Sunspot 826 growing!

[iceman]

A small sunspot has grown to the size of Saturn in the space of a day!

Might be some aurora coming up for you guys in the far south..

Here's an animated gif showing the sunspot grow..

(courtesy spaceweather and SOHO).

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2005/01dec05/midi512c.gif

[Dennis]

Thanks Mike

Now all we need is for the 3 to 4 weeks of continuous cloud cover, thunderstorms and hail to abate for just one sweet day and delicious night, so I can re-acquaint myself with my gear, most of which I have almost forgotten how to set up and operate!

Cheers

Dennis

[fringe_dweller]

yer its nice eh - lets hope re aurora's, any CME's have a strong negative component an can override the tendency of the IMF to supress the Bz going south outside of the two usual windows of spring and autumn - there has been plenty of great aurora action in early dec before :)

[gaa_ian]

Looks good, I will have to grab the scope out for a look this Arvo.

[33South]

Had a look a couple of hours ago, interesting strung out group. Much too windy up here for high power or imaging.

Maybe tomorrow.

[ballaratdragons]

How long does it usually take for Auroras to be visible after the formation of a sunspot?
I couldn't find any timelines or effect schedules in google.

[RAJAH235]

Depends if there's a CME or not & if it's headed our way. :D L.

[fringe_dweller]

Rajah's right mate - the sun spot has to cough up a big juicy plasma sneeze first :) theres a lot of variables Ken, i'm not fully sure of it all enough to explain it properly. I just go out when the odds are good, and if you get lucky, you get lucky if you know what i mean. Not all sunspots create CME activity strong enough to cause aurora to be seen at our latitudes. if there is one, and it is pointed straight at earth at the time, it can take anywhere from roughly just under 24 hours to 48 hours for the leading edge of the plasma cloud to reach earth, and can last up to 48 hrs in duration sometimes, if it is big and dense enough, but that isnt common, usually 24 hrs at most ,before it has fully past. The speed it reaches us at is very much determined by how big the flare is measured to be - a strong X class (the highest) will get here faster than a M class generally.

[xrekcor]

Dont know if anyone else has looked today. But there appear to be several groups
scattered across the suns disc today. It was the last thing I peaked at before
I hit the sack this morning.... and boy it was nice doing an alnighter!!!! : )

regards,CS ...at long last

[Dennis]

Hi

Left my gear out overnight after being disappointed with my efforts at Mars, to have a go at Sunspot 826 with the Vixen 4" and ToUcam - my first solar imaging session with the webcam, as I usually use the Meade LPI. Initial impressions are that the ToUcam can make better use of poor seeing conditions when coupled with Registax.

Anyhow, here is my effort. 133 frames from 1800 using Registax.

Cheers

Dennis

[xrekcor]

Lovely shot Dennis, nice detail too!


regards,CS

[Dennis]

Thanks Rob. With the finished image I get the impression I am looking at these Sunspots though a ground glass screen; either an image processing artifact or maybe not enough images in the stack and so I am seeing the noise?

Anyhow, practice makes perfect so I'll keep plugging away!

Cheers

Dennis

[xrekcor]

I think maybe you are picking up some surface granulation there too! and maybe not
so much noise. In any case it's as good as any sun group image I've seen through
a white light filter.

What was the filter? baadar film? or the thousand oak glass variety?


regards,CS

[Dennis]

Hi Rob

Oops - forgot to add the details, thanks for the prompt. Equipment/imaging details are as follows:

Vixen ED102mm f9 refractor
TeleVue x2.5 PowerMate
Baader astrophotography film (not for visual use).
Exposure was 1/1500 sec on the ToUcam settings panel.
Gain was down, brightness was mid-range.
10 fps.
133 frames from 1800 selected in Registax V3 by setting the quality to 95.

Cheers

Dennis

[xrekcor]

Thanks Dennis

look forward to seeing more!

regards,CS

[h0ughy]

here is my attempt

[RB]

Very nice image there Dennis. If you still have the avi why not try and stack more frames to see if you can squeeze any more out.
Although it's still great as it is.

Well done.

[ballaratdragons]

Here ya go Dennis, I coloured your pic for you!

[RB]

I like your colour image of the sun Dave.
Just needed a nudge on focus I think.

:thumbsup:

[gaa_ian]

We had a good look at this sunspot this Arvo with the Astroscan & JMB solar filter.
To me it looks like a giant electric Guitar :P

[ballaratdragons]

LOL! Reminds me of van Goghs' 'Sunflowers'.

[Dennis]

Nice one Ken! When I selected the "Colour" checkbox on the ToUcam the image turned an ice blue colour, the sort of blue one sees when looking down a deep crevasse on a glacier.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Hi Andrew

Thanks for the suggestion. The seeing was so bad I had to be quite aggressive and set 95% quality. When I stacked more frames, the smaller details were lost in the process at the default of 80% so as you suggest, I will try 85% and 90% as an experiment.

Cheers

Dennis