Sunspot Drought

Filaments

When unexpected clear skies appeared early in the morning on June 30th I hurried to set up my solar telescope. It had been six weeks since I last imaged the Sun. With no wind, and temperature near 80 degrees, conditions were relatively pleasant. Good observing conditions are fleeting, however. By the time I was ready to record the first image thin clouds were spreading across the sky. During the next hour clouds thickened and I struggled to capture images through cloud gaps.

The Sun continues its slow journey toward sunspot minimum. On June 30th seven days had passed without any sunspots. The only visible features were a collection of filaments and a few modest prominences. Seeing was good, so the pictures below show nice detail even though many were recorded through thin clouds. The first image is a 28-panel mosaic (reduced to one third of its original size!) showing filaments on an otherwise bland surface. (Click on the images for larger views.) 

Next is a closer view of the filament group processed to increase contrast between bright and dark features.

The last image shows a prominence visible on the southeastern limb.

This observing session illustrated, once again, how hard it is to achieve excellent observing conditions. A perfect day would have good seeing, a variety of dramatic features on the Sun, and cloudless skies. June 30th had good seeing, but only relatively bland solar features seen through increasing clouds.