my first sun spot sighting

[lesbehrens]

hi. ju just wanted to say i saw my first sun spot today using the pst:eyepop:. i hope this is a sign fo more activity on the sun.
les.:P

[Achilles61]

I bought mine three weeks ago, and so far haven't had a decent weekend (and more cloud this Sat). I'm patient - sorta.

As regards sunspots, from http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7824

"Another group at the US National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, William Livingston and Matthew Penn, believe that there may be a deeper process at work. Sunspots are highly magnetic regions that are somewhat cooler than the rest of the sun’s surface (they appear dark compared to the rest of the sun, but if seen separately would appear very bright) and the two researchers have been tracking both the temperature and magnetic strength of the spots. They found that the spots have been warming up and becoming less magnetic. An average of the trend is a straight line going down which hits the bottom of the graph at 2014. They have concluded that, although sun spots may appear briefly from time to time in the next few years, they will disappear by 2014."

Scary.

[sheeny]

Cool! So do I!;)



Now that's not good news for PST owners...:sadeyes:

Al.

[lesbehrens]

interesting read. looks like we just have to wait and find out.

[ngcles]

Hi All,

Yep, quite a few solar-astronomers are forecasting that the new solar cycle (No 24) might well turn out to be a complete dud. Until today's spot, the Sun has been essentially a clean sheet for over two months.

There are also a few that speculate that the Sun might be heading into a minimum period that could last for years or decades (like the Maunder minimum -- see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maunder_Minimum

See here for a recent article on what the Sun is not doing:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/02/13/where-have-all-the-sunspots-gone/


Yep, I too recently acquired a PST (though I've been H-Alpha observing at Sydney Observatory on and off for years) and have spent a couple of hrs over the last couple of weeks looking at a largely blank disc with the occasional small prominence.

If a sustained minimum occurs, it will be interesting to see what effect it has on the weather/climate.

Best,

Les D

[leinad]

My PST hasn't got much use lately . You're lucky indeed to see todays sunspot! There havn't been any for a while; then again the weather hasn't been as great here either to even look at the Sun some days.

see post here also
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=366449#post366449

[vindictive666]

dang


i suppose that might mean ill have to sell my solar filter :)

regards john

[TrevorW]

I thought I saw a small spot Monday as well but then I thought it was a speck of dust on my lens. After cleaning my lens etc it disappeared so I thought it must have been dust.

Cheers