Although not the best resolution, I didn't want this data to lie hidden on my external drive. Hopefully, it's a preview of things to come as the Sun becomes more active in Solar Cycle 25 which began in Dec 2019 and moves towards the next solar maximum due peak around mid-2025.
This animation is a rare X2.0 solar flare taken with my Lunt LS100 solar scope and an ASI120MM camera on Oct 27, 2014 between 10:02AM and 10:59AM local time. 40 frames were originally captured using FireCapture and only recently processed in PixInsight with the animation GIF created in PIPP. This flare was an amazing sight to see and such an extraordinary change on the Sun over a short time.
The sunspot group AR (active region) 2192 was larger in diameter than the planet Jupiter. It is recorded as one of the largest sunspot groups of all time. For several days it produced a few two-ribbon flares (vs less energetic compact flares) with one of the largest solar flares seen in the previous 24 years (an X3.1 flare about 10 days after this event). Flares are classified as A, B, C, M and X with each letter designated as 1-9 (for example X1 to X9). Similar to the Richter Scale for earthquakes, X is 10 times as strong as an M; 100 times stronger than a C. This flare was an X2.0.
NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO):
Kudos to Chuck Ayoub (Chuck’s Astrophotography) and Warren Spreng (rigel123) for their YouTube tutorials describing the capture and processing steps in order to achieve solar animations!
Capture:
- Lunt LS100 (102mm at f/7) in single stack mode
- ASI 120MM camera
- Celestron AVX mount
- 2x Barlow
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