The skies were perfect for a solar photoshoot today. Although the sky was almost completely clear, I do not have visual access to the sun from my deck until about 2PM. This matters because atmospheric turbulence (astronomy bugs call it seeing) is best in the early morning hours just after sunrise. The later the photoshoot, the more turbulence there is and the less clear our photo/video images are. Alas!
Today’s H-alpha solar image shows the same active regions that we have been following the past few days – some of those regions are approaching the western solar limb. There are some nice prominences along both the eastern and western limbs. Those are showcased at the bottom of this page.
The sunspot active regions appear in the annotated image below. An active region near AR3967 (see below) has been the site of a solar flare that has directed a stream of sun stuff earthward. This coronal mass ejection (CME) is predicted to hit Earth on 01.25.24. It will likely disrupt some communications and maybe will enhance the aurora borealis too.
Today’s prominences are showcased in the gallery below.
