Thanksgiving Hikes

November Shore

Our unusual family Thanksgiving gathering this year took place near the ocean in Corolla, NC. Although there seemed to be fewer people present at this late autumn date compared to summer, the traffic on Route 12 was still significant. Shortly after arrival at our rental house on November 24th we headed out into cold air for a hike to the beach. As we left the driveway a low altitude afternoon Sun illuminated decorative grass near the street. 

The ocean was definitely not very inviting on this cold, windy day.

Rough surf differed from typically calm summer conditions. Slogging north up the mostly deserted beach into a strong chilly headwind drained my stamina. By the time we returned home I was ready to sit in a warm house.

Before the customary Thanksgiving dinner on November 25th we took another longer hike on the nearby Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary Nature Trail. Stunted deformed trees on both sides of the trail shielded us from wind. This trail would be great for running in fall or winter, but would likely be swarming with flies in summer.

Sunlight penetrated to isolated patches on the forest floor. One sunbeam landed on a single mushroom sprouting from a clump of moss. 

A ground-hugging vine had evenly spaced alternating leaves.

We came upon an unexpected small paved airstrip running parallel to the trail. No planes, hangers, or facilities were present. While exploring the airstrip Keegan, Sophie, Ellen, and their friends climbed onto one of the tree branches for a photo. 

Further along the trail was a side path leading to a viewing stand overlooking Currituck Sound. The panoramic image below shows the scene with afternoon sun reflected from the water. (Click on the image for a larger, better view.)

Ellen searched the horizon with binoculars while the kids had fun with cattails. 

The trail continued on beyond the overlook for quite a distance. Unfortunately, my energy level was nearing empty. This seems to be happening more frequently these days. So we turned around and returned to the trailhead. Although calories were burned on the hike, I'm sure many more were consumed at Thanksgiving dinner later that day!

Three Sunspots

Mild November Conditions

November 10th was the final day of a rare three-day stretch of cloudless weather in Williamsburg! Just after noon soft breezes and a temperature of 71 degrees lured me outside to image the Sun. Three small sunspots were arranged in a disc-spanning triangle. A few modest prominences decorated the rim.

I screwed a ZWO 1600 camera directly to the blocking filter diagonal of my Lunt 100 mm solar telescope. The 1600 imaging chip is big enough to capture the entire solar disc at prime focus. In this prime focus configuration (with no magnifying Barlow lens) the full disc image is obtained all at once and doesn't require assembling separate panels into a mosaic. The chip is so big I could define a small portion as a region of interest large enough to include the whole Sun. The first image below shows the full disc and prominences captured by the 1600 camera. You need to enlarge the image by clicking on it in order to properly see all the details.In my experience the 1600 camera has never been good for solar imaging. The chip doesn't seem to have a uniform response over its entire surface. The effect isn't apparent in the previous image because I was able to put the Sun's image on part of the chip where the nonuniform response was minimal.

Separate images of the three sunspots were made with ZWO 174 camera and 3X Barlow lens. First, southern hemisphere sunspot 2894 featured a split umbra and accompanying curved dark filament.Next, solitary sunspot 2893 was nearly ready to rotate out of sight around the western solar limb.Finally, sunspot 2895  displayed only tiny, nearly indistinguishable umbras in the next image. 

November 10th wasn't a particularly dramatic day for solar features, but it's nice to see even modest activity after recent years of featureless Sun!

Giant Prominence

Solar Limb Action

Solar activity is increasing slightly quicker than expected. On October 2nd observing conditions were too good to pass up. Not even one cloud appeared in the blue sky, and the temperature hovered near 70 degrees. During the first look through the eyepiece of my solar telescope I was surprised to see one of the largest, brightest prominences I've ever observed! It arched high above the limb as you can see in the first image below.

One sunspot group was visible on the disc, but prominence action around the limb was more interesting on this day. The next picture is a 5-panel mosaic showing the western limb. (Click on the images to see more detail in expanded views.) 

Another nice prominence on the southeastern limb is shown in the following 6-panel mosaic.

The prominence in the southeast was near a small filament shown in the next image. 

A nice sunspot group called 2880 was nearly centered in the Sun's northern hemisphere. Click on the next image to enlarge it. Notice the s-shaped light bridge dividing the umbra on the right.

The light bridge is a region of lower magnetic field compared to magnetic field in the darker neighboring umbra. The weaker field allows more convection of hotter material from below, so the light bridge appears brighter than the cooler, darker umbra. The appearance of light bridges in an umbra usually signals the decay of a sunspot. Next is another view of sunspot 2880 in red light not specifically from excited hydrogen gas. The light bridge seems even more striking here. 

Sunspot 2877 was about to rotate out of view near the western edge of the Sun's disc. Although almost unnoticeable in the first 5-panel mosaic image above, it shows up clearly in the next red light image.

