic field lines. Of course, a more familiar visible light view would show the bright active regions as groups of dark sunspots. Three years of Solar Dynamics Observatory images are compressed into this short video.
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