Beautiful Day

Finally! Some Sunspots!

High thin clouds marred a perfect sky on April12th. The Sun had been mostly blank for two previous weeks, and clouds were forecast for many days in the future. So April 12th was an observing opportunity I couldn't afford to pass up. It was a beautiful day with comfortable 65 degree temperature and good seeing.

Significant sunspot group 2321 had just rotated into view around the Sun's eastern limb. The following picture is a 2-image mosaic made with a 2X Barlow lens. Sunspot group 2321 is on the left closest to the limb, and a small sunspot pair, named 2322, is near the right edge.

Small sunspots approaching the Sun's western limb were accompanied by a number of filaments. These spots would soon rotate out of view. The following 5-image mosaic shows 2323 on the left, and 2320 on the right.

These images seem a bit washed out to me. I expected sharper detail because the seeing was good. Perhaps intermittent high thin clouds caused some degradation.