New spot on the Sun - 7th April 2020

[Stu]

I put this in the heads up section too, full info there but there is a new spot on the Sun today!

[Alan White]

I just need to sneak away from the PC and work, oh, how did i find myself on SGL??

[Stu]

12 minutes ago, Alan White said:

I just need to sneak away from the PC and work, oh, how did i find myself on SGL??

Fortunately I’m on leave this week 👍👍

[Littleguy80]

Went out for a look on lunch break. I'm finding granulation easier to spot now. Not sure if that's improved seeing or I've just gotten my eye in a bit. It does feel a bit like learning averted vision, in that you need to train your to focus at the right point. Still takes a lot of concentration to hold it in focus. It's really incredible yuk much there is to be seen on what would otherwise appear to be a flat featureless disc. Certainly before now, I would have looked and said there was nothing to be seen. I managed to pick up the AR in the location that Stu described. Maybe a little closer to the 6 o clock position but, in all honesty, it was hard to judge precisely. One dark spot and I thought a second one close by but I was less certain of this. A definite unexpected bonus to have this to observer. Thanks for the heads up, Stu!

[niallk]

Was out observing with my LS50DS earlier.  Nice intricate detail on view, and nice sharp views with the 7.5mm setting on my TS HR zoom 😎 Beautiful blue skies here... just a shame it's also a full moon... 🙄

[Stu]

53 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Went out for a look on lunch break. I'm finding granulation easier to spot now. Not sure if that's improved seeing or I've just gotten my eye in a bit. It does feel a bit like learning averted vision, in that you need to train your to focus at the right point. Still takes a lot of concentration to hold it in focus. It's really incredible yuk much there is to be seen on what would otherwise appear to be a flat featureless disc. Certainly before now, I would have looked and said there was nothing to be seen. I managed to pick up the AR in the location that Stu described. Maybe a little closer to the 6 o clock position but, in all honesty, it was hard to judge precisely. One dark spot and I thought a second one close by but I was less certain of this. A definite unexpected bonus to have this to observer. Thanks for the heads up, Stu!

Good stuff Neil. I was going to update and say that the position angle was probably wrong because I had my diagonal canted round a little! Much remember that.

Seeing earlier on here was much better, so it does vary quite alot. About half an hour ago I want seeing anything, but this morning it was really quite vivid. Focus is critical, a small fraction of a turn of the fine focus really does make a different.

Your description sounds right Neil, one spot and a second small, faint one nearby. Tough to spot when the seeing goes though.

I think that's why many people say white light solar is boring, because they haven't seen what is there. This morning before I saw the spot, ines still mesmerised by the swirling patterns visible in the