Finally! No Clouds!

May Sun

After more than four weeks of clouds, rain,and strong wind, a perfect crystal clear day for solar imaging finally arrived on May 11th! An extremely large sunspot group, number 1476, was centered on the Sun's disk facing directly toward Earth and threatening to send eruptions in our direction at any time. During more than three hours observing I captured 142 video clips, each yielding a single image after processing. About 120 of these images will eventually become frames in a movie of sunspot group 1476. It will take several days to produce this movie. In the meantime check out some of the nice still images I was able to get on this lovely May day.

First is a panorama composed of three separate images showing the complex structure in sunspot group 1476.

Sunspot group 1476 (Click for full detail.)

Here's another panorama, this time composed from seven separate images, showing sunspot group 1476 almost centered on the Sun's disk. This is the first time I've been able to construct a decent panorama spanning the entire width of the Sun while using my 2X Barlow lens. Apparently, the image below cannot be expanded to its full 4015 pixel width within this blog format. It's a shame the enormous detail present can't be viewed.

Sunspot group 1476 on the solar disk (Click for a somewhat bigger image.)

Two other small sunspots were also present accompanied by a pair of filaments shown below in a mosaic made from four individual images.

Sunspots 1478 (lower) and 1477 (upper) and two filaments (Click for full size.)

Finally, I was able to capture a bright triangular prominence on the Sun's limb.

A beautiful flame-like prominence (Click for full detail.)

Now I have 120 video clips to process over the next few days. These will, I hope, ultimately produce a movie showing two hours of activity in sunspot group 1476. This movie may appear in my next post if it is not too large to upload.