One of the things that surprised and amazed me during totality of the solar eclipse was a bright pink spot on the lower edge of the Moon that I could see naked eye. At first, I thought maybe it was the diamond ring effect, but it was not – it was a solar prominence! And when I looked at my pictures, I discovered that it was one of several.
Solar prominences are loops of plasma that are anchored to the sun’s surface and extend out into the sun’s corona, following the local magnetic field. The plasma is made of electrically charged hydrogen and helium. Hot hydrogen emits red light, which is why they appear pink.
Since we are close to the maximum of the solar sunspot cycle (solar max is expected to occur within the next year), there happened to be a lot of prominences for this eclipse. So cool!
These pictures show the solar prominences during totality and the diamond ring effect where the sun emerges at the end of totality.
Camera geek info for corona pictures:
- Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 1/200 second exposure, ISO 100
- Intervalometer
- Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
- Williams Optics Flat 73A
- Sky-Watcher SolarQuest HelioFind tracking mount and tripod
Processing geek info:
- PixInsight
Space&Aliens 
Great photos. It was cloudy here, but there were enough gaps to see the entire eclipse, except for totality. A big cloud moved in for that. But all the effects of the totality (dark and cool) were evident. I’m glad you got so many good shots.
Thanks! Sorry you had clouds. That happened to us in 2017 (it actually rained on us!).