Huge sun spot AR2396

[julianh72]

I just put my solar filter onto my telescope to take a look - and there's a HUGE sunspot right now.

NOTE: DON'T ATTEMPT THIS IF YOU DON'T HAVE A PROPER SOLAR FILTER!!!!!

The attached quick photo was taken hand-held with my phone held at the eyepiece.

Checked on http://www.spaceweather.com/ and - Yep! It's big alright!

BIG SUNSPOT FACES EARTH:
The rapid growth of sunspot AR2396 is continuing. Yesterday it was huge. Today it is 50% larger.
...
The growing sunspot group stretches more than 150,000 km from end to end. All by itself, the primary dark core is more than three times the size of Earth.

[johnnyjetski]

Julian, That is the sunspot I captured a couple of days earlier when photographing an ISS transit, (see pic this forum)
Very interesting to see its growth. Well done!

John

[OzStarGazer]

Thanks for that, Julian! I hadn't heard about it yet so I just had a look and was even able to capture it with the Neximage. I haven't really processed the images yet (I just selected a couple for this thread), but it was fun! At least it was not too cold with the sun in front of me. :) I haven't got time now to look at all the images and process them, but if some turn out nice I will post them later this week...
I think this spot looks like a snake...

[OzStarGazer]

I wonder if it will grow even more?

[julianh72]

Nice catch with the ISS!

Apparently AR2396 is a naked-eye sunspot (with the right viewing conditions / eye protection, of course!) Check out:
http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=115994&PHPSESSID=7hd9plv8987pbm10fto7ic1n7 7

[nebulosity.]

I had a look at lunch time through some solar filter and yes I was just able to see it naked eye. Pretty cool. :thumbsup:

Cheers
Jo