2.5 Hour Animation of AR2579 Shows How Sunspots Develop!

[cshahar]

Hi Everyone:

This animation was taken on the 23rd of August and is the longest I have ever attempted. It was the first completely clear morning in two months! It is not perfect, but when I focus on each individual sunspot cluster I can see an evolution: the bottom one is starting to divide (I just missed catching the full split), whereas the top cluster appears to be shrinking. These long-duration animations are difficult to execute. The animation below represents 154 frames, and is actually a close crop of this AR. The pre-cropped full sized GIF takes up an outrageous amount of space. This animation may take a while to load.

I have also attached a mosaic of the area around this active region. Please click on it for a sharper rendition.

Thanks,

-Charles

 

 

[Tonynexevo925]

Very impressive - a lot of effort but the result is worth it ??

[David Smith]

Great animation Charles.

[cshahar]

Thanks Tony & Dave. I really appreciate the encouragement. It took about 7 hours of post-processing to finally get the animation ready.

Here is an extreme crop focusing on the spots. Note the bottom cluster, and how it starts to split. I actually think it might have just managed to split before the animation ended. Does anyone concur?

 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Really stunning animation. Well worth all the work.

[keramos]

Amazing animation Charles.

How you get your frames so even, is there some special post processing steps or just a resultant of good seeing.

I think the bottom cluster was 95% split before animation ended. In any case stunning animation.

[Iainp]

Wow,that is very special!

Iain 

[Pete Presland]

Fascinating animation, particularly the close up. 

[The Head Gardener]

That is quite brilliant, thank you so much. 

I'm a total solar-newbie novice (my Lunt arrived yesterday and I got a brief first light this morning), and co-incidentally last night I was re-reading J.L. Jenkins "Observing the Sun' - the part on how sunspots form.  Amazing to then see your animation.  Apart from the 2½ hours of elapsed time, how long did you have to spend post-processing?

[cshahar]

Thanks everyone. The comments are hugely appreciated!

Head Gardener, welcome to the wonderful world of solar observing / imaging! It took me about seven hours to post-process this animation. But I am a perfectionist. It could have been done in much less time but the results would not be quite as good.

-Charles

[paulastro]

Wow Charles, talk about dedication.  I reckon you deserve a medal !!  Top notch, many thanks for posting your monumental effort. 

[Davey-T]

Nearly missed this rather excellent animation, well done Charles.

Dave 

[johnfosteruk]

Charles that is a great piece of work, very very impressive.

[cshahar]

Thank you all so much. It make the effort more worthwhile!

-Charles

[Ruud]

Woah, it's alive!

Amazing!

[The Head Gardener]

On 27/08/2016 at 03:10, cshahar said:

 It took me about seven hours to post-process this animation. But I am a perfectionist. It could have been done in much less time but the results would not be quite as good.

Seven hours        Genuflects in awe.  

Yep, for now I'm definitely sticking with visual.

 

[cshahar]

Good choice. I miss the visual aspect! Imaging kind of takes away from that direct experience.

-Charles