Sky this Week

Some sunspots visible for a change! Active region 10865 (the western most in below white light image) is quite large (600 milli-hemispheres). I count 17 spots with an 8 mm eyepiece through the 78mm Stellarvue refractor (NOAA shows 22). Turbulence was 6/10, partly cloudy, occasional thin clouds, temperature 74 °F and no wind. Equipment used was a Baader solar filter on Stellarvue A1010, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Canon 300D (Rebel) camera.

Nice large prominence visible on eastern limb in h-alpha. Appeared to be 4 or 5 tree-like branch structures. Some brightening visible around the trailing spots in 10865 to the west.