Sun Spots

[King of Eton]

Hello, I was out on Saturday afternoon looking at sun spots with my new baader solar filter. I noticed that two of the larger spots appeared to have shadows. Is this an effect of the optics or should I expect to see what seems like a 3D effect.

Looking forward to stargazing live this week.

[Merlin66]

When a sunspot is large enough, it's surrounded by a penumbra area which does give the impression of depth.

[King of Eton]

Ah so not my optics then. Thanks for the reply. !

[matsey]

Were they the two on the limb? I was looking at those myself on Sunday and yes definitely could see extra "depth" around the central dark area.

You might find this site useful too:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots

They normally upload a sunspot picture each day, and I've found it really useful for confirming what I'm seeing against a more "official" source. Also, if you click on the "List of all available daily images" link under the main picture of that page, then scroll all the way to the bottom of that list, you can also check out images from previous days.

Matsey

(and ooo.. just spotted we have the same scope... good choice there KoE )

[King of Eton]

I believe they may have been although on saturday they were more central but assume it may be due to rotation of the sun. Pretty pleased with the 6SE so far although I've not had it out often since buying it due to weather conditions. Jupiter looked superb though on Saturday evening. My clearest view of it yet.

Good website link. Thanks for that.