Solar Images from 2020

The images presented on this website are archived below. This lengthening page was broken into two components by year, with the more current observations published separately.

One can monitor the Sun via several websites that provide real-time images of the Sun. The website, https://www.solarmonitor.org/, has such images in six different channels. The numbers are the NOAA designations for active regions (with the “1” at the start of the designation removed for convenience). Another website with up-t0-date information on solar activity and other goings-on in the skies is www.spaceweather.com. Additional information about the Sun’s current activity can be obtained from https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/, and real-time full-disk H-alpha images from observatories around the world can be viewed at http://halpha.nso.edu/.

A typical observing run may last from one to four hours, depending on seeing considerations, weather, and other work responsibilities, but will include active region monitoring of available active regions and the collection of frames for high-resolution solar mosaics in H-alpha. Each session includes at least one mosaic, which is a series of images made of all parts of the Sun’s disk that can later be stitched together to form a whole-disk image. At the very least, this ensures that all visible features such as prominences, filaments, and active regions (sunspot groups) are all captured in image form at least once per session. Usually observations are carried out in the late morning hours, but an additional session may occur in the mid-afternoon hours and it will include its own mosaic. If a sunspot group is expected to be active, then it becomes a main focus for observation for extended periods of time.

The solar images are recorded through a Meade 16-inch f/8 Cassegrain telescope equipped with a 0.3 Å Hydrogen-alpha filter and an SBIG STT-8300 CCD camera. The aperture of the scope is stopped to 4-7/8 inch by an energy-rejection filter, which renders the system an f/26. A neutral density filter is added to bring the sunlight intensity down by 90%. Each image is automatically dark-subtracted as it is saved and each exposure is 0.1 second long. Flat field images are taken at periodic intervals throughout the observing session and are obtained by training the telescope to focus near the center of the Sun’s disk. Five images are then taken while dithering the frame 1′ to 5′ N,S,E, and W. The idea is to try to get images that are slightly blurred (either due to seeing or scope motion) and off set from each other. A set of 30 bias images (0-second exposures with the dome closed and scope parked) are taken at the end of each observing session.

Select images are processed for further study and display. A program called MaxIM DL is used to do basic calibration (bias-subtraction and flat field correction), and the levels are adjusted for optimum display contrast. Choice images are then selected for online display. All of the images are archived in their raw FITS format, sorted by date, and backed up twice. At a later time we can mass process these and make them available for scientific use. Inquiries can be made of Brian Cudnik, at bmcudnik@pvamu.edu, or Premkumar Saganti, at pbsaganti@pvamu.edu.]

Solar images and observations made in 2021 can be accessed here.

December 17, 2020

The Sun continues to decline in activity level. The last C-class X-ray event occurred on the 14th of December, as the x-ray background decreases from B to A level. The last B-level event occurred at 13:30 UT on the 16th. Since then the X-ray background has settled into the very low activity level. Active Region 12792 has decayed to remnant plage, having lost its spots yesterday. Active Region 12793 continues to maintain itself but it is also in the process of decline. No new regions have appeared and the sunspot number has decreased from 26 (yesterday) to 12 (today). The sunspot number is equal to the number of spots plus ten times the number of spot groups. Several prominence and filament features are visible on the limb and disk of the Sun. One such example is show in the first image that depicts a faint prominence group on the southwestern solar limb. This image is cropped to cover 7′ x 9.5′ of sky and stretched to emphasize the prominences.

H-alpha image taken at 17:08:32 UT

AR 12793 (spot and attendant white areas) imaged in red continuum light, at 16:35:35 UT. Image is 14.5’x9.5′ in angular size.

Same region imaged in the line center of H-alpha at 17:00 UT. It covers the same angular area as the previous.

H-alpha line center image showing both active regions covered today and in recent days (annotated). The image was recorded at 17:34:37 UT.

December 16, 2020

The Sun is once again very quiet as the recent activity has essentially quieted down. Focus was on the pair of small active regions as they continue to march across the solar disk, carried along by the Sun’s rotation. The first group, AR 12792, is mostly dissipated with only some plage and a tiny spot left. The AR 12793 had grown some but now shows signs of decline as well. No other spotted regions are visible on the Sun’s disk, but some prominences are seen along the limb (edge) of the Sun in several places. Images were all made in H-alpha line center light under mainly clear skies and good seeing.

The above image shows the only active regions currently visible on the Sun’s disk, AR 12792, just right and below center; and AR 12793, center-left with the larger dark spot. This image was captured at 21:04:29 UT and spans 14.5′ x 9.6′. The three prominence images below are each 9.5′ squared.

