Sky this Week

White light solar image of NOAA region 11024 from about 3 pm this afternoon. The principal spot (on right) appears to have split since yesterday. Follower spot (on left) has grown a fair amount. Most of the nterior spots between leader and follower have disappeared. So solar fans, what is the McIntosh classification for this region today? (yesterday it was Eai).

Image taken with Nexstar11 scope with DMK21AU04.AS video camera (1/10000 sec at 60 fps) at cassegrain focus. Aligned & stacked with Registax5. Clear skies, temp. 93F, 5mph wind, turbulence about 6/10.

Checkout the interactive solarmap at my other website. You may now select a date from Jan 2, 1996 to present and see what regions were visible on the Sun on that date. (Note that the Drupal date popup module that I used annoyingly requires that you actually click on date rather than just typing it in). For example select June 1, 2000 and you’ll see quite a few more regions listed than you do now at solar minimum.

Sun from around 11 am in h-alpha. A couple nice prominences visible on NW and SW limb. Its been a long while since I’ve done h-alpha. I seem to forgotten most of the processing required. Nonetheless here it is. Solarscope halpha scope and DMK21AF04.AS video camera. Aligned and stacked with Registax5, compositted and false colored in Photoshop.

Nice loop prominence was visible on the sun’s southwest limb.

Image taken with Solarscope Ltd. 50mm h-alpha telescope, Televue 2.5X Powermate, DMK 21AF04.AS camera 1/82 sec, 60 fps. Sky was clear, 5 mph wind, temperature 68 °F, turbulence about 6/10, transparency very good, location Louisville, CO.