It was partly cloudy today, but there were enough breaks in the clouds to allow me to make three AVIs and stack the best 20% of the frames from each movie. Below is the best stack.
There are prominences along the eastern and western limbs as well as along the south pole. The polar prominences are faint and appear to be arcades. Some of the prominences appear in the gallery below.
The sunspots are less striking than they have been in recent weeks. AR3790 is approaching the eastern solar limb with AR3792 trailing behind. AR3792 is distinctly heart shaped. AR3800 is more clearly visible today than it was yesterday when its plage was the only way to see it. Some of the larger groups appear in the gallery below.
The delicate black curves on the sun’s surface are filaments – prominences as seen from above rather than from the suns edge. Here are some from the Northern hemisphere (the top half of the solar disk). The filaments appear dark because the material in them is cooler that the visible solar surface – the Photosphere. Sunspots appear dark for the same reason.
