Baby Sunspots

Mild July Weather

On July 29th the jet stream dipped far to the south and brought unusually cool weather to Virginia. I observed the Sun in relative comfort on a day normally unbearably hot and humid. Seeing conditions were mediocre, but puffs of breeze helped diminish any discomfort from sitting in bright afternoon sunlight. The Sun had been almost entirely featureless for quite a few days. On the 29th it finally displayed small emerging sunspots and a couple of nice filaments.

The following 20-image mosaic shows the arrangement of solar features. To the right of center two modest sunspots sit below a broad two-dash filament. At lower left four small sunspots have rotated into view. Two giant dark filaments grace the left half of the Sun. (Click on the image for a larger view.) White active areas are a bit overexposed. I should have chosen different camera settings to avoid this.

The inverted version below came out nicely. Overexposed areas are black here, so they don't stand out as much as overexposed white areas did in the previous image.

All sunspots were relatively small since, like babies, they just recently formed. The following 6-image mosaic shows the eastern part of the Sun where four newly emerged sunspots are visible.

The huge snake-like prominence above center in the previous picture is quite striking.

I experimented with colors while constructing this next image of the inverted, floating, curving filament and nearby limb features.

The other major filament on the Sun's eastern half was also in good contrast.

Next is the inverted version of the previous picture.

Two nice prominences were also on display.

I took these images while a huge roaring dump truck delivered several loads of topsoil to the newly constructed house next door. Soon the construction will end, and I'll observe in peace.