| Do you think that we will witness a Carrington-level event this year? | |
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| Unlikely | |
| Somewhat Likely | |
| Very Likely | |
| Certainly | |
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Hi all, I thought I would post a message here dedicated to the current solar maximum. There's been some significant solar activity lately and I put together a collage of photos of some recent days:  Solar Maximum (February-March 2024)  Solar Maximum (February-March 2024) What are your thoughts and experiences? Did you capture something unexpected? Do you think that this could be the year that we witness a Carrington-level event? Were you fortunate enough to be observing or imaging at the time of an X-class solar flare? Are you counting daily sunspot numbers? Did you see an aurora after a flare or CME? Etc. Clear skies! @Steven Fanutti |
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It could be the beginning of a new series of sun-related observations. My sleeping 8-inch Orion SkyQuest Dobsonian with additional solar Mylar filter needs a new start. There was not much (read: no) telescopic nocturnal cloudless sky observing too, no moon observing... (at work as labourer in shift system doesn't give much time to look upward). Perhaps during this summer's furlough, or during days or weeks of economic unemployment. The future is rather uncertain. In case of pronounced sunspots: observations of them via telescopic projection on a retro-reflective white screen, shortly after sunrise and shortly before sunset, to see chromatic dispersion phenomenae related to the optical phenomenon Green Ray (or Green Flash). During such very-near-the-horizon circumstances, the upper part of a giant sunspot shows red and orange colors, the lower part blue and green, the central part is just black. I want to talk about this kind of optical phenomenae with my colleagues at the workfloor, during break. Alas... it is not a common daily topic to talk about. They want to hear all about down-to-Earth subjects (money, soccer... etcetera...). Speaking of aurorae, are there astrobinners in here who have ever heard the "sound" of the aurora? (some sort of swishing and/or crackling noises, probably related to simultaneously appearing Saint Elmo's Fire at ground level). See: Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds, and related phenomena (William R. Corliss, The Sourcebook Project, 1983). Strange question: if the whole of the sun's surface would be the umbra of one giant sunspot, what would be the "brightness" of the sun's disc? Still too bright to look directly (without sunglasses) at it? Or... the sun as some sort of greyish colorless appearance? Was there ever a transit of planet Venus across a large sunspot? (must be interesting to see the silhouette of Venus's black orb against the umbra of a large sunspot). Observing the sun's projected image on a white wall or on a white retro-reflective screen, as seen from very nearby the projecting telescope's eyepiece. Here's something interesting for those who live somewhere at the uppermost floor of a building near a large expanse of water (the sea / the ocean). Aim your projecting telescope at the brightest section of the sun's glitterpath on the surface of the (mostly restless) water. The result: a most peculiar kind of CINEMA inside your observer's room! To get the most ideal results, not the slightest bit of daylight is allowed to enter the room, only your sunward telescope's tube is "in contact" with the "outside". If possible, the room's interior should be, well, "pitch black", with only the projected and enlarged (brightest section of the) restless glitterpath as lightsource. Every now and then: the silhouette of a boat or ship passing by... |
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| Thanks @Danny Caes , I appreciate your thoughts and participation in this forum topic. |
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I have made some sunspot measurements from my photos. On one of them, by making measurements and some calculations, I estimated the sunspot group AR3615 to be 217,000 km or 17 Earth-diameters long! I would like to do a full write-up in this forum when I have time on how exactly I arrived at that number. I also created a visual observing form that I would like to use before the eclipse. I'll attach it here at a later time and I would appreciate any thoughts and suggestions. I hope the creation of this forum topic will inspire other users to take up solar astrophotography. Here's how I do much of my solar work:  My Main Solar Setup  My Solar Shield But I've also done solar work with smaller lenses, also afocally through my telescope and even handheld with my DSLR:  The Sun - March 30, 2024 (High ISO Test) To date, for my processed DSLR image stacks, I tend to minimize cropping in order to show the image scale that a particular lens gives. I typically do about a 90% crop to remove any fading effects from overlapping layers as I am taking untracked photos. In my collages, I cropped the images to content and scaled them evenly for comparison purposes. |
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I started this topic with the hope that I would generate some interest in the current solar maximum, but unfortunately, it has not caught on. Therefore, this will be my final post on this topic, with the exception of any replies to comments. I completed my Solar Maximum 2024 project. Basically, my goal was to capture high quality images of the changes in solar activity over a period of several days. I used various lenses and my telescope and I posted my results on AstroBin (see my introductory message). I also wanted to make measurements of some sunspots and I was fortunate enough to capture a couple of large spots. I took my images and converted them to a printable format for measurement with a ruler: Sunspot Measurements Feb 26 2024.pdf Sunspot Measurements Mar 24 2024.pdf I measured the sizes of the sunspots on paper and I calculated the sunspot sizes. By my calculations, the largest sunspot group visible on February 26, 2024 was approximately 126,000 km or 10 Earth-diameters long. On March 24, 2024, I calculated the largest sunspot group visible was 217,000 km or 17 Earth-diameters long. When calculating sizes, a straight-line cross-section through the long dimensions of the sunspot group was measured using a ruler and using the circumference of that cross section and measuring with a protractor, the curvature of the Sun was taken into account in the calculations. My primary goal was imaging, but when I realized that I did not have the time and weather circumstances to document a full solar rotation, I saw the potential to do a little science with observations from a single day. I also investigated solar sketching as an alternative to documenting solar observations instead of photography. I have therefore created an observing form, meant to be used with a reticle eyepiece. A rectile eyepiece is useful for scaling and drawing sunspots in the correct positions on the solar disk. I haven't actually used the form for solar observations yet, but I think it's a good template. Here's the PDF file for printing and the ODT file if you want to edit it to your preferences: Solar Observing Form 2024-03-22.pdf Solar Observing Form 2024-03-22.odt My next and final project for 2024 will be the April 8th, solar eclipse. I'm hoping to create a collage like I did for the June 10, 2021 eclipse:  Solar Eclipse June 10, 2021 Sequence Thanks for reading. |
