January Sunspots

Glorious Sunspot Display

The Sun's activity cycle has now reached a maximum. Sadly, I haven't done any solar imaging for the past three months. Most days have been cloudy. There have been a few frigid clear days, but almost every one was accompanied by strong winds of 12 miles per hour with stronger gusts. Gusts shake my telescope and blow my light-shielded laptop off the observing table. Finally, on January 17th, clear sky arrived with no wind. The temperature was about 42 degrees, much better than recent temperatures near freezing. Five sunspot groups were spread across the Sun.

The following 12-panel mosaic shows the sunspot distribution.

The next image is a cropped section from the mosaic above. From left to right across the top are sunspots 3965, 3962, and the large umbra of spot 3959. From left to right across the bottom are complex sunspot groups 3961 and 3964. This image can be viewed at 100 percent size with no loss of detail.

After capturing videos for the large mosaic above, I captured two more to construct the next 2-panel mosaic of the northeast quadrant containing four of the five sunspot groups. Click on the image to see  good detail in the full size image at 100 percent. The complicated, multi-umbra structure of lower sunspot 3961 is remarkable.

Now inspect individual sunspot portraits. The split umbra of sunspot 3959 below is interesting. Click on the image to enlarge and notice the strange fork-like dark filament whose "tines" point toward the umbra.

Again, click to enlarge complicated sunspot 3961 shown below. I can see seven individual umbras with possibly more not fully dark ones among the magnetic arches reaching across the white active areas beneath. A dramatic dark filament arch on the left adds to the scene.

In the lower right below sunspot 3964 shows a structure somewhat similar to 3961 above, but not quite as dramatic. Notice the white active area penetrating the right umbra like a piercing arrow. 

Finally, some prominences were visible around the solar limb. I processed the 12-panel mosaic above to show a few.

Although seeing wasn't particularly good for this session, I was pleased by the amount of detail available in the images above.