Prominence on the northeast limb as imaged at 21:19:03 UT.

Another prominence on the northwest limb, as imaged at 21:14:19 UT.

Still more prominence activity on the southwest limb, at 21:25:11 UT

December 14, 2020

Solar activity has been mainly low for the last 10 days, with AR 12790 mostly quietly rotating across the Sun’s visible disk. It was the source of a C7 flare that peaked at 16:32UT on December 7. The region rotated out of view on 12 December, while the next small region rotated into view on the Sun’s southeast limb. This region remains small and is designated AR 12792. It did sport a C4 flare at 14:37 UT on 14 December. The main focus was AR 12792, which is shown in the below off-band and on-band images, taken about 40 minutes apart. Also, toward the left edge of each 9.5′ x 9.5′ image is another small spot group.

AR 12792 (right of center) as imaged at 21:42:21 UT in this continuum view.

AR 12792 (lower right of center) and possibly AR 12793 (left) as imaged in this H-alpha view at 22:20:46UT.

December 4, 2020

The Sun continues to quiet down some but there has been a regular occurrence of B-class and (occasionally) C-class flare events, with AR’s 12786 and 12790 being the sources. These were monitored for a short time today, with one of the flares being imaged during part of its evolution. The complex of active regions 12785 and 12786, with plage region 12788, are now becoming harder to observe as the Sun begins to carry them out of view due to rotation. The region 12790 is moving into better view, but all three spotted regions are in slow decay, being of Zurich class H and magnetic type alpha. Nonetheless, some low-level activity does persist with these regions.

AR 12790 as seen in this off-band continuum image, which was recorded at 15:45:48 UT. Note that another active region seems to be appearing on the left edge of the image.

AR 12790 as seen in this on-band H-alpha centerline image, recorded at 16:16:08 UT. This region has decayed to an alpha magnetic type.

AR 12790 in H-alpha after 83 minutes has passed. Not much activity was seen in this region today. This image was obtained at 17:39:04 UT

The complex of active and plage regions is now starting to rotate out of view. This continuum view shows AR 12785 on the very edge, and 12786 not far behind. Image was taken at 16:47:36 UT.

AR 12786 and 12785 as seen in the light of H-alpha line center at 16:17:31 UT. The region 12785 is almost invisible in this view. Both have simple alpha magnetic types.

AR 12786 with a B4.8-class flare in progress. The flare, seen as bright spots in the image, peaked in intensity at 17:17 UT. The image was taken at 17:18:53UT.

December 3, 2020

Things have quieted further on the Sun as the current parade of active regions in the Sun’s southern hemisphere continues. We are following three spotted active regions and three former active regions, designated as H-alpha plages without spots. The two active regions NOAA 12785 and 12786 are mostly benign groups with Zurich classes of Hsx and Hkx, respectively. Each has alpha magnetic type. This indicates that they are in a state of decay and simplification and should continue to decline as they rotate off the visible disk of the Sun. Along with this pair of active regions is plage region 2788. The region 12786 covers an area of 370 millionths, down from 1000 a week ago. Active region 12790 is a bit more complex, with a beta magnetic type and Zurich class Cao. This region, and region 2786 have been producing very occasional C-class and B-class flares. None were observed today.

The series of images below show each of the active regions of interest. The top row shows AR 12790 at three points during the 4 hour observing run today. The bottom row depicts AR 12786 throughout the day. The first of each is an offband/white light proxy of each region; the second and third were obtained in the light of H-alpha line center. North is up, east left in each 14.5’x9.6′ image.

AR 12790 as seen in this off-band continuum image, which was recorded at 16:52:00 UT

AR 12790 as seen in this on-band H-alpha centerline image, recorded at 17:17:12 UT.

AR 12790 in H-alpha after more than three hours. This image was obtained at 20:24:20 UT

AR 12786 (left, larger) and 12785 (right, smaller) as seen in red continuum at 16:54:29 UT.

AR 12786 and 12785 as seen in the light of H-alpha line center at 17:22:36 UT

AR 12786 and 12785, some three hours later. Image taken in H-alpha line center at 20:33:50 UT.

As we continue to refine the observing program at the Solar Observatory, we have decided to select the active region with the most complex magnetic type and follow that region for most of the observing time. This records changes on minutes- to hours- time scales. For other regions present on the Sun at the same time, we will follow them about once per hour to follow their evolution. The images above show how each region changed over a 3.5 hour period. Note subtle changes in the presence/absence of small filaments and other features, such as bright plage features and such. Small irregularities that are not sun-like are artefacts of the image processing.

