"Our otherwise quiet sun had a stormy five-hour fiesta during the early hours of Tuesday (Oct. 26)." This is interesting. Today I enjoyed some solar observing using my glass, white light solar filter. Quite a bit to see on the Sun. From my stargazing log.
[Observed 1015-1045 EDT/1415-1445 UT using glass white light solar filter and 90-mm refractor telescope on Vixen Porta II altazimuth mount. The Orion dovetail plate and 90-mm tube rings work every well with this mount. Easy to control and keep the Sun centered, easy to adjust as the Sun moves across the field of view. From spaceweather.com, "Growing sunspot AR2887 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI" My notes, 5 active regions visible on the Sun today. AR2887 and AR2886 still as large as Earth or a bit larger size. 4 small dark cores visible at AR2889, distinct. Two dark cores visible at AR2890. AR2887, multiple dark cores visible. Noticeable plage areas at AR2888, AR2889, AR2887, and AR2890. Very distinct and easy to see using #12 yellow filter at 40x using the Orion Sirius 25-mm plossl eyepiece. The Moon waning gibbous in Gemini. At 40x, my telescope resolved ~ 7.5 arcsecond. At the Sun's distance of 0.994 au, ~ 5407 km diameter. 1 arcsecond resolution on the Sun ~ 721 km. Earth size ~ 17.5 arcsecond. The Sun's angular size ~ 32.18 arcminutes. The Moon's angular size ~ 29.79 arcminutes (Virtual Moon Atlas). Winds from the WNW picking up with gust 27 knots, so I packed up viewing
and came back in. Cumulus clouds raced past the Sun while viewing. NWS reports winds aloft in my area 3,000 to 9,000 feet, NW at 25-35 knots. Temperature 16C while viewing this morning.]
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram