Dust spots or sun spots?

[CarlJoseph]

Hi folks,

Just processing a few of my transit pics. I've never taken solar pics before so have a couple questions.

One one these spots is obviously Venus. Some of the others are sun spots, but there are a few which have circles around them. Could these simply be dust on my camera chip or something like that?

116789

Cheers,
Af.

[Shark Bait]

My understanding is that the dark part of the sunspot is the umbra and the fainter outer area is the penumbra. These areas are just a little bit cooler than the rest of the Sun's visible surface, so they look darker.

[CarlJoseph]

Thanks for that Stu. I was wondering because it looks like a star does when out of focus, although the rest of the image is in focus.

Okay, I'll get on with processing the other pics now. :)

:thanx:

[stardust steve]

Nice capture. The focus looks bang on and i reckon they are all sunspots:thumbsup:
Someone might prove me wrong but there was a lot of spots today...they all came to the party:)

[naskies]

Sun spots... check out this link (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=90554) for a close up view of them. If you're unsure, you can also cross reference against NASA's image (http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/hmi_igr/512/). Great shot, by the way - very sharp and detailed :)

[leon]

Sunspots to me, great image by the way.

Leon

[CarlJoseph]

Thanks for the feedback folks. I'm pretty happy with the pics, especially with them being my first of the sun.

I've put up some more of my pics. Keen for any processing thoughts, ideas, etc. I'd be happy to provide the RAW files too if anyone wants to have a go themselves. Would be great to see what others can get out of them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carljoseph/tags/venustransit/show/

Thanks!