I'm still looking for a way to get better flat field images to eliminate brightness variations across my images.
 

Multiple Sunspots

Solar Activity

Light pollution from neighboring houses makes telescopic observing at night from my back yard nearly impossible. An additional obstacle has recently appeared. Milky white haze from western wildfire smoke blankets the sky. Each night I try using a telescope I'm reminded of why I decided to do solar observing during the day.

During morning daylight on September 10th haze and neighboring spotlights still(!) shining into my yard had no effect on the Sun! Conditions were excellent, with only a few small widely scattered clouds, a gentle puffing breeze, and temperatures ranging from 66 to 71 degrees. Three days earlier solar features were more impressive and well placed. By the time I could observe on the 10th, solar rotation had carried some sunspots around the western limb out of view. A large, complex sunspot group was still visible, however, along with other interesting features.

All sunspots were located in the western solar hemisphere as can be seen in the following 11-panel mosaic. (Click on images for larger views.)

Active areas 2868, 2866, and 2869 occupy the bottom right quadrant above. Departing sunspot 2864 and some dark filaments sit in the top right quadrant. Let's take a closer look at these regions. The next image shows sunspot 2864 and some dark filaments.The previous image shows no rim spicules or prominences because it was processed to show disk detail. The next image overexposes the disk but shows nice features on the rim.

The next two images show filaments to the left of sunspot 2864. A normal view is followed by an inverted image that emphasizes the floating, cloud-like nature of filaments.

The large collection of sunspots in the southern hemisphere is shown in the next picture which is a combination of two images - one to show disk detail, and another to show the prominence.

There appear to be four obvious umbras in the image above. Near the bottom a smaller active area apparently has no obvious umbra.

All previous images were made by recording almost perfectly monochromatic red light with a wavelength of 656.28 nanometers. This particular red color is emitted by excited hydrogen atoms in the Sun's chromosphere. I tune the filter in my solar telescope to specifically transmit only this one wavelength. So the previous images show what hydrogen gas is doing in the layer of the Sun where the temperature and density have the right values to produce this particular excitation in hydrogen.

If I tune the filter so it transmits some other wavelength besides exactly 656.28 nanometers, the light my camera records will no longer come mostly from excited hydrogen. Instead, the camera will record red light capable of leaving the Sun from any thermally emitting solar material. In fact, the camera will record red light coming from the solar photosphere, the layer beneath the chromosphere. The photosphere emits a continuous spectrum of all colors which appears yellowish-white to our eyes. When the filter is tuned away from the 656.28 nanometer wavelength, the camera will record a red portion of this overall continuous solar spectrum.

The next image shows how the sunspots look when the filter is tuned away from 656.28 nanometers. Notice how many different umbras are visible, including several small ones in the lower active area. It's really a complicated arrangement of umbras! Notice also the mottled appearance of the solar disk not occupied by sunspots. This is caused by unresolved solar granules - columns of rising and falling gas in the photosphere. Unfortunately, some dark vertical stripes appear in the image which could not be removed because I failed to take a flat field for this image.Although there were no impressive features in the Sun's eastern hemisphere, there was one interesting small prominence appearing in the last image below. Notice how this prominence is blending into a faint filament as the Sun rotates.

I was surprised to see how well the photosphere showed up when I tuned the filter away from the hydrogen spectral line. I'm going to try this more often in the future.
 

Solar Flare

Lucky Timing

On July 3rd it had been more than two months since my last solar imaging session. Conditions were unusually nice for a July morning! Humidity was low, skies were clear, a modest breeze blew away annoying insects, and temperature ranged in the low 70's. Summer mornings in Williamsburg are rarely clear and clouds inevitably increase near noon. By 11:00 AM clouds put an end to my observing opportunity. The satellite view below shows the temporary clear viewing window for southeastern Virginia. One major sunspot and a few filaments appeared on the Sun's disc as you can see in the next full-disc mosaic constructed from 21 individual panels.

Sunspot 2835 appears on the right in the Sun's southern hemisphere. It is accompanied by three floating filaments. In center, above the equator is an active area numbered 2837. Also in the northern hemisphere, on the right, near the limb, is a filament. To this filament's right, almost on the rim itself is sunspot 2838 just before emitting a flare. (Click on the image to get a larger view with better detail.) 

The previous mosaic was processed to show details on the disc so rim details are not visible. The next mosaic was processed to show prominences and spicules around the rim.When the previous disc mosaic is inverted positive to negative, the floating nature of the filaments becomes more apparent. Once again, you should enlarge these images to see the best detail.

I used my Hinode solar guider while capturing all individual images here. It prevented image drift caused by imperfect tracking. Let's take a closer look at some features. Active area 2837 did not display a visible sunspot umbra, but you can see white areas of higher energy emission around the slightly disturbed surface. 

Large sunspot 2835 was better placed near center on the solar disc a few days earlier. On July 3rd 2835 was diminishing, approaching the western limb, and soon to rotate out of sight. A white area of energetic emission is left of the umbra. A nice prominence sat on the limb nearby. I had to combine two images to make the prominence visible. The image showing sunspot detail did not show the prominence. The image showing the prominence overexposed the sunspot. Combining the images makes a nice scene.

Now we come to the solar flare! The explosion happened in a small, relatively inconspicuous developing sunspot numbered 2838 very close to the northwestern limb. In the next image, captured before the flare at 9:58 AM EDT, sunspot 2838 is a small white area on the Sun's limb to the lower right of the dark filament. 

Things had changed 36 minutes after the previous image was obtained! When I returned to get another image at 10:35 AM EDT, I saw an extremely bright overexposed area bursting out of the sunspot! Sometimes the timing is lucky!

Although the small eruption doesn't look very dramatic, it was the most powerful solar flare observed in four years! It caused magnetic field fluctuations on Earth and a shortwave radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean. Flare strength is described on a scale that measures x-ray brightness. The flare above was classed as an X1.5 flare, at the lower end of the most powerful type. It's always a surprise to see rapid change on the Sun in real time! The flare was extremely bright on my laptop screen.
 

At The Beach

Outer Banks 2021

Our annual trip to the North Carolina shore was a week later than last year. Traffic was incredibly heavy on Route 12 as we neared our rented house. It took 50 minutes to cover the final 2.5 miles! Cars, frozen in place, stretched as far as we could see. Some enterprising kids were selling frozen ice pops and handing them through car windows as traffic crawled by. 

Eventually, we did leave the traffic backup and arrived at our house pictured below. A flag flies from the crow's nest.

The house was newer than one we had rented previously. It was pleasantly bright and cheery as we entered and had this view of the living room area. 

Bedrooms were bright and clean.

The indoor sun porch looked inviting.There was also a screened porch with comfortable chairs and a nice swing. This was a great place for reading in the swing chair, napping, eating breakfast, or hearing wind brushing through pine branches outside.

The small back yard pool had warmer water than the cold ocean.Sophie couldn't wait to jump in.

When tired of the beach E and K could hang out with drinks and watch the kids.

Annabelle isn't fond of beach sand or waves. She's much happier floating around in the pool for hours with help from her special yellow buoyant device which wraps around her neck and keeps her head above water. She drifts from side to side, grabs pool ladders, and seems to have a great time!The pool was nice, but much more time was spent at the beach.Paddle boarding was difficult this year because windy conditions made rough water. After a day packed with activities in the sun youngsters sometimes needed a break inside. 

Over the years I've discovered nice neighborhood roads for bike rides. When riding near sunrise there are very few cars, and residential streets transform into wide bike trails. On one morning ride a fox trotted across the road directly in front of me. I stopped to fish my phone out for a picture, but the fox was too nervous to keep still for a portrait. Not long after the fox encounter I came upon three bucks browsing along a driveway. I saw many more male deer than female on my rides. You may have to click on the next picture to enlarge it in order to see the antlers more clearly.

I hadn't spent extended time alone with my daughter for more than a year. It was nice to bike together and talk over breakfast one morning. I discovered a way to pedal from our house to a bagel place. Ellen rode her massive electric bike and I had my mountain bike.

Another traditional father/daughter beach activity is completing a jigsaw puzzle. This year the 1,000-piece puzzle was called, Merlin's Laboratory. Honestly, I probably did the majority of puzzle work on this one. The final result was very nice. Four crystal spheres were interesting features in the puzzle because they formed small distorted images of their surroundings.

Each year we go to the Duck boardwalk to see the sun set. Annabelle is uncomfortable around all the people on the boardwalk, so I happily volunteered to slowly push Annabelle in her wheeled chair round and round on unoccupied shady walking trails while everyone else strolled the boardwalk toward Donuts on a Stick for ice cream. Annabelle seemed to enjoy the relative quiet. She took the opportunity to touch trees, leaves, and flowers along the way. Sunset viewing was successful!

A nice person offered to take this family picture in the golden light. 

Speaking of sunsets - we observed a few from the crow's nest atop our house. This is a panorama of the scene we viewed as the sun set below the northwestern horizon.One evening there was a display of crepuscular and anticrepuscular rays. The first picture shows crepuscular rays looking northwest. The second picture, a few seconds later, shows anticrepuscular rays converging on the antisolar point exactly 180 degrees to the southeast. 

It was pleasantly breezy up in the crow's nest when these family pictures were taken.

One day C told me to check out the colorful iridescent cloud floating among others in the fair sky. Sometimes called a rainbow cloud, the effect is caused by light scattered by small ice crystals.

We had magnificent weather for our entire stay. It was much breezier than other years, but the breeze was welcome on hot days. The wind helped discourage annoying evening insects. Rain held off until our drive home to Williamsburg.