Our beautiful star keeps our planet alive; without it there would be no life. On this warm sunny day the viewing was very nice, with a calm atmosphere and no major turbulence. The view through the eyepiece was fantastic! There was a lot of activity on the solar surface with active areas around sunspots and larger filaments. On the edge of the sun there were fantastic prominences; they were significantly larger than our own planet.
Half-cloudy in the morning and I took the opportunity to look at the sun between the clouds. Quite turbulent atmosphere and a bit poor vision, but tried to photograph the entire solar disk with 5 images then stitched together in Photoshop. The first thing I noticed were all the filaments on the sun and a couple of nice prominences (now it's the same thing but from different angles).
A filament on the sun is a large, winding cloud of hot gas (plasma) that is held above the sun's surface by strong magnetic fields. Since the gas is slightly cooler than the surrounding sun's surface, they look like dark, thread-like structures when you photograph the sun straight ahead.
If the same phenomenon is seen from the side, at the edge of the sun, it is instead called a prominence and looks like a bright, reddish arc that extends into space.
You can see this at the bottom left of the sun where a filament disappears over the edge and a prominence becomes visible.
Otherwise, an active sun with areas of sunspots and a chance for solar storms.
Active regions on the Sun are temporary areas of intense, complex magnetic fields, often thousands of times stronger than the Sun's average magnetic field. They appear as dark sunspots in the photosphere and are the primary source of solar flares, coronal loops, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs)
Current Solar Activity (As of May 2026)As of May 14, 2026, multiple numbered active regions have been observed, including AR4436 and AR4438.Recent activity includes a strong M5.79 flare from region 4436 and associated radio blackouts.
Photos taken at Carpe Noctem Observatory.
