Spotless Sun

Well, Almost Spotless

Sunspots were rare in September. On September 14th the Sun looked almost blank in white light, with only one tiny, inconspicuous sunspot visible. Fortunately, more details can be seen in the narrow spectral band of my solar telescope.

When a beautifully clear, cool, low humidity day comes along at this time of year, it's an opportunity for comfortable solar observing that I can't pass up, even if there are no interesting sunspots. So I imaged some filaments and prominences and enjoyed the weather. The first image below is a 19-image mosaic, made with a 2X Barlow lens. It shows the southern hemisphere of the solar disc. Solitary sunspot 1841 is a dark dot left of center. Some nice filaments are visible.

Click for more detail.

The next picture, a 12-image mosaic, shows filaments on display in the middle of the solar disc.

The inverted version of the previous image is next. The filament at the bottom right exhibits a nice "float".

The Sun's western half had the most features, including two nice prominences displayed near the top of this 6-image mosaic.

Here are the two prominences in yellow.

I hope to see more sunspots soon.