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#1
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What is the distance of typical solar flares ??
I have Astronomical Giant Binos with Baader Film/shield which fits over
the ends . Havent used them to look at the sun yet ; but, was curious as to how far solar flares leave the suns surface ?? Thanks, Dave |
#2
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What is the distance of typical solar flares ??
I have Astronomical Giant Binos with Baader Film/shield which fits over
the ends . Havent used them to look at the sun yet ; but, was curious as to how far solar flares leave the suns surface ?? They can expell material at the sun's escape velocity and thus the gas leaves the sun entirely (a Coronal Mass Ejection), although more typically, the eruptive prominences and surges produced by flares rise less than 50,000 kilometers above the surface. However, the Baader film material will not allow you to see solar flares. Doing this requires a very expensive narrow-band filter centered on the H-alpha line in the red part of the spectrum. Clear skies to you. -- David W. Knisely Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/ ********************************************** * Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY * * July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir * * http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org * ********************************************** |
#3
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What is the distance of typical solar flares ??
I have Astronomical Giant Binos with Baader Film/shield which fits over
the ends . Havent used them to look at the sun yet ; but, was curious as to how far solar flares leave the suns surface ?? They can expell material at the sun's escape velocity and thus the gas leaves the sun entirely (a Coronal Mass Ejection), although more typically, the eruptive prominences and surges produced by flares rise less than 50,000 kilometers above the surface. However, the Baader film material will not allow you to see solar flares. Doing this requires a very expensive narrow-band filter centered on the H-alpha line in the red part of the spectrum. Clear skies to you. -- David W. Knisely Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/ ********************************************** * Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY * * July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir * * http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org * ********************************************** |
#4
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What is the distance of typical solar flares ??
In article ,
wrote: I have Astronomical Giant Binos with Baader Film/shield which fits over the ends . Havent used them to look at the sun yet ; but, was curious as to how far solar flares leave the suns surface ?? Like most of these things, it depends on your definition - the flare is the chromospheric (and lower corona, in the case of loop-top X-ray emission) manifestation of the Sun's magnetic field reconfiguring itself to a lower stored-energy state. Other manifestations of the reconfiguration may include ejections of mass through the corona (coronal mass ejections or CMEs) which can then propagate into interplanetary space (interplanetary coronal mass ejections or iCMEs, magnetic clouds..). Flaring can occur without ejections of mass, and mass ejections can occur without flares (and when they both occur the sequence is split about 50:50 between flare-first and mass ejection first), but the larger the event the more likely you are to have all the manifestations (flare, moreton wave, EIT wave, mass ejection..). For this reason the trend is now to refer to "explosive events" or "eruptive events" to cover all the results of the magnetic field reconfiguring itself in a short period. White-light flares are going to be fairly low down, hard X-ray emission can come from further up (lower coronal heights, from reconnection sites at severance point in ascending loops). iCMEs have been observed repeatedly by Ulysses at 3-5 AU, by Cassini on its way to Saturn and by the Voyagers, though IIRC not for some time - it depends on which manifestation of the eruptive events you're interested in. -- Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/ "Time has stopped, says the Black Lion clock and eternity has begun" (Dylan Thomas) |
#5
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What is the distance of typical solar flares ??
In article ,
wrote: I have Astronomical Giant Binos with Baader Film/shield which fits over the ends . Havent used them to look at the sun yet ; but, was curious as to how far solar flares leave the suns surface ?? Like most of these things, it depends on your definition - the flare is the chromospheric (and lower corona, in the case of loop-top X-ray emission) manifestation of the Sun's magnetic field reconfiguring itself to a lower stored-energy state. Other manifestations of the reconfiguration may include ejections of mass through the corona (coronal mass ejections or CMEs) which can then propagate into interplanetary space (interplanetary coronal mass ejections or iCMEs, magnetic clouds..). Flaring can occur without ejections of mass, and mass ejections can occur without flares (and when they both occur the sequence is split about 50:50 between flare-first and mass ejection first), but the larger the event the more likely you are to have all the manifestations (flare, moreton wave, EIT wave, mass ejection..). For this reason the trend is now to refer to "explosive events" or "eruptive events" to cover all the results of the magnetic field reconfiguring itself in a short period. White-light flares are going to be fairly low down, hard X-ray emission can come from further up (lower coronal heights, from reconnection sites at severance point in ascending loops). iCMEs have been observed repeatedly by Ulysses at 3-5 AU, by Cassini on its way to Saturn and by the Voyagers, though IIRC not for some time - it depends on which manifestation of the eruptive events you're interested in. -- Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/ "Time has stopped, says the Black Lion clock and eternity has begun" (Dylan Thomas) |
#6
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What is the distance of typical solar flares ??
David Knisely wrote:
I have Astronomical Giant Binos with Baader Film/shield which fits over the ends . Havent used them to look at the sun yet ; but, was curious as to how far solar flares leave the suns surface ?? They can expell material at the sun's escape velocity and thus the gas leaves the sun entirely (a Coronal Mass Ejection), although more typically, the eruptive prominences and surges produced by flares rise less than 50,000 kilometers above the surface. However, the Baader film material will not allow you to see solar flares. Doing this requires a very expensive narrow-band filter centered on the H-alpha line in the red part of the spectrum. Clear skies to you. H-alpha scopes are much more expensive than Baader film - but havejust got much cheaper - the Coronado PST is 500 usd (or 500 uk pounds - but that's another story) I've just got one and, though the Sun isn't very active it is very impressive. For the week that I've had the scope I have seen prominences every single day (but probably not today thanks to rain). There has always been at least one prominence that I would guess to be around 2% of the Sun's diameter. 1% is an Earth diameter. These things are BIG. -- Martin Frey http://www.hadastro.org.uk N 51 02 E 0 47 |
#7
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What is the distance of typical solar flares ??
David Knisely wrote:
I have Astronomical Giant Binos with Baader Film/shield which fits over the ends . Havent used them to look at the sun yet ; but, was curious as to how far solar flares leave the suns surface ?? They can expell material at the sun's escape velocity and thus the gas leaves the sun entirely (a Coronal Mass Ejection), although more typically, the eruptive prominences and surges produced by flares rise less than 50,000 kilometers above the surface. However, the Baader film material will not allow you to see solar flares. Doing this requires a very expensive narrow-band filter centered on the H-alpha line in the red part of the spectrum. Clear skies to you. H-alpha scopes are much more expensive than Baader film - but havejust got much cheaper - the Coronado PST is 500 usd (or 500 uk pounds - but that's another story) I've just got one and, though the Sun isn't very active it is very impressive. For the week that I've had the scope I have seen prominences every single day (but probably not today thanks to rain). There has always been at least one prominence that I would guess to be around 2% of the Sun's diameter. 1% is an Earth diameter. These things are BIG. -- Martin Frey http://www.hadastro.org.uk N 51 02 E 0 47 |
#8
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What is the distance of typical solar flares ??
In article ,
Martin Frey wrote: David Knisely wrote: I have Astronomical Giant Binos with Baader Film/shield which fits over the ends . Havent used them to look at the sun yet ; but, was curious as to how far solar flares leave the suns surface ?? They can expell material at the sun's escape velocity and thus the gas leaves the sun entirely (a Coronal Mass Ejection), although more typically, the eruptive prominences and surges produced by flares rise less than 50,000 kilometers above the surface. However, the Baader film material will not allow you to see solar flares. Doing this requires a very expensive narrow-band filter centered on the H-alpha line in the red part of the spectrum. Clear skies to you. Not sure that you need H-alpha material /strictly/: I'm pretty sure such things weren't around in the 1850s when Carrington and Hodgson observed the great flare of 1859 - though that was probably the biggest flare recorded, almost certainly bigger than the X45(?) event of 4th November 2003 from the discussions I've heard. A *big* white-light flare (coming from a very big field re-configuration) would be visible with a telescope and projection-onto-screen system, but observing in H-alpha would make many, many more events observable. You don't want to wait 150-odd years for the next observable event -- Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/ "Time has stopped, says the Black Lion clock and eternity has begun" (Dylan Thomas) |
#9
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What is the distance of typical solar flares ??
In article ,
Martin Frey wrote: David Knisely wrote: I have Astronomical Giant Binos with Baader Film/shield which fits over the ends . Havent used them to look at the sun yet ; but, was curious as to how far solar flares leave the suns surface ?? They can expell material at the sun's escape velocity and thus the gas leaves the sun entirely (a Coronal Mass Ejection), although more typically, the eruptive prominences and surges produced by flares rise less than 50,000 kilometers above the surface. However, the Baader film material will not allow you to see solar flares. Doing this requires a very expensive narrow-band filter centered on the H-alpha line in the red part of the spectrum. Clear skies to you. Not sure that you need H-alpha material /strictly/: I'm pretty sure such things weren't around in the 1850s when Carrington and Hodgson observed the great flare of 1859 - though that was probably the biggest flare recorded, almost certainly bigger than the X45(?) event of 4th November 2003 from the discussions I've heard. A *big* white-light flare (coming from a very big field re-configuration) would be visible with a telescope and projection-onto-screen system, but observing in H-alpha would make many, many more events observable. You don't want to wait 150-odd years for the next observable event -- Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/ "Time has stopped, says the Black Lion clock and eternity has begun" (Dylan Thomas) |
#10
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What is the distance of typical solar flares ??
ANDREW ROBERT BREEN wrote:
Not sure that you need H-alpha material /strictly/: I'm pretty sure such things weren't around in the 1850s when Carrington and Hodgson observed the great flare of 1859 - Some very intense flares have been seen in white light against the disk of the sun, but these so-called "white light flares" are *very* rare as flares go, and the material ejected by them is, of course, not visible in a white light filter. During the peak of solar activity, I could observe almost every day or so for a few hours and see at least one small flare (and major flares once or twice per week) with my H-alpha filter, but none of these ever appeared in white light. Even some of the monster X-class flares I have watched have not quite passed into the white-light category. Clear skies to you. -- David W. Knisely Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/ ********************************************** * Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY * * July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir * * http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org * ********************************************** |
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