This image of the Sun was taken on August 1, 2012 at 1:02 pm, with a red-light (hydrogen-alpha) telescope.
Several dark sunspots and brighter plages (or clouds of gas in the Sun's atmosphere) dot the disk.
On the left, a dark filament snakes across the Sun. It's an arch of gas above the Sun, following a magnetic loop. Interestingly, the filament runs off the edge of the Sun as we see it, making a small prominence. It is rare to see a filament connected to a prominence. However, they are the same phenomenon: a filament is a prominence seen from above. This image illustrates that they are the same.
Telescope: Lunt 60mm Hydrogen-alpha
Camera: Lumenera SKYnyx2-2M
Image Number: WEB12562-2012
Credit: Image by Geneviève de Messières, Smithsonian Public Observatory Project
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