Winter Sun

Earliest Images Yet!

I've never captured solar images in February because the low winter Sun has always been blocked by trees and houses at my Lynchburg observing site. Now, my new unobstructed site in Williamsburg makes year round observing possible. On February 24th the sky was beautifully clear, and afternoon temperatures reached the mid 50's. The gusty breeze was a bit too strong, but it seemed like a good day to use my telescope for the first time in Williamsburg.

It took longer than usual to set up because I hadn't yet painted alignment marks for the tripod legs. After leveling the mount and pointing it north, the initial slew to the Sun was inaccurate mostly in elevation. I adjusted the mount and quickly centered the Sun in the eyepiece. The first video clip was obtained at about 2:40 pm! Observing at 2:40 pm was always impossible at my old site because the Sun was inevitably behind tree branches then. So I began my first imaging session with the Sun west of the meridian. Seeing conditions were mediocre. Frequent strong wind gusts blew some of my equipment around.

A few modest sunspots were scattered across the solar disc. The first image below shows active region 1987 to the right of center, sunspot 1989 near top center, and emerging sunspot 1990 near the Sun's limb at lower left. Sunspot 1990 was returning for its third trip across the Sun after spending almost two weeks rotating around the side facing away from Earth. It was called 1944 on its first trip and 1967 on its second trip. Click on the image for a larger view.

The next image shows a large complex active area with many small sunspots. The largest one on the left is 1982, and the one on the far right is 1981. This group looked more dramatic in white light images than it did in hydrogen-alpha. Click on the image for a larger view.

I'm looking forward to getting more efficient at my new observing site and taking full advantage of improved conditions there. I'm particularly curious about seeing conditions. So far it's been windy almost every day. It's too early to tell if wind will be a year round problem.