December 1, 2020

Since the last session ten days ago, the Sun experienced a significant uptick in activity. The small regions imaged immediately below have since rotated out of view (AR 12783) or decayed (AR 12784) but a parade of new active regions has rotated onto the solar disk and is in the process of being carried across the visible disk by the Sun’s rotation. The region NOAA 12786 became the largest active region in several years, spanning 1000th of a solar hemisphere (most that we have observed thus far have areas in the 10’s to 100’s of solar hemispheres) on 26 November. It has shrunk to 590 with 17 individual spots (the spot number has been steady around 18 the last several days). The seeing conditions were too poor to open up on 30 November but improved greatly for today’s session.

Flaring activity has been limited to occasional C-class events, but a major flare was detected by Earth-orbiting satellites via the X-ray environment. The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this extreme ultraviolet video of this M4.4 flare, which happened just over the edge of the Sun. Two days later, a humble-looking spot rotated into view, AR 12790, which is imaged below. This seemed to be the source of the flare, which was likely much bigger (in the X-category) were it not for the Sun blocking much of its energy. AR 12790 has not bee very active since it became visible to Earth-bound observers.

The complex of Active Regions 12785, 12786, and 12788 (once spotted but no longer) as imaged at 17:12:44 UT in continuum light.

The active region complex in the light of H-alpha line center. This image was recorded at 18:09:29 UT.

New AR 12790 as seen in “white light”, imaged at 17:14:20 UT.

AR 12790, a filament (just right of enter) and a prominence (edge, directly below filament), recorded at 17:52:44 UT.

November 29 was a day when the Sun truly looked like it was in active mode. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction center website has an update and summary of the active sun of late November. Information and images can be found at https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/solar-cycle-25-activity-update-nov-dec-2020. This website also has a lot of information about space weather, geared toward the public, and is a valuable resource for solar observatories to use to plan their operations.

November 21, 2020

Another short observing session, with regular cloud interference (partly cloudy conditions) with main focus being the existing active regions and larger prominences. A new active region, to be labeled 12784, has appeared in the Sun’s northern hemisphere. The GOES X-ray flux plot shows some activity over the last two days. However, there are no obvious signs of such activity during our short session. Except for the prominence images, the frames cover 9.6×14.5 arcminutes of the sky; the prominence frames are smaller and “zoomed in” to reveal more detail.

AR 12783, in continuum/white light. Image taken at 19:18:28 UT.

AR 12783 in H-alpha light. Image taken at 20:26:22 UT.

New AR (likely to be 12784) imaged in white light / continuum at 19:18:28 UT

AR 12784 in H-alpha light, image taken at 19:46:22 UT

Prominence on northwest limb of Sun, as imaged at 20:34:28 UT.

Some activity spotted on the SE limb, could be the next AR about to rotate into view as portrayed in this 20:37:57 UT image.

November 19, 2020

Solar activity levels remain low with the occasional minor flare. An X-ray class B1 flare peaked at 17:06 UT while we were observing and may have been captured, in part, as it erupted from the trailing end of AR 12783. We continue with daily morning observing sessions, a sort of daily “check up” of the Sun.

AR 12783 is visible as a single primary spot and two trailing spots, along with a network of faculae (bright spots) in this red continuum image obtained at 15:55:18 UT. We saw these three during the daily visual sunspot count at 16:07 (spot number = 13)

AR 12783 as seen in the light of H-alpha line center, obtained at 16:59:15 UT. There is a filament situated vertically visible just right of image center, along with the bright plage which may be precursor to the above mentioned B1 minor flare.

Prominences are seen along the northeast limb of the Sun. This was the same region where a loop prominence was recorded yesterday. Little change is seen in the 45 minutes that elapsed from the first set of image of this feature to the current image, which was recorded at 17:13:00 UT.

Another large active region, more precisely a UV hot spot, has been detected on the farside of the Sun by NASA’s STEREO-A satellite and should be carried into Earth’s view sometime early next week.

November 18, 2020

Solar activity levels based on the GOES X-ray flux data continue to decline, with no flares noted based on the plot since yesterday’s observing session. Only one active region with a single spot, AR 12783, continues to rotate into better view. The one spot is led and followed by a network of faculare (white light white spots) / plages (H-alpha bright areas). Plage remains where the AR 12782 is located and continues to be carried along by the Sun’s rotation, now approaching the SW (Celestial) limb. Several interesting prominences and filaments are also visible.

