H-alpha fun for the whole family (Blue Mountains)

It looked like the clouds were breaking up. I was seeing lots of blue sky to the north. And occasional rays of sunlight blasting into the kitchen and living room. I headed out to the GBO to bolt up the Coronado filters onto the Tele Vue 101.



Photo by Donna with Kodak c330, f5.1, 1/547 sec., ISO 80.

Once complete, I opened the roof the minimal amount. Dropped the south-west flap. And set about focusing the thing. When I finally got it (and the clouds stayed away), the view was good!

I rang the house on the intercom. Steve picked up, wondering what was going on. I told him to gather the troops and head over. He acknowledged.

Mom, Donna, and Steve were very impressed with the views. Steve quickly made the comparison to the skin of an orange. We took in a group of 3 or 4 small sunspots.

And then I tuned the filter! Steve reported that the surface detail improved. In fact, it drew out a number of flares on the disc edge. And it completely changed the appearance of the sunspot complex, making it much more dimensional.

We all could have looked at it longer but it was very chilly (-9 with a slight wind).

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Mom exclaimed, on entering the GBO, "Now this is how I should have built my observatory!"

I let her close the roof. She was excited like a little girl!