The Prominence Queen

The sun today is quite active in the hydrogen-alpha band, as shown by this a-focal image:

The prominence in the lower left was most impressive, earning it the title Queen of Prominences, or The Prom Queen, for short.

I watched and photographed the prominence for about an hour and half during which time it became disconnected visually from the edge of the sun before disappearing.

The Prom Queen at 9:50 am PDT:

And again at 11:10 am PDT:

Here is an animated transition between these two images:

I enhanced the sharpness of these photos to compensate for the blurring introduced by my crude a-focal photography. The prominence appears close to what my eye saw but sharpening added unnatural contrast to the sun's edge.

jg