AR 12783 is visible as a single primary spot and a network of faculae (bright spots) in this red continuum image obtained at 16:46:40 UT. Only one spot was seen here and during the visual white light sunspot count at 15:16 UT (spot number = 11)

AR 12783 as seen in the light of H-alpha line center, obtained at 17:52:56 UT. Not seen along the limb in the bottom right corner is a quiescent (quiet) prominence that has been there since at least yesterday.

A loop prominence formed from pre-existing prominences sometime during the morning. This image was stretched to optimize the prominence visibility. Image of celestial northeast limb was recorded at 18:20:09 UT.

We will continue with routine observations for one session (lasting 1 to 2 hours) per day for the remainder of this week as we follow the AR 12783 across the Sun. We do not anticipate much activity from this region so only 1 to 2 hour sessions are planned for each day. After this week, the weather is expected to deteriorate again and work moves to remote locations, putting an end to this current string of observations.

November 17, 2020

We continue our string of imaging sessions with another late morning session documenting the Sun as a whole through our mosaic images as well as brief watches of regions of interest on the Sun. Seeing was good and skies remain clear for this session, which started in “white light” mode (red continuum). We imaged the two visible regions (AR 12782 remnants and newly emerged AR 12783) in white light before heating up the H-alpha filter to line center. We monitored this region and a few other areas of interest during this session, throughout which the Sun remained very quiet with the X-ray “continuum” (an indicator of real-time activity as measured by the GOES 16 satellite) or background level dropped into the A-range (the lowest range on the scale of X-ray Flare Class). Yesterday this level was just above B0 with several small C-class flares occurring. No flares today as the new region has a stable magnetic field configuration. The dark spot visible in the images below is about the size of Earth. The region is not likely to produce strong solar flares within the near future.

A new Active Region is rotating into view. (Soon to be) AR 12783 is visible as a single primary spot and a network of faculae (bright spots) in this red continuum image obtained at 16:49:39 UT.

AR 12783 as seen in the light of H-alpha line center, obtained at 17:55:11 UT. Not seen along the limb in the bottom right corner is a quiescent (quiet) prominence that has been there since at least yesterday.

The prominence mentioned at left in this stretched and zoomed in version of the image immediately left. The image is 9.9′ x 6.3′ on the sky and is a re-stretched version of the 17:55:11 UT image.

We will continue with routine observations for one session (lasting 1 to 2 hours) per day for the remainder of this week as we follow the new AR across the Sun. After this week, the weather is expected to deteriorate again and work moves to remote locations, putting an end to this current string of observations. There may be another active region on the heels of this newest one that may become observable in the next day or two. Otherwise the Sun remains in quiet mode, much as it has been for the last four calendar years through Solar Minimum.

November 16, 2020

After a week of remote work, and unfavorable weather, observations resume today for a short session imaging a very quiet Sun. The active region followed 9 days ago continued to cross the face of the Sun, carried along by the Sun’s rotation, and only hosted small flares for a day or so after the 7 November observations. The region then decayed, leaving the leader spot, which rotated out of view two days ago. In the meantime, another region rotated into view 11 November, but decayed, becoming spotless by 15 November. The Sun has been quiet for the most part since AR 12781 decayed last week, and newer AR 12782 offered little additional activity. STEREO satellite imagery indicate there may be not one but two large active regions just over the southeast edge of the Sun. More information, and the latest images from these satellites can be seen at stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov.

The remnants of AR 12782 appear as a change in texture in the sun’s H-alpha surface, mixed with faint plage. This image was obtained at 17:09:58 UT.

The southeast limb of the Sun may reveal another active region in the coming days. So far all is quiet but some limb activity was documented during today’s short observing session. Time of image = 17:12:27 UT

During the daily mosaic imaging sequence, more of the southeast limb was captured, showing a prominence (bottom center) and some activity associated with a new active region (left, middle of image). Time of image = 17:15:17 UT.

Each of the above images were obtained with the SBIG STT 1603 ME camera with H-alpha tuned to line center. The images are oriented so that celestial north is up and celestial west is right. The images span 9.6 arc minutes tall by 14.5 arcminutes wide.

