Approaching Solar Max

Good Seeing!

Maximum sunspot activity will occur over the next several months. Lots of modest spots have been spread across the Sun's face lately, with occasional giant groups appearing from time to time. On the morning of April 23rd, with scattered thin hazy clouds and contrails present, I gambled on future clearing and set up my solar telescope. Conditions were pleasant with no wind and temperature at 56 degrees. Drifting clouds and contrails ruined the first video clips I made, but, eventually, miraculously, everything cleared. At that point I discovered the seeing was excellent!

I began by taking a quick photospheric image with my Seestar. Seestar's field of view captures the whole Sun at once and shows the entire distribution of sunspots across the disc. (The orange color is caused by Seestar's solar filter.) Notice the large sunspot group near the right limb.

My 100 mm Lunt solar telescope reveals the Sun's chromosphere, the layer just above the photosphere. The Lunt, with 3X Barlow lens, has a much smaller field of view than the Seestar. To make a full disc chromospheric image I have to combine several individual images into a mosaic. The next 12-panel mosaic shows most of the chromospheric disc (slightly tilted relative to the Seestar view). Excellent seeing conditions allow this image to be viewed at 100 percent without loss of detail, so be sure to click on the picture to view it at full size.

Click on the following labeled image to see sunspot groups identified. Notice complex activity in the 3645/3647 group and magnetic arches in 3646. These details are visible in the full size image.

An individual image of the 3645/3647 group shows it was quite active with white energetic emissions threaded throughout.

At 10:04 EDT sunspot 3654 on the left and 3652 on the right were simultaneously emitting modest flares.

Only two notable prominences were present. I captured them with limited success.

Unfortunately, cloudy weather prevented me from imaging the enormous active sunspot responsible for the recent May 10th geomagnetic storms and auroras. That remarkable sunspot endured its roughly 13-day passage around the solar backside and is now coming again into view around the eastern limb. It looks quite diminished at this point, however. I wait patiently for the next rare clear day that aligns with solar action.