The chromosphere of the sun - high res photo.

The chromosphere is the thin middle layer of the Sun's atmosphere, located just above the visible surface (photosphere) and below the outer atmosphere (corona). It comes from the Greek word chroma, meaning color, because it shines with a bright red glow during total solar eclipses. The red color comes from glowing hydrogen gas, specifically the hydrogen-alpha (H-alpha) light wavelength. It extends roughly 2,000 to 4,000 kilometers (about 1,200 to 2,500 miles) above the solar surface. Unlike inner layers, it gets hotter as you move outward, rising from about 4,000 K near the bottom to 10,000 K (or higher) at the top. Possible to see/photograph: Spicules: Narrow, grass-like jets of plasma that shoot upwards from the bottom layer before falling back down.

Prominences and filaments: Huge, cool loops and clouds of gas held above the surface by magnetic fields. Visibility: It is normally hidden by the blinding brightness of the photosphere below, but it is visible during total solar eclipses or through special solar filters.

Photo taken with several photos stitched together as a high res photo of the sun.

Solar from Carpe Noctem Observatory

 

POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SUNSPOT

A bonus day of partly cloudy weather over the Carpe Noctem observatory. I got to watch and photograph the sun through thin clouds but it was still nice. A little curious about the active area around sunspot group 4513 which according to spaceweather.com is a POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SUNSPOT: Sunspot 4513 has developed a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. Unlike Thursday's M8-class flare, which missed Earth, future flares will not miss. We're in the strike zone now, according to spaceweather.com.

Some of the images show this area, you can see as a white tear in the sunspot. 

Partial Solar Eclipse from Sweden

Partial solar eclipse from Sweden. It was stressful to find a place for this. The clouds rolled in and I headed off in the car towards clearer areas. Finally, when the eclipse had already started, I found a place by the water with less clouds. I could see the eclipse with the naked eye and photographed it without a filter. There is a risk of both my eyes and the camera sensor being damaged, but everything worked out.

Seasons first Aurora

The sun has been very active lately with several CMEs creating auroras around midnight in my hometown. It doesn't get dark until midnight, but then a green arc and some pillars were visible at times. The moonrise was beautiful too.

Prominence

 

It was partly cloudy and I took the opportunity to look through the solar telescope between the clouds and saw a nice prominence on the edge of the sun. I managed to take a photo before it got cloudy. The prominence is bigger than our planet Earth, a beautiful sight!

The Sun

 

Sunny days and the sun shows several sunspots and prominences. The images were taken with Ha and CaK filters, different wavelengths.

 

A CaK filter (Calcium K-line filter) is a specialized solar filter for telescopes that isolates light at a specific wavelength of 393.3 nm in the deep violet/near ultraviolet (UV) spectrum. The filter is used in astronomy to observe and photograph the sun, as it makes the lower chromosphere and the border region with the photosphere visible.

 

H-alpha solar filterH-alpha solar filterA H-alpha (Hydrogen-alpha) solar filter is a specialized and advanced optical system that isolates an extremely narrow light wavelength of 656.28 nanometers (nm), which makes it possible to safely observe the sun's chromosphere. Unlike regular white light solar filters, an H-alpha solar filter shows dramatic details such as prominences (gas clouds ejected from the edge), filaments, sunspots and solar flares.

Eruptions

 

2 eruptions on the sun's eastern edge today from groups 4478 & 4479. Otherwise a fairly calm sun on the disk but a new sunspot is in the works on the western edge as well as a beautiful prominence.

Great sunspots

Several sunspot groups with active areas. Many eruptions have occurred from these areas in the days, some strong, and have now created auroras as far south as +36 New Mexico. Here in Sweden it is far too bright right now for us to be able to see any auroras. Today's images were taken with CaK filter 394 nm which is in the border area between the photosphere, which is visible in white light, and the sun's chromosphere, which is reserved for narrow-band H-alpha filters. In addition to the structures known from white light, such as sunspots, the network of chromospheric flares distributed over the entire solar surface also becomes visible, which precedes the formation of sunspots, as well as supergranulation cells and Ellerman bombs.

Giant sunspot group

Active Region 4478 (AR 4478) is a giant sunspot group on the surface of the Sun that was discovered as it rotated forward on the eastern solar limb. This region has quickly gained attention as one of the largest sunspot groups in modern history, on par with the historic region AR 3664 from 2024. Characteristics and Size Enormous scale: The region spans an area significantly larger than planet Earth. It is so large that it can be seen with the naked eye if you wear approved solar eclipse glasses. Magnetic complexity: The sunspot group has been classified with the highest possible magnetic complexity (beta-gamma-delta). This means that its magnetic field lines are tightly entangled. Explosive potential: The complex magnetic structure means that AR 4478 carries enough energy to trigger powerful M-class and X-class solar flares.

Active Sun

 A really lovely view through the scope today! A lot of activity at the sun with some great prominences today.

Wonderful prominence

A beautiful view through the Ha solar filter the other day with a fantastic prominence at the eastern limb. 

Sunny Days

On sunny days, you want to take the opportunity to photograph the sun, which is quite active now with nice prominences on the edge of the sun and quite a lot of activity on the solar surface as well. All images from the Carpe Noctem Observatory and taken with a Ha solar filter.

The sun is the undisputed powerhouse of our solar system. Constantly fusing hydrogen into helium in its core, it radiates a staggering \(3.8 \times 10^{26}\) Joules of energy every single second. This output completely dwarfs human energy consumption, providing a nearly limitless engine for life on Earth

A prominence on the western edge of the sun is escaping into space. A prominence is a huge, arc-shaped cloud of hot gas and plasma held in place by the sun's strong magnetic field. If the magnetic field becomes unstable, the entire structure can rupture and be hurled into space at a speed of several million kilometers per hour. The image was taken on May 22, 2026 from the Carpe Noctem Observatory in Sweden. 

Solar Prominence

In solar physics, a prominence, sometimes referred to as a filament,[a] is a large plasma and magnetic field structure extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape. Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface in the much brighter photosphere, and extend outwards into the solar corona. While the corona consists of extremely hot plasma, prominences contain much cooler plasma, similar in composition to that of the chromosphere. Prominences form over timescales of about a day and may persist in the corona for several weeks or months, looping hundreds of thousands of kilometers into space. Some prominences may give rise to coronal mass ejections. Exact mechanism of prominence generation is an ongoing target of scientific research. A typical prominence extends over many thousands of kilometers; the largest on record was estimated at over 800,000 km (500,000 mi) long, roughly of solar radius. Photos taken back in 2022 using my Ha Solar filter and telescope.