SOLAR PROMINENCE: Yesterday, Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York, trained his telescope on the sun and waited for sunspot 1029 to reappear. But that wasn't going to happen. It was shaping up to be a dull observing session when something completely different popped into view:
"This magnificent looping prominence stole the show from the corpse of sunspot 1029," says Friedman. "It was the most dramatic prominence I have seen in many months."
The same prominence was putting on a show this morning, Nov. 15th, when the sun rose over the Philippines. "I was elated when I was able to see it clearly visible in the field of my eyepiece!" reports James Kevin Ty from Manila. "I quickly set up my PST (Personal Solar Telescope) and was able to monitor the prominence for more than 2 hours."
SUNSPOT CORPSE: Sunspot 1029 has returned from the farside of the sun--and it is not impressive. All that remains of the former behemoth is a bright magnetic froth. Readers with solar telescopes should target the northeastern limb of the sun to see a sunspot corpse.
EMERGING SUNSPOT: Amateur astronomers are reporting that old sunspot 1029 is back. The sun's rotation is bringing it into view over the sun's northeastern limb. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments. images: from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky; from Stefano Sello of Pisa, Italy; from Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida
