3/2/2010. AR1164 just looks like it's ready to do something spectacular. Spaceweather notes that this complex and growing region features a "'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares." Whatever. Steady air and a solar telescope on the porch revealed this moment as the active region rotates toward Earth, coiled, ready to strike:

AR 1164
Best 40% of 300 frames
Registax, FocusMagic, Photoshop
Lunt LS60THa50DS, Point Grey Chameleon
FlyCap set for +15db, 4ms exposures

Then there's this little oddity: a small, newly minted active region a few hundred thousand miles east (east? in any event "ahead of") of AR 1164. Yesterday there was a notable tangle of dark filaments in this area but no visible brightening. I thought, hm, I should shoot that, but spent my limited imaging window (treetops) shooting the more elaborately developed 1164. Here it is one day later:

Psolar Psoriasis
Best 40% of 300 frames
Registax, FocusMagic, Photoshop
Lunt LS60THa50DS, Point Grey Chameleon
FlyCap set for +15db, 4ms exposures

3/03/2011. The AR1164 show goes on and on. Thanks to Spaceweather.com for the shoutout featuring the photos above. They were among the "other photos" links provided on that site today. Here's a three-frame panorama that extends from AR1164 at center left to a cloud of plasma hanging high above or beyond new actve region 1166. Nascent AR1167 shines between them.

When contemplating this fiery panorama, keep in mind that the primary dark core in AR1164 is about three times larger than the Earth.

Same tech notes as above, except that I used the best 50% of frames,
and the frames including the prominence on the right
were exposed for 65ms rather than 4ms.

3/6/2011: Ha! Spaceweather pointed to the panoramas today. Neat.