November 7, 2020

21:15 UT

Observations were carried out during a special Saturday session. The large active region 12781 continues its display as the Sun’s rotation carries it closer to the center of its disk. The full disk image above was taken afocally through a Takahashi 5.1-inch refractor, equipped with a safety solar wedge. The image is mirror-reversed with north up but west left. Close-ups of this spot group were obtained with the main telescope in the East Dome. They were colorized to represent the filter/bandpass they were imaged in . The first image at left was taken in red continuum, colorized to match the view through a typical white-light filtered telescope. It was taken near the end of the observing session and shows that the group is still complex. Same group taken in H-alpha (below right) shows some plage associated with the region. For a region its size, it has been rather quiet, producing mainly c-flares and “Ellerman Bombs”, a magnetic explosion that is one millionth as powerful as a typical solar flare. Even so, a single Ellerman event is more than a hundred thousand times more powerful than an atomic bomb, and spans the size of a U.S. state.

AR 12781 in white light (red continuum) as observed at 21:55:20 UT. Celestial north up and celestial east left (same cardinal directions for the other four images from today). This is colorized to mimic the view through a typical white-light filtered scope.

AR 12781 in H-alpha, band center, as observed at 20:23:12. This view is colorized to approximate the H-alpha color seen visually. The region had been mildly active producing occasional C-class (small) flares, but lots of Ellerman bombs.

AR 12780 appears as a pair of small, dark spots near disk center. The region is near center and can be found within the lighter band of material. Image was obtained at 20:16:37 UT

This is the most prominent prominence visible on the Sun today. This image was imaged at 20:53:15 UT.

The smaller active region 12780 remains visible as a pair of dark spots in white light imagery. It is seen just above, left, in H-alpha. The image was colorized to approximate the visual hue of h-alpha. Finally a prominence was captured in image off the northwestern limb of the Sun. It has been there for a couple of days now, and is an example of a quiescent prominence, one that essentially stays put and does not launch into space.

November 5, 2020

For much of the Fall 2020 semester, solar activity had been low to very low. The controller of the clamshell dome had burnt out and a replacement was installed today, enabling us to once again control the dome. Four days ago, this large spot group began to appear on the solar horizon and, as the days passed, rotated into view bringing it into better focus for Earth-based observations. This is the largest sunspot group/active region of the current solar cycle and it has the potential for more activity in the coming days as it becomes more favorably placed for observation.

AR 12781 in white light (red continuum) as observed at 16:32:36 UT. Full view of 9.6′ x 14.5′ with celestial north up and celestial east left (same cardinal directions for the other three images from today)

AR 12781 in H-alpha, band center, as observed at 16:55:49. The view presented is 11′ wide by 9′ tall.

AR 12780 is a small spot group that re-emerged two days after decaying. When it displayed spots, they were few in number and small. Image taken in H-alpha at 17:45:42 UT

AR 12781, in H-alpha, as imaged at 18:05:45. Some subtle changes in the active region have been observed over the last hour and a half, including the decay phase of a minor B8 flare event. The largest flare so far from this region was a C7 which peaked at 00:22 UT on 5 November.

The smaller active region 12780 became visible a few days ago, disappeared, then reappeared today as a small primary spot and several even smaller spots. It appears to be decaying again.

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August 13, 2020

Solar activity remains very low as one active region prepares to depart and another makes its entrance. The images below show some of the features observed this morning on the Sun. The first is a view of some prominence activity on the northwest (celestial) limb of the Sun. This was once the northern filament that had been followed earlier, but it has been carried along by the Sun’s rotation and now appears on the edge as a bright object against a dark background. Active Region 12770 continues to dwindle, appearing little more than a group of bright plages. These are depicted in the second image. I was not able to see visually a spot at its location this morning during the daily visual sunspot count. This observation was made under good seeing and at 60x magnification. The active region 12771 has also decayed since yesterday, appearing as one spot today instead of three (top horizontal arrow, third image). In the same view, some prominences are seen off the southeastern limb (vertical arrow). The other regions are indistinct at the moment.

NW limb prominence as imaged at 15:53:55 UT, 13 August 2020.

AR 12770 (just below center) as seen at 16:09:54 UT. Like the rest of today’s images, this is displayed with north up, west right.

Two features are captured in this image obtained at 16:15:49 UT: AR 12771 top center and the SE limb prominence (bottom center)

The Sun is not the only object in the skies during middays these days. The Moon just past third quarter and is easily seen high in the west at observation time. Part of it is recorded below. Also, Venus is nearly overhead, a day after dichotomy (50% illumination) and is actually easily seen with the naked eye in the blue sky. Problem is that the blue sky overwhelms the small white dot of Venus, so it takes a line of site, a telescope pointed at it, to line up with and locate the planet in the daylight sky. Sometimes the Moon serves that purpose, which it will do on August 15, appearing about 3.5 degrees north of Venus.

Southern part of waning crescent Moon imaged at 16:24 UT, 13 August 2020. Celestial north is up, east is left in this and the Venus image.

Venus imaged at 16:37 UT, 13 August 2020.

August 12, 2020

Solar activity is slowly increasing even as one decaying active region begins to depart the Earth-facing part of the solar disk, carried along by the sun’s own 25-day rotation. Little is left of AR 12770 as can be seen in the first image, with the locations of the two active regions, along with what’s left of a northern filament, shown. X-ray activity was very low today, with little variation. After the daily mosaic of images was collected, focus turned on the visible active regions and filaments, depicted in the images below. The new regions on the southeast limb may be heralding a renewed period of elevated solar activity. Based on their magnetic polarity pattern and high latitude, these are Cycle 25 sunspots, meaning they are members of a new solar cycle that began late last year.

Celestial north is up, east is left in each of the below images.

This annotated image was obtained at 17:00:31 UT on 12 August 2020 and shows the remnants of two departing active region and one departing filament.

New Active Region 12771 (top arrow) has emerged less than a day ago, and is being followed by two more regions rotating into view as they emerge. Compare with the Solar Dynamics Observatory image below. PVO image obtained at 16:28:45 UT

This prominence on the northeast limb (arrowed) appears to be fading. Image captured at 16:02:00 UT on 12 August 2020. As the Sun rotates, this will begin to be seen in front of the solar disk and it will appear dark–a filament.

This image, taken at 17:11:03UT, depicts some activity observed on the southeast limb of the sun. This was monitored for a few minutes as surges and arcs formed and dissipated. This could signal the appearance of a new Active Region about to rotate into view.

This is a Solar Dynamics Observatory image of the emerging activity on the Sun’s southeast edge. The orange rectangles are sections of a white-light image that show the bright and dark areas associated with each region. The background image s a magnetic map showing positive polarities in yellow and negative polarities in green. The image comes courtesy of NASA and spaceweather.com.

August 11, 2020

Skies were transparent and haze-free but the cumulus clouds proved more of a nuisance during this longer observing period, spanning 3 hours. The sky was variably cloudy, from mostly clear at times to mostly cloudy at others. The main focus continued to be the decaying active region NOAA 12770 as it begins to rotate away from our view and shrink in size. The two other active regions’ remnants are rotating out of view: 12768 is on the solar edge and cannot be easily observed, and 12769 is seen as a few remnant plages. Most of the earlier filaments have dispersed and there are a few prominences along the limb.

After collecting images for a full-disk mosaic, attention turned to AR 12770 which was producing a B2-class sub-flare. It had been flaring with relatively small flares (except for a larger C1 over the past weekend) and a pair of 7-minute optical events within a much longer, 45-minute X-ray event occurred. The former was largely missed due to being on a prominence, then being hindered by clouds; however, the second optical event was captured in its entirety. The images below show the region before the event (15:22 UT), the region in continuum red light (16:26 UT), and the region one minute after the 16:59 UT flare peak. The flare shows up as the bright spots in the image. The last image, obtained at 16:39 UT, shows a prominence on the northeastern limb. This was processed a bit with wavelet processing to bring out details on both the prominence and the Sun’s disk. The double-edged appearance is due to the presence of the chromosphere layer, which is made visible by the H-alpha system.

Each of the images span 14.4′ wide by 9.6′ tall and are oriented so that celestial north is up, celestial west is right.

AR 12769 (image center) and 12770 (lower left) as imaged in H-alpha at 15:22:38.

Same regions, but in red continuum: AR 12770 is seen as a dark spot, AR 12769 is evidenced by some bright patches or faculae just above image center. Time of image = 16:26:14.

Same region of Sun showing AR 12770 with flare (bright spots in image). The image was made in H-alpha at 17:00:50 UT

Solar prominence as imaged at 16:39:52.

August 7, 2020

Weather remained mainly clear and hazy during the observing window, with fair-weather clouds increasing throughout the 2.5 hour interval (merely changing the sky from mostly clear to partly cloudy). The parade of active regions and remnants continue across the Sun, with only one of the regions retaining its spots. AR 12770 was monitored during this time. It consists of one large leader spot and three small attendants trailing the leader. Although no flares have been seen or have been produced from this region, there were other types of activity being monitored to include the appearance of dark streaks in H-alpha. One such streak was observed to appear ahead of the spot and change somewhat before disappearing some 20 minutes later.