Sunspot AR1476 at hi res

[Paul Haese]

Did some pre solar imaging for the transit today and after doing the disk I thought I would do some ultra high res. I have not done this for quite a few years now. This image is taken with a 5x powermate. Seeing was pretty reasonable and the best I have seen for solar work in 4 years. I hope that bodes well for the Venus transit.

The image below shows the entire sunspot with all its magnetic field lines. I saw several flares during imaging, but most of those were likely to be a low M class.

Was happy to get some nice chicken skin in the basin of the spot.

Taken with the DMK41 (image reduced in size) and Solarmax 60 0.5A

edit: incidently this spot is about 5 times the size of earth.

Further edit: I have replaced the image with a smoother one and an image with the 3x barlow.

[Adelastro1 (Wayne England)]

Wicked! Amazing detail Paul. Looks like you're all set for the transit!

[trent_julie]

Very nice Paul.

[sheeny (Al)]

That's gorgeous for such hires Paul.

You must've made a good sacrifice to the gods of seeing...

Well done.

Al.

[Shiraz (Ray)]

very interesting image Paul - lots going on and fine resolution. Regards Ray

[Dennis]

Lovely work Paul, the detail you have captured is very delicate and your controlled processing has presented it in a very pleasing and natural way, always a difficult balance to maintain.

With these narrow band images, you really do get a sense of the enormous forces at play on the Sun.

Cheers

Dennis

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Wow, looks amazing Paul! What a view

Mike

[Quark (Trevor)]

Talk about hi res, what a stunner of an image, certainly delivers that up close & personal effect. Super work there Paul.

Cheers
Trevor

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Holy moly Paul. Such detail!!

[Peter Ward]

Hummm..maybe just a tad too much sharpening (dark re-bound rings surrounding brighter regions) ..... that said, still a very good shot the the AR.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments.

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Hummm..maybe just a tad too much sharpening (dark re-bound rings surrounding brighter regions) ..... that said, still a very good shot the the AR.

Hehehe, I thought you might see that. Not enough frames is really the problem, and these frames are quite noisey too. So smoothing, sharpening and smoothing and sharpening. As you quite rightly saw there is a tad too much sharpening. Better seeing would help.

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Was happy to get some nice chicken skin in the basin of the spot.

LOL. Chicken skin in the middle of a mohair rug. Haven't heard that term before but I can see it. Great image btw.

[astronobob (Bob)]

Hot shot Paul, So dig these types of Sol images, all them swirling magnetic capers etc going on, awesome job with the Image from my point of view !

[h0ughy (David)]

wow, it certainly makes for an interesting discussion. my daughter thought it looked like a cup of brewed coffee with milk swirls.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys,

I have taken on board Peter's comments and did a repro last night. So I have attached the repro of the high res.

I have also attached a copy of a 3x image. It is a wider field view but shows the entire region.

Graeme that term is one that I first heard from Stephen Ramsden a solar enthusiast. He reckons that the chicken skin is a sure sign of good solar seeing.

David, that is an interesting observation of your daughter. Active regions at high res always look very interesting in Ha. I will try again tomorrow if the weather co-operates.

[Derek Klepp]

Thats certainly pushing the scope Paul.