Pavol Rapavý and Daniela Rapavá

Observations of the Sunat the Rimavská Sobota Observatory

Astronomical Observatory Tomašovská 63

979 01 Rimavská SobotaSlovakia

http://www.astrors.szm.sk

• Rimavská Sobota is a small town in the southern part of Slovakia; the observatory was founded in 1975, it belongs to the cultural institutions in the Slovak Republic. Its primary goal is education and the popularization of astronomy.

• Professional activities: the Sun, occultations, eclipses, interplanetary matter, photographs for popularization.

Solar observations

There are more than 5900 drawings of the solar photosphere (Coude refractor 150/2250, magnification 56x, projection, the diameter of the drawing: 25 cm). Daily observations of the Sun are sent online to SIDC on a daily basis, to Sonne on a monthly basis, and to the national coordinators (Prešov – Slovak Republic, Valašské Meziříčí – Czech Republic).

In the past there we had the following observation programs:Photographic observations (RC 150/2250, ORWO DU 2 or 3 plate 9x12 cm, the diameter of the solar disc: 8 cm)Sudden Enhancements of Atmospherics (10, 27, 30 kHz) published in SGD.Photographs of sunspot details (RC 150/2250, ORWO MA8, 24x36mm, the diameter of the solar disc: 25 cm).

Since 2003 the details of sunspots and prominences are observed using a CCD camera (donated by the firm SoftHard Technology).

We cooperate on the observations with the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.An archive of digital images is in preparation.

CCD camera SHT 1.3

- 1280 x 1024 px 6,7 x 6,7μm- 8,6 x 6,9 mm- chip Sony ICX085AL- Peltier, stabil. +10°C- 8/16 bit, YMMDD_HHMMSS_sss.tif- framegraber Shark (PCI karta)- C-mount- M42- live regime max. 12,5 fr/s- outreading 1s/ 0,3 s (in memory)- connection fw cable (data, driving )

Full disc

- Sonnar 4/300 + TK2, fef = 600 mm- = 1,52´´- Baader Astrosolar sheet (visual)- field of view 0,66 x 0,82°- resolution 2,3’’/px- exp. time ~ 10 ms

flat field

Details

- 160/2450 + 2x Barlow- fef = 4900 mm- = 0,7´´- Baader Astrosolar sheet (photo)- objective dethermal orange filter- field of view 4,8´x 6,0´- resolution 0,28´´/px- exp. time ~ 3 ms

Details - animations

Prominences

- 110/1200 (Gajdušek,Otavský, Kozelský)- fef = 1800 mm- = 0,1´´- Baader H filter (656,3 nm), bandwidth 0,4 nm- field of view 13´x 16´- resolution 0,8”/px- exp. time ~ 13 ms- all disc = composition 9 x 40°

Eruptive prominences PA 275, July 27,2005, 09:39-12:24 UT

Prominences - animations

Popularisation