Sunspot AR1654, White Light, Brisbane 12th & 13th Jan 2013

[Dennis]

Although the air was discoloured and milky from nearby bush fires burning N of Brisbane, the seeing turned out to be quite reasonable, despite the pungent smoke affecting our suburb as I was imaging the Sun this morning.

This image is dedicated to the brave Australian fire fighters, working in horrendous, hot and windy conditions whilst fighting fires, burning out of control across the south-east states of Australia – I salute your selfless courage.:thumbsup:

Takahashi Mewlon 180 F12, Tak x1.6 extender, Imaging Source DMK31AF04 Firewire CCD camera, plus, copious volumes of drinking water....

UPDATE:
New image added for 13th January for comparison.

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

WOW fantstic detail!!!

[von Tom]

I'm so glad you got out to capture this Dennis. It is unsurpassed!

Tom

[Larryp]

Thats superb

[John Hothersall]

I actually think this is better than the Ha dedicated scope images, detail is exquisite especially the penumbral detail and the granulation - who needs Ha.

John.

[RickS]

Love it, Dennis! Fantastic detail.

[sjastro]

Excellent.

Steven

[Star Catcher]

Excellent white light image! Well done.
Ted

[Paul Haese]

Lovely image Dennis. I really need to get my Lunt wedge out and using that.

Hey John those are fighting words. :P Seriously though, these are just two types of views. White light and Ha are completely different parts of the suns atmosphere. Hence why each has its merits.

[Derek Klepp]

Excellent Dennis was hoping you'd get this in High Res WL

[Dennis]

Thank you for looking at this image and for your words of appreciation, it truly was a fierce day under the Brisbane Sun today!:)

The seeing was a little mixed, with persistent undulating waves and high frequency jitters requiring me to pause/re-start the recording to avoid the really poor stuff. Although I have enjoyed better seeing where the solar granules were easily resolved, today, the wonders of AutoStakkert helped pull the nice details out of tricky conditions. Seeing really is king for these hi-res images.;)

From various sources on the internet, I understand that the granules visible in this image lie on the photosphere of the Sun and are caused by convection currents of plasma within the Sun's convective zone. The rising part of the granules is located in the centre where the plasma is hotter. The outer edge of the granules is darker due to the cooler descending plasma.

A typical granule has a diameter on the order of 1,000 kilometres and lasts 8 to 20 minutes before dissipating. At any one time, the Sun's surface is covered by about 4 million granules. The flow within the granules can reach supersonic speeds of more than 7 km/s (15,000 mph) and produce sonic "booms" and other noise that generates waves on the Sun's surface.

Cheers

Dennis

[naskies]

Wow, that's awesome detail. Thanks for sharing! Your dedication to imaging in the current heatwave is appreciated :)