Dramatic Filament Ring

Tiny Sunspots

As fall proceeds solar observing opportunities diminish. The Sun is low in the sky, and it gets uncomfortably cold. Remarkable solar features have been rare lately. On November 14th, however, a giant filament was on display. Conditions were good before noon. It was completely clear, 52 degrees, and somewhat windy. Seeing conditions were better than predicted.

The dramatic, long-lived filament ring was nicely centered on the Sun's face as seen in the following imperfect 36-panel mosaic. Tiny sunspots are almost invisible. (Click on the image for a larger view.) Can you find any sunspots in the larger view? One tall wispy prominence hangs above the right limb. Seeing was good for most of the 36 images used to construct the mosaic, but it deteriorated during capture of the last few blurry images near the top of the Sun.

An inverted view always displays filaments nicely.

The large curving filament was captured in good detail in the following cropped portion of a 13-panel mosaic.

Only one small sunspot was easily visible on the disc. Sunspot 2454 is right of center in this region from the left side of the large disc mosaic above.

The filament ring lifted spectacularly off the solar surface and disappeared on November 15th. I was lucky to find it intact and so well placed on November 14th.