Mid-June Sun

Modest Sunspots

Good days for solar observing have been rare recently. When June 15th dawned warm and clear I quickly set up my telescope. Adjustments made to the mount and tripod during my last observing session apparently worked because the initial slew put the Sun near eyepiece center. Seeing was fairly good, and, happily, June 15th was the first observing day of 2013 without wind. The Sun was relatively quiet with modest sunspots, but there were some nice prominences and filaments.

This 15-image mosaic, made with a 1.5X Barlow lens, shows the Sun's Earth-facing side on June 15th.

(Click for full detail.)

The inverted version highlights cloud-like filaments above the disc.

Features on the left side of the disc, the Sun's eastern side, are rotating into view as the Sun turns. The following 7-image mosaic, made with a 2X Barlow lens, shows these recently visible features, including sunspot 1769 near image center.

(Click for full detail.)

Next is a larger view of sunspot 1769 and its immediate surroundings, first in a standard image, and then with an inverted image.

Although sunspots on June 15th were not spectacular, there was a nice array of prominences around the Sun's eastern and southern limbs as shown in the following 7-image mosaics made with a 2X Barlow lens. The first prominence image is shown in the actual color seen through the solar telescope. The second image is shown in yellow. Which color do you like best? These prominence images really need to be seen at full size to appreciate the detail present. Click on the images to get more detail.

Sunspot pair 1768 was departing on the Sun's western side. The next image is a magnified view taken with a 5X Barlow lens. It's the best image I've been able to obtain with the 5X Barlow so far. Seeing conditions must be good to get decent images with the 5X Barlow.

Finally, here is a wider field, inverted, 4-image mosaic of sunspot 1768, made with a 2X Barlow lens, showing the sunspot pair, (the white dots), and some nearby filaments.