Here are some nice videos of the Sun as taken by my honors student using our 12″ Meade, a Meade electronic eyepiece, and an H-alpha filter. The wind was brutal, so the images are rather shaky.
This first video highlights the granulation in the photosphere, and the glow of the chromosphere evident above the photosphere when looking at the edge of the solar disc.
This clip shows a small prominence arching above a small sunspot group that had already rotated out of view.
There’s new progress in an old idea regarding the protection of spacecraft from solar energetic particles using a craft-encompassing magnetic field.
ScienceDaily (2008-11-05) — According to the international space agencies, “space weather” is the single greatest threat to deep space travel. New research in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion shows how knowledge gained from the pursuit of nuclear fusion research may reduce the threat to acceptable levels, making humanity’s first mission to Mars a much greater possibility. … > read full article
…and none too soon, apparently, as solar minimum is now behind us. At least according to David Hathaway at Marshall Space Flight Center. The Sun is finally starting to show signs of life once gain after a very long and very quiet solar minimum. You can read more in the article, The Sun Shows Signs of Life, at Science@NASA.
