Hello again,
I set up today around 11:30am in front of the Borders near hwy880/237. The
sky was clear, the sun was bright and there was a gentle cool breeze. So I
laid out my carpet, set up the tripod, attached scope and filter and took a
look. It was a good day on the sun.
I then set up my umbrella for shade, set up the tables, fold out chairs,
brought out the cooler and sandwich, turned on some jazz and sat down to
relax and enjoy a nice lunch out in the middle of this parking lot at my
little solar oasis. I am sure I must have been an odd site.
Bob Hess showed up a little later with his h-alpha gear. He got it all put
together and we exchanged views, had some good conversation and tagteamed
curious visitors.
We had maybe 20 to 30 people who were either walking by or driving by stop
to talk and look through the scopes. One young man who worked at Borders
stopped by to have a look and talked with me about string theory. Pretty
smart kid. Quite a few people mentioned the article in National Geographic
which I haven't had a chance to ready yet. And everyone enjoyed the views.
Even though spot 652 is getting close to the limb the detail that is visible
is astounding. As I watched it today I could see subtle changes and
occassionally dramatic activity around the spots. Opposite that feature was
a large prominance which looked somewhat like a mohawk. It was tall and
seemed to arch around towards the far side. As the sun moved across the
mid-day sky and it's relative position rotated in my telescope that
prominance seemed like it was getting larger. It also seemed to me that
more structure was visible from the side is it got rotated higher in my
field of view. There were some other interesting filaments that were
visible at slight angles revealing their lacy structures.
It was actually really nice. By the time I started packing up I realized
that 3 hours had passed and I was late for my next appointment. It is so
easy to lose track of time when you are having fun under the sun with
friends.
Well, I plan on getting out again either this week or next. I'll be sure
and post my plans just in case anyone would like to join me.
Michael Swartz
michael @ itsupportnet.com
Received on Tue Jul 27 20:31:34 2004