SJAA at Cambrian Festival 2012

Observe The Sun Safely - Never look at the Sun without a proper filter! 

Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park  weather permitting

A beautiful sunny day at the Celebrate Cambrian Festival brought out lots families to learn about their local community. And the SJAA was proud to be a part of it! 

Lots of kids got to see the sun starting with an eyepiece projections system, 

then moving to an amateur scope (with solar filter) to see sunspots in detail,

 

and then ending with views of H-Alpha flairs, prominences, in the club's hydrogen alpha telescope.  Lots of "oohs" "aahhs" and "cool" at every station. 

 

And lots of thanks to our volunteers: Tom Sharkey, Teruo Utsumi, Malika Carter, Rob Jaworski, Michael Packer, Bill and Susan O'Neil and Tracy Avent-Costanz. You guys made it happen!

All in all, hundreds of folks easy got to see and learn about astronomy - if not in their own back yard - very close! We hope see see a few of them at Houge Park at upcoming public star party events!

The Sun

Useful Solar Links: 

Real Time e-mail Solar Flare Alert:
http://www.ips.gov.au/mailman/listinfo/ips-flare-alert
Everything about the Today's Sun at a Glance:
http://www.solarham.net/
Today's Space Weather with Sunspot Count:
http://www.spaceweather.com/
Solar Influences Data Center - SIDC keeper of the International Sunspot Number
http://sidc.oma.be/LatestSWData/LatestSWData.php 
Superb overview of Solar features - a must read:
http://lnk.nu/eaas.co.uk/24ct.php
NOAA Glossary of Solar Terms:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/info/glossary.html
Observing the Sun in H-Alpha - Compiled by David Knisely":

www.icstars.com/HTML/SolarSection/HAlpha/OBSERVINGTHESUNHAlpha3.html

Killer Video! - Depth Detail of Umbra & Penumbra with Surrounding Photosphere Granules

 

 

Click on image to enlarge:

Solar Observing August 5th

Observe The Sun Safely - Never look at the Sun without a proper filter! 

Solar Programs are held 1st Sunday of every Month 2:00-4:00 PM at Houge Park  weather permitting

The are a so many objects up in the night sky for amateur astronomers to enjoy, travel to with his/her scope and learn something new. Yet it is the same way with out single star up in the day sky, The solar cycle generates new sunspots and flares of beauty, size and ominous power. Today many of us saw hands-down "thee" longest filament, prominence, h-alpha flare, projected on the solar disk we have ever seen. Winding over the disk of the sun it easily spanned 1/3 of the entire solar face. if the filament was stretched out, it would easily span 1/2 the solar disk or some 50 Earth diameters!

While all of us at Houge were viewing this and thinking about Curiosity's Landing expected in the evening, SJAA member Malika was actually at JPL enjoying the event and showing sunspots to public. Her Sunspotter eyepiece projection system beautifully captured all 6 major sunspots: 

Click on a image to enlarge. Then compare the two by clicking icons at bottom of view screen

Right On!