The Sun Has a Spot! (Steve Lantz)

The Sun Has a Spot!

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

Sunspots are dark regions in the sun’s photosphere (visible “surface”) that are on the order of the size of planets or larger. They are dark because they are cooler than the surrounding gases in the photosphere; the photospheric gases have a temperature of about 5800K whereas sunspots are about 1500K cooler. Sunspots form where differential rotation of the sun’s gaseous plasma layers causes magnetic field lines to twist and break through the photosphere. These “loops” of magnetism trap the gases within them, preventing convection from hotter gases below, which in turn leads to the cooling. The number of sunspots varies over time in a relatively regular cycle. At a sunspot maximum, the kinking of magnetic field lines is so great that the sun’s magnetic field rearranges itself such that the magnetic poles flip! This causes sunspot activity to decrease drastically. It takes around 11 years for sunspot numbers to go from minimum to minimum, so 11 years is typically stated to be the period of the sunspot cycle. However, because the magnetic field flips, it really takes 22 years for sunspots to go from a minimum to minimum at which the sunspots have the same polarity. Right now, sunspots are at a minimum and the sun’s photosphere has been more or less devoid of sunspots. However, scientists believe that a new cycle is about to start. Maybe the sunspot in this image is the one that’s the harbinger of a new cycle!

Apparently RegiStax does not like featureless disks – all of the videos I planned to use for stacking of best images led to RegiStax crashes! I was forced to load the videos into Photoshop and manually scan for best images. The color in this image is not the true color of the sun but rather the color imparted by the solar filter.

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

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The Sun Has a Spot!

The Sun Has a Spot!

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Image Index:

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The Sun Has a Spot!

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