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[Paulie pchris00]

ALWAYS USE CAUTION WHEN OBSERVING THE SUN

The Endtimes/Groundhog Day blizzard of 2011 left us with clear skies Wednesday night, until after midnight Thursday morning. I spent about an hour observing until the clouds rolled in, along with a deep freeze. Thursday was cold, but skies were very clear during the day as I finished the job of digging out. Once I had an observing pad cleared on the back patio, I set up my 60mm refractor to observe the solar disk. I had checked the current visible light Sun image in the morning, but had overlooked a small sunspot group forming. I expected to see a blank disk, and at first glance, that is what I saw. Looking a little closer, I noticed a dark spot on the projected image. I assumed that it could be a speck of dust on either the primary lens or the eyepiece. Out of curiosity, I checked the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory image from that morning again, discovering that I had missed a small sunspot. I forgot to save a copy of that image before refreshing it, but still noticed that the pair had grown slightly over about six hours.




Observing Thursday afternoon.












Thursday afternoon's SDO visible light image.


Leaving work Friday morning, the Sun was just over the horizon, and while waiting for my car to warm up, I set up my little telescope for another look at the Sun. I found that my sunspot had split into a pair. The sky remained clear, but I needed to sleep. When I woke up I had to hurry to get ready to leave. Hillary and I were going to meet some people for coffee, and I wanted to catch the day old Moon before I left. I hadn’t checked the status of the sunspots online either.






Once the Sun was above the tree, I noticed the sunspot from Thursday had split into two sunspots.




From SDO Friday morning.


Saturday morning was cloudy, and Hillary had been waiting for The Gary Railcats 2011 Fanfest since their season ended last September. Finally the day arrived, so after the recent harsh winter weather, it was good to think about baseball. By the time the event ended, the sky was clearing, with almost two more hours until sunset. Before we left the hotel, I set up my scope and looked for my sunspots again, but couldn’t find any evidence of them. It had been nearly 33 hours since I’d observed the Sun, so I don’t know what happened to them. I checked the most recent SDO image when I got home, which confirmed that the sunspots I’d been tracking were gone, but another sunspot system was developing above the solar equator.




SDO Saturday. The sunspot group I was first tracking has disappeared, but a new group has formed.


The new system is past the central meridian, so there won’t be many days for observing it. Sunday and Monday were cloudy, and we aren’t expected to see the Sun again until Wednesday. If we happen to get a little sunshine in the next few days, I will track the evolution of this pair until they turn the solar limb.



For tips on safe solar observing, check the links below.

Filtered:

www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/sun/3304056.html?page=1&c=y


Projection:

www.eaas.co.uk/news/solar_observing.html

[patrickm]

The trees make it look like capillaries on an eyeball. Cool!!

Someday I will SAFELY see the sun. :-)

Thanks for sharing.

[patrickm]

Keep an eye out for Sunspot 1153 & the nearby coronal hole!

[Paulie pchris00]

Sorry Patrick. I know I keep reiterating safe solar viewing, but I don't know who might be reading these posts, so I have to err on the side of caution. I would feel terrible if somebody tried to view sunspots through an unfiltered telescope. I'd feel even worse if Joe or I were named defendants in a negligence lawsuit because somebody read one of my posts here, and tried solar observing improperly. The warnings will continue in my threads of solar observations.

Sunspot Observing Continued

I have only been observing sunspots regularly since December, and I haven’t had many chances to observe multiple times in any given week. My first few attempts showed sunspots that didn’t change much before they turned the Sun’s limb. Now I’m learning how quickly sunspots can form, evolve, and disappear in only a few days.

Tuesday we had some unexpected sunshine, so I was back outside observing sunspots. The sunspot I’d seen Saturday had grown, and there were at least two other spots to the upper left of it, but the system was too near the limb for good observation. SDO images showed two new sets of sunspots emerging, but I did not directly observe them.











From SDO, 2-8-2011, 5 PM CST.


Wednesday was again sunny, but I slept all day, so I did not observe. Thursday, however, I was anxious to see the solar disk again. Tuesday’s large sunspot region near the western limb had rotated out of view, but SDO images from Thursday morning showed the two regions from Tuesday still active. I observed in the late morning, and early afternoon, but neither time did I notice the upper sunspot region. Even from SDO images, it’s unclear to me whether or not that region was fading, or if it is just too small for my simple solar set-up to detect. The lower region stood out, but barely. I’m training myself to look very carefully for any sunspots, because only the biggest truly jump right out at a glance.




From SDO, 2-10-2011, 2 PM CST.


Observations made daily, or every other day are insufficient to see exactly how each set of sunspots evolves, but repeated observations give a hint as to what is going on inside the interior and on the surface of our star. I should also try to pay more attention to some of the data from other wavelengths by SDO. Still, even my simple observations have me wondering how each sunspot, or sunspot group will change from day to day.


Not Again!

Okay, I see I am having issues again with photobucket. None of the SDO images are posting, but they are showing up on my blog.

pchris00pnc.blogspot.com/2011/02/sunspot-observing-february-3-5.html

I have not posted this update to my blog yet.

To view the images straight from my photobucket account, click on this album.

s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii157/pchris00/2011-2-3-10%20Sunspot%20Observing/

I apologize for the inconvenience.

Okay, I hate to redirect readers, but all images are now included on my blog post.

pchris00pnc.blogspot.com/2011/02/sunspot-observing-february-3-10_11.html

[patrickm]

Paulie,
I understand. I wasn't being a smart ass. Just chiming in.

Thanks for the posts. Keep 'em coming.
P

[Paulie pchris00]

BTW, the coronal hole I can't see, but did catch some SDO images.

I have looked all for sources listing the official sunspot numbers in images, but have not found anything. Does anybody know a site where where that information can be found? Space.com? Spaceweather? Am I answering my own question?

Patrick, we'll try to do a solar session sometime soon. In the meantime, maybe keep an eye out for a small refractor (or any small scope at a reasonable price) to try projection, or use some Baader film. I'm going to have to invest in Baader film myself soon, and I'm still dying to see the Sun in H-Alpha, but even H-A filters are well outside my price range. Once I have Baader film, I will probably use it to mask the little scope I've been using for projection, and have it as a true solar scope. I don't trust the film enough (at least right now) to try on either of my reflectors. I think 60mm should be plenty of aperture for solar observing.

And in case you missed it, the February S&T had some good articles about the Sun, from SDO observations, to amateur imaging, and even amateur radio solar astronomy.

[patrickm]

Paulie,
I get my info off an app called 3D Sun, but I reckon you can find 'em on spaceweather.com somewhere.


Here's a shot of the Earth-facing side:


And here's the back side:


Here's their prediction for aurora on VD:



I love this app. It alerts me whenever there's new activity and I get a 24/7 view that as of last week is now 360deg! Sometimes I love living in the future.

As I want to be able to view prominences even more than sun spots, I have a Coronado on my medium term wish list. Not excited about solar film on a compound scope.

Keep the reports coming. I, at least, am enjoying them. Not sure when I'll be back home next. All up in the air with Mom's health.
p

[patrickm]

"Old sunspot complex 1147-1149 is returning to the Earth-side of the sun, and it is firing plasma bullets."
bit.ly/dPvd4b
3DSun.org/

[Paulie pchris00]

Patrick, that is a cool app. I think you showed it to me the last time we were over. Just had another look at the Sun about an hour ago and saw the best sunspots I've ever seen. I'll try to post my own pictures later, but for now I will just give the SDO visible light image from today at 1PM CST.

Attachments:

[patrickm]

Biggest CME of this cycle is headed our way. Clear skies may get y'all aurora soon. Keep any eye on the skies!

[hillimolly]

paulie, I like the picture of the sunspot.