Solar Imaging Session - February 14. 2011 (Valentine's AR11158 Sunspot Surprise and Large Eruptive Prominence !!! )

Happy Valentine's Day to all! The sky this morning was a bit cloudy and I thought the weather will not open up for me to image the Sun :( But luckily around 8:30am, weather improve a bit for me to image the Sun.

What surprised me today was the incredible increase in size of AR11158 Sunspot Group! The detail on the sunspot both in Ha and white light wavelength was a sight to see! In Ha light, the Sun is active wherein more than 5 sunspot group is visible on the Sun's disk with the latest AR11160 Sunspot Group emerging from the NE limb. Another nice feature today is a huge eruptive prominence visible in the SW limb.

According to spaceweather.com , AR11158 Sunspot Group unleashed the strongest solar flare of the year so far at around 1:38am (Feb. 13th at 1738 UT) , an M6.6-category blast. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded an intense flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation.

Much as I want to image all 5 sunspot groups in white light, heavy clouds prevented me from taking any more white light with my AR11157 Sunspot Group taken through heavy clouds :( Nevertheless, the image of the active AR11158 Sunspot Group is already a very nice gift for me on Valentine's Day....... of course the best is our Valentine malling and get together with my wife and kid last night.

It's bad that I will miss the next few day's solar activity with my provincial trip to Baguio City and Laoag in the next few days so will be back to solar imaging when I get back home Saturday morning.