Any One Noticed The Sunspot ? :)

[vindictive666 (John)]

Gday

has anyone noticed the sunspot today ?

cant here clouds and rain

[casstony]

I think it's been there for a few days. I was out recently with the pst tuning it for the sunspot and other surface features, then the prominences, then I got distracted by some mysterious dark channels leading away from the Sun's surface; I tried tuning to change them, changed eyes to see if I was 'seeing things', looked at the objective to see if it was clear, thought about reporting these channels on the forum, and finally figured what they were - the Sun had drifted close to some elm tree branches.

[vindictive666 (John)]

Originally Posted by casstony

I think it's been there for a few days. I was out recently with the pst tuning it for the sunspot and other surface features, then the prominences, then I got distracted by some mysterious dark channels leading away from the Sun's surface; I tried tuning to change them, changed eyes to see if I was 'seeing things', looked at the objective to see if it was clear, thought about reporting these channels on the forum, and finally figured what they were - the Sun had drifted close to some elm tree branches.

doh makes you feel real smart doesnt it ? lol

[casstony]

Originally Posted by vindictive666

doh makes you feel real smart doesnt it ? lol

Yes, although it is at first exciting to find things one hasn't seen before. The channels/branches only showed up in the faint red halo around the Sun, not on the disc itself. I also recently discovered a faint stellar companion I hadn't seen before - until I realized it was an artifact produced by my binoviewers.

Fortunately I've never made it as far as reporting one of these phantoms on a forum - that would be embarrasing.