Watching granulation cells change

[Stu]

I managed to get sorted earlier this morning to grab a look at the sun as it cleared the neighbours' house. It was well worth it, the seeing has been much more stable than it was last night, and the views are excellent.

Changes in all the ARs since yesterday, with 2580 in particular coming on nicely.

I spent some time watching a more dense patch of granulation near 2579, and was pleased to be able to detect changes in the patterns it was making over the course of 20 minutes or so. When the seeing steadies, the clarity is amazing, particularly near the centre of the disk where you are looking directly into the cells so the contrast is higher.

As normal, I've no idea what magnification I'm using! I have the Mark IV binoviewers with a GPC (need to check the power!) in them, then an AP Barcon with two extension tubes giving around x4 I think. eyepieces are Zeiss 25mm Orthos. Regardless, I know the mag is high (x150 ish) and the views very enjoyable.

[laudropb]

Good morning Stu. The seeing was definitely good here too. Managed to see the cells as well at 160x.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice report. I had an imaging session this morning, but seeing was pretty dismal here. As the holidays have ended for most over here, traffic on the ring road to my east is probably to blame. Seeing was much better a week or so ago, when traffic was much lighter. Glad you got some good seeing

[Stu]

12 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Good morning Stu. The seeing was definitely good here too. Managed to see the cells as well at 160x.

Good morning John . Glad you've got some sunshine for once, with steady seeing too! It's great when the conditions allow you to use high mag on the sun isn't it?

[Stu]

Seeing is definitely dropping off now that everything is heating up! Quite nice to defocus a little and watch the swifts and swallows silhouetted against the sun as they catch their breakfast up high (or more like brunch now  )

[Solar B]

I think you managed extremely well to see the granules ... most struggle to see them ... regular granules only last 

around 15 mins ... larger ones much longer ... really close up the surface appears to boil like a porridge and I can recall

seeing amazing Big Bear SO footage of this in action.

 

Brian