New Sunspot Cycle

Finally! A Decent Sunspot!

My solar telescope has been idle since last November's transit of Mercury. The Sun's Earth-facing surface has been spotless roughly 80 percent of the time over the past two years as the sunspot cycle minimum seems to go on forever. Recently, a few tiny sunspots have appeared with magnetic polarity indicating they belong in a new increasing sunspot cycle. On June 6 the first decent-sized sunspot of the new cycle had rotated into view. I was able to capture a quick image during a rapidly closing window of clear sky in gaps between clouds.

There was no wind as I set up my equipment, but clouds were increasing. I was soon soaked in sweat by the 89-degree humid conditions. There was time to record only three video clips before the window of clear sky between clouds closed. Unfortunately, the race to beat clouds made it impossible to fix the tilt adjuster and eliminate circular interference rings which appear in the image below.

Here is the best image of sunspot 2765 from three available candidates. The sunspot area shows good detail.

There was no time to make fine adjustments or capture more video frames. I had hoped to experiment with different cameras and Barlow lenses, but this was impossible. Being a bit out of practice with telescope setup didn't help.

I hope it won't be another seven months before my next solar imaging session.