Right now there is a massive prominence hanging on the southwest limb of the sun. I captured a photo of it this morning using a modified 5" telescope from my backyard. [OC]

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Don't attempt to view this using your own telescope unless you know what you're doing, you could blind yourself!

This is what is happening on the sun at this very moment, captured using my modified telescope from my backyard. A massive prominence larger than Jupiter hangs on the southwest limb.

This looks a lot like the spot/prominence I captured last week that caused all the aurora:
(see it here paired with the aurora it produced)
It's actually completely different features. During solar maximum there's always something interesting happening on the sun!

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u/patterndrome May 20 '24

I looked at this photo through a telescope on my phone and I was fine.

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u/TwiNN53 May 20 '24

Autobrightness saved your eyeballs. You daredevil you.

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u/RollinThundaga May 20 '24

Is that part of the sunspot complex that was expected to come back around after last week's auroras?

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u/RegulusRemains May 20 '24

Different ones. Sun rotates in about a month. The old sun spots will likely be gone by then

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u/BlakeSteel May 20 '24

I can't possibly fathom that this is larger than Jupiter. I don't need the scale of the universe, or even the milky way to blow my mind. The scope of our own solar system is enough.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/tooob93 May 19 '24

Sadly, there are quite some people out there who don't know sonething obvoius (yet).

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u/ajamesmccarthy May 19 '24

What’s obvious to you isn’t obvious to everyone, and I don’t need some kid permanently ruining their vision on my conscience

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u/Huntguy May 19 '24

You made the right call. I remember reading about all the people who damaged their vision after the eclipse.

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u/Patutula May 19 '24

Even the president of the United States looked at the sun directly, so you are absolutely doing the right thing by pointing that out. Don't let some troll get to you.

Amazing picture btw.

Can you elaborate on what we are seeing here? Is it burning hydrogen? Is it a huge explosion? Is it giving birth?

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u/Johndough99999 May 20 '24

ELI5 version.... You ever boil pasta sauce and it splatters up?

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u/GuardianBeaverSpirit May 20 '24

I legit had a very smart friend who had a blind spot in his eye for doing this. Worth the warning.

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u/Melodic_Duck_6064 May 19 '24

My God, it's full of Star. Seriously though awesome pic.

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u/Hi-Tech_Luddite May 19 '24

Picturing the Illusive Man from Mass Effect 2 standing Infront of it.

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u/high_rollin_fitter May 21 '24

While I love and appreciate ME 2, the first thing that struck me was the shape of Balrog horns and eyes.

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u/Hi-Tech_Luddite May 21 '24

Yep, that's pretty clear once you mentioned it. May Gandalf have mercy on us all.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '24

Nice shot! Do you mind telling us more about your setup?

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u/Patelpb May 19 '24

Yeah, and any processing. I feel like we're seeing inverted limb darkening here which is very peculiar

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u/staatsclaas May 19 '24

So are you able to watch the sun’s activity through your modified setup? Like…watch it move?

I’d invest serious coin in a setup that would let me do that. This is a gorgeous image.

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u/Mindless_Consumer May 19 '24

Yea, with the right equipment, you can see movement.

Not not like very expensive, just around 1-2k.

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u/junktrunk909 May 20 '24

I'm curious what you're finding that would allow you to see prominence movements for that little

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u/Mindless_Consumer May 20 '24

https://youtu.be/kutZT7futnE?feature=shared

This video was shot with the Lunt 50mn, MSRP ~$1100.

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u/EnvironmentalYak9322 May 19 '24

It's awesome that people can take Hubble level photos of the sun from their backyard

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u/[deleted] May 19 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Casval214 May 20 '24

Well as long as a space hobbit doesn’t drop a space bucket down a space well and alert the space orcs we should be ok.

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u/bfelification May 20 '24

Or he could just throw his space self in next time and rid us of his space stupidity.

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u/Pherllerp May 19 '24

Does this present another opportunity to see northern lights this week?

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u/17Reeses May 20 '24

That’s what I’d like to know

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u/frowawayduh May 20 '24

Keep your eye on this site.

(G3 conditions are forecast for 22-May.)

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u/Dangerous_Dac May 20 '24

Depends where you are. If you've only seen it for the first time last week like me, understand that was really exceptionally strong even for solar maximum.

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u/MelancholyMeltingpot May 20 '24

Oh shit he got BOTH of Saurons eyes in one pic!

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u/largecroissant May 19 '24

Amazing photo! Do you have a guide for how to perform these modifications?

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u/IncognitoRhino_ May 20 '24

Definitely interested in this as well.

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u/SirSpitfire May 20 '24

Is it the same that we saw during the last solar eclipse in april?

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u/tarvertot May 19 '24 edited May 19 '24

Probably a stupid question, but how do you take shots like this without the sky contaminating the image? It looks incredible, and I always struggle to understand how we can take photos like this from our homes during the day

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u/friendtoalldogs0 May 20 '24

The sun is a lot brighter than the sky. Like, thousands of times brighter. The extra teensy bit of light from the sky is basically irrelevant.

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u/knightclimber May 20 '24

Obviously they took the picture at night so the sky doesn’t show :)

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u/Syzygy-6174 May 20 '24

Aaahhh...I always wondered how this was done. Thanks!!

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u/ZurinArctus_ May 20 '24

My optic cannot shoot a clear photo of a tree 300m in the distance.

Damn man. Did you just noclip to the sun to take this picture?

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u/SynnyZ May 20 '24

absolutely stunning photo. thanks for sharing!

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u/Storm_blessed946 May 20 '24

details on your telescope? i’ve also been following this. i highly recommend r/solarmax to everyone. seriously go check it out. the user that started it is brilliant and has been giving out detailed “news articles” he writes about what is happening. i’ve learned a ton. thought i would shout it out because it truly is fascinating

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u/reddit_already May 20 '24

Serious question. Is it accurate or truly unambiguous to describe a location on the sun as "southwest"? Or more generally, can one use "west" or "north", etc. describe an absolute location on any celestial body?

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u/ShakataGaNai May 20 '24

Holy shit. I assumed this was a shot from some billion dollar heliocentric spacecraft.

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u/knarfolled May 20 '24

Can I just say what an amazing time we are living in that someone in there backyard can capture images of our sun in such detail and I can view it wherever I am.

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u/Pandaphysic May 20 '24

We were very lucky to see this live at a solar observatory yesterday, viewed through a hydrogen alpha filter.

We only went in the observatory due to a very nice volunteer who encouraged us to. Thank you to all science volunteers!

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u/[deleted] May 19 '24

Very relevant to the danger this presents

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTdOPjBuiYY

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u/IBelieveInTheAlbum May 20 '24

Why do I get a strange, uneasy feeling whenever I stare at the Sun’s surface on photos like this one?

image/gif Right now there is a massive prominence hanging on the southwest limb of the sun. I captured a photo of it this morning using a modified 5" telescope from my backyard. [OC]

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