Friday 15 April 2011 - 8:00pm | |
Topic: | Secrets of the Sun |
Speaker: | Harry Roberts, ASNSW |
Venue: | Epping Creative Centre - 26 Stanley Road, Epping |
Abstract: | The speaker began study of the sun in the H-alpha band on June 23, 2001. Within minutes the Lumicon filter had revealed prominences, surface filaments, and a small but brilliant flare. The filter worked!
I was not to know that the peak of flaring for solar cycle 23 lay two and a half years in the future (late 2003) and flaring would be sustained well into 2007. And over that time hundreds of flares and ejection events were to be logged – an extraordinary adventure in daytime astronomy. The flaring of SC23 was probably the strongest for over a century – and was followed, quite unexpectedly, by the deepest minimum for a century - causing NASA to denounce the sun for “behaving unexpectedly”! Solar cycle 24 is now well advanced, and a GOES X Class flare recently erupted; so activity is rising strongly. This, together with the fact that H-alpha equipment has never been cheaper, means that right now is the ideal time to enter the bizarre realm of H-alpha astronomy. There is more to be seen than you’d dare to imagine. The Talk will cover:
|
Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer