Surviving Solar Minimum!

[Luke]

Hello solar folk,

Since getting really hooked on solar about 18 months ago, I've become really dependent on the Sun for my astro fix. I just wondered how things may or may not shape up when the solar minimum arrives. Do you still stay glued to the Sun? What aspects of the Sun do you enjoy then? Or do you long for the maximum again?

Thanks for any thoughts!

Luke

[JB80]

I have asked myself the same question, I wasn't really up to much the last minimum. I imagine white light will be a bit dull but surely there will be a constant flow of activity in other wavelengths?

I don't know to be honest.

[Steve Ward]

Amazing how some people start getting all doom and gloom just cos they've missed a day or two , and start down the old "solar minimum" road trying to depress the lucky ones .... 

I'm not sure what I'll get up to if it gets real quiet in 'white' , prefer not to think about it to be honest , that said I've yet so see a single day in the last two years where there hasn't been something on show , there was a short episode last year when I thought we would be faced with a blank disc but it never happened ... 

[IanWatkins]

I remember the last minimum in white, but even then it wasn't super dull. It was just a lot more difficult to see anything interesting but was still possible. That was at 600mm with Baader film.

This time around I have double the scope and a Baader wedge. So watching the changing granulation will be interesting as you can spot the next spot forming.

Of course, this time around there are a lot more people with H-alpha or CaK gear so even if white is no fun, there will still be things to see in H or CaK.

Cheers

Ian

[Ptarmigan]

It all seems so 'downhill' since the '57+/- solar max ,

I kept hopes up that each subsequent max would be better,

but so far no such luck

As for the minima, ohhh dont ask , , ,

Now if that didnt depress you I dont know what will :) !

[Peter Drew]

Ha hardly ever takes a day off!.  Lots to look forward to at any time. 

[Pig]

I still think at solar minimum the sun will be pretty hot and its normal fusion process will carry on  but who knows? its only an 11 year wait

At least the Moon will be at Lunar maximum

[Luke]

Thanks all for the thoughts!

What's got me wondering is that Sarah and I are re-jigging our gear, and we're on the brink of saying bye-bye to guided deep sky imaging. But I've decided to throw my lot in with the Sun and Moon anyway, and perhaps a little dabble with planets and unguided very widefield. With no obsy and having been spoilt by simpler imaging setup for solar, I've decided I'm not going to do guided deep sky again unless I get an obsy, which would be a long way off if ever. I've got way too lazy with the easier solar setup!

On the plus for the H-alpha side, I found this site, and 2009, in the archived piccies, still looked very interesting all in all I think:

http://pro.tok2.com/~kurita/sun/sun_top_e.htm

I'd better stock up on suntan lotion   You know you're a solar addict when you clean your sunglasses with Baader wonderfluid

[JamesF]

I'd better stock up on suntan lotion   You know you're a solar addict when you clean your sunglasses with Baader wonderfluid

Or when you have a set of Baader film filters that you've made for your sunglasses?

James

[Umbraldot]

Last minimum was fascinating. It just went on and on and on.  The Relative Sunspot number was practically in single figures every month from late 2007 through to the end of 2009 (currently its averaging 107 for the fist three months of 2014).  2008 was a particular slog, month after month of hardly a thing in white light.  266 spotless days - the deepest minimum for 100 years (311 spotless days recorded in 1913).  A few prominences kept the interest going.

The first sunspot of Cycle 24 was recorded on 4th Jan 2008 and from then on it was a matter of looking out for an upsurge in activity in line with the new cycle, but it just didn't seem to happen and people were muttering about another Maunder minimum.  However of course it did happen, eventually.

That's the fascination, even when nothing is happening, that in itself was unusual and so worth monitoring to see how things turned out.  It's not just about the quick fix of action today, but the longer term monitoring of our star's behaviour, literally the highs and the lows.

[Ptarmigan]

If, as some suggest, it is heading for another Sporer/Maunder/Dalton minimum then solar minima could be very quiet.

But that is a bit further off than the next minimum which is due in about 5 or 6 years (give or take a bit) !

[DrRobin]

I recently saw a historical record of how the activity over several cycles is slowly reducing and they said that in a couple of cycles time, it may be that we have a whole cycle with very few sunspots, except around the maximum.  Unfortunately, I now can't find, but did find this which seems to say the same thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_minimum

I have only been looking at the sun for the last 2 years so I couldn't really say from experience what it will be like, but I understand around the minimum a year may go by without a single spot on the disc. 

I would imagine that there will still be things to look at in Ha, but again this must be reduced.  If the active areas which give rise to sunspots aren't there how much of interest will there be in Ha?  No active areas and possibly few if any proms/filaments.  However, I don't really know.  Perhaps my Lunt will be having a couple of years holiday and when an AR does come round it will be time to celebrate it on this board.

I am not giving up my night time/planets/DSO set up anytime soon, that is for sure.

Robin

[ronin]

To be "safe" you would need to view or image in Ha, at lest then you can get the flares and graining etc.

I think the solar cycle is 2 sine waves and the 11 year one is the "common" one we talk about.

The other is a longer duration, one or two hundred years maybe. However as the result is somewhat a product of the 2 when the long duration one is at the lowest point the 11 years cycle will stay low as well, whether it is in a maxima or minima.

I would say that if the solar work is in white light then during any minima there is not going to be a great deal to really see or do.

[Umbraldot]

I recently saw a historical record of how the activity over several cycles is slowly reducing and they said that in a couple of cycles time, it may be that we have a whole cycle with very few sunspots, except around the maximum.  Unfortunately, I now can't find, but did find this which seems to say the same thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_minimum

I have only been looking at the sun for the last 2 years so I couldn't really say from experience what it will be like, but I understand around the minimum a year may go by without a single spot on the disc. 

I would imagine that there will still be things to look at in Ha, but again this must be reduced.  If the active areas which give rise to sunspots aren't there how much of interest will there be in Ha?  No active areas and possibly few if any proms/filaments.  However, I don't really know.  Perhaps my Lunt will be having a couple of years holiday and when an AR does come round it will be time to celebrate it on this board.

I am not giving up my night time/planets/DSO set up anytime soon, that is for sure.

Robin

There's a wealth of information at this NASA site too

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I lived through a few minima, but never yet equipped with an H-alpha scope. No idea what that will look like

[Luke]

I think my main concern was how it would affect me having something to image, Sarah and I love deep sky observing too and we'll be carrying on with that. But I've hardly done any deep sky imaging for two years, partly because of two poor winters here. But thinking about it some more, if I do end up doing less imaging during the minimum, I will probably still have a big pile of unprocessed solar images anyway from the previous years! I still have some from my first month of imaging last Summer! And also, if I want to try some deep sky image processing but can't get my own data, I could always play around with data from the Hubble Legacy Archive. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy the processing and though the data would not be mine, I would love playing around with some of the fancy targets in the archive if I ever run out of Sun

I am intrigued to see what the minimum will bring. At the moment, sometimes I like to see a large sunspot shrink over the days. It might make a less dramatic sight, but it's all part of the solar activity, I want to see the fancy, and the not so fancy, how the Sun is. I would find it exciting in a way if the Sun goes spotless again for a long time, wondering just how many days it will be. Hopefully there will be some proms in H-a to spice things up now and again?

[Steve Ward]

I wish you lot would stop tempting fate with all this talk of minima ...    

Needs to be a fair way off yet , at least far enough off to let me find spare funds for an Ha rig ... 

[David Smith]

I went 20 months and 96 recorded observations with only 6 recording evidence of sunspots in 2007 / 2008 /2009 I didn't have access to H alpha then so am hoping this will provide some distraction.

[Steve Ward]

Ouch ... !

Sure glad I didn't start 'til 2012 then ... 

[Umbraldot]

I went 20 months and 96 recorded observations with only 6 recording evidence of sunspots in 2007 / 2008 /2009 I didn't have access to H alpha then so am hoping this will provide some distraction.

Given April 2014 the mean daily frequency for sunspot groups during the month was 6.54.  Back in in 2008, April = 0.1; May 0.2; June 0.125; July 0.1; Aug 0; Sept 0.28; Oct 0.27; Nov 0.31; Dec 0; Jan 2009 = 0; Feb 0; Mar 0; Apr 0; May 0 (by now I was considering measuring double stars or sketching lunar craters!), Jun 0.45; Jul 0.4; Aug 0 (a solitary sunspot on 31st Aug ended 51 consecutive spotless days); Sep 0.36; Oct 0.1; Nov 0.45; Dec 0.83 (at last, we're picking up!).

Sadly prominences were also in decline from that seen now but at least they still existed and some were fine indeed; nor did I record any flares during that period.

Strangely it doesn't deter you one bit!

[Luke]

I can hear a Lunt 50 faintly calling Steve's name   Or an SF100 double stack if the minimum holds off for long enough

I went 20 months and 96 recorded observations with only 6 recording evidence of sunspots in 2007 / 2008 /2009 I didn't have access to H alpha then so am hoping this will provide some distraction.

[Steve Ward]

I think it would be easier to get off crack than give up Solar imaging ... 

[Steve Ward]

By the time I can afford a 100mm Ken Huggett special the Sun will have swallowed up the inner planets .... 

[David Smith]

Sadly prominences were also in decline from that seen now but at least they still existed and some were fine indeed; nor did I record any flares during that period.

Strangely it doesn't deter you one bit!

Well that's put paid to my hopes of H alpha keeping me going then, thanks   As you say though, I am still here counting spots even after such low activity periods.

[DrRobin]

By the time I can afford a 100mm Ken Huggett special the Sun will have swallowed up the inner planets .... 

By then the surface of the sun will be so close, you won't need a telescope, just a pair of very dark thick glasses, also known as 6 ft of concrete. Still it will save on the heating bill.

Robin