Morning sun - May 4th 2016

[Stu]

Lovely view this morning, a little light haze and variable seeing, but generally good with occasional moments of excellent conditions.

Using the binoviewers, which don't totally work for me on Jupiter, but are excellent for solar white light, the detail is really lovely. I'm using magnifications up to around x150, possibly x175 (tricky to work it out exactly with binoviewers and Barlows involved).

There is a new, unclassified AR just coming into the limb which is very distinct, three clear umbral areas in two penumbral regions, surrounded by subtle faculae.

Next across is 12541, a nice area of subtle faculae surrounding a group of fine pores and small spots.

Near central to the disk is 12539. A fairly small spot, but surrounded by around 15 or more tiny pores. What is also particularly lovely in this area are the granulation cells. At high power and when the seeing snaps into sharp clarity, the individual cells are visible, really cracking to see. It's visible in other areas too but particularly prominent here, perhaps because you are looking directly into the cells head on??

12536 is again very interesting to study, an AR with a number of small umbral areas, and a kind of part formed penumbra. There is then a string of small spots/pores stretching away and fine faculae visible too.

Finally, the area around 12535 and 12534 has really nice faculae surrounding the small spot, in fact there is plenty to see along this limb.

Quite subtle detail today, no big ARs but plenty to see, and wonderful when the seeing steadies which it is doing quite a bit today.

Enjoy if you can.

[laudropb]

Thanks for the nice report Stu. It's a horrible grey day here. No chance of a view for myself.

[paulastro]

A great report Stu, thanks for posting.