The pillars and loops are prominences that result from the ionized solar material following magnetic field lines on the surface. Flares are explosions that occur when those magnetic field lines break and reconnect. So, flares are often seen where prominences are occurring, but they're not the same phenomenon.
Yeah it was crazy, we could all see a red dot with our bare eyes during totality and weren't sure what it was. Think it might've been a particularly bright solar flare!
Like this photo isn't even specially edited. I literally just brought down the highlights to get better definition on the beads because without that it looked more like the diamond ring. No artificial color enhancement or anything.
The most prominent red dot visible during totality was the big loop prominence that you have at 5 o'clock in your image here. On Monday night, I compared my pre-totality images with those from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and was able to use the sunspot clusters to match their orientation. The brightest of the red dots was right where the loop is.
Also from VT. We were wondering what the red spots we were seeing near the 5 o’clock position were. I had guessed they were flares, thanks for confirming.
For those that missed it, the flares & prominence were visible to the naked eye as red dots.
I missed the correct exposure during C2, but was able to get it around C3 as totality ended. Maybe that's why it's the reverse. I wasn't using a reflector though, not sure where/how that'd be used.
I suspect they're saying a reflector telescope, or other telescope arrangement, that flips the image. I'm also a bit confused because while I also immediately assumed you had a flipped image, others are agreeing it was a 5 o'clock dot. My images (with a standard camera and lens) and memory (eyeballs and binoculars) put the dot at the 7. My post-totality beads are also to the left rather than right.
But still, your image is amazingly crisp. I jealous I spent time making fuzzier images. Best one I've seen here yet, short of observatory equipment. I had a crop dslr with a 70-200 f/4
I don't have a higher res version (this was a crop from the full image that had a lot of blank sky) but if you want, I can run it through the Lightroom ai super resolution thing to make a higher res version for wallpaper. What ratio do you need? 16:10 or 16:9?