PST 40 8mm eyepiece Pastels and charcoal on black card.
An experimental sketch to capture detail on the solar disc.
10:45 UT December 6th 2010 - I was thrilled to see such a huge well structured filament on the sun. It arced upward from the solar surface and whipped over the south limb with powerful visual action. The filament seemed to be anchored to the sun by many many fine lines which appeared dark against the solar disc in h alpha . These fine power packed solar lines continued within the arc over the limb looking like a solar waterfall against the blackness of space. This filaprom was over 700,000 km long , that is enormous.
You can follow the sun, this filament and its adventures here
on the Solar Dynamics Laboratory website or on Spaceweather.com
Eclipse begins at 06:32 , mid eclipse is at 08:17 , the moon sets at 08:55. This will be a difficult observation as the moon will be very low to the horizon but as there will not be another one till 2015 it might be worth a look. Listen to Jane's What's Up for December for a good explaination of a lunar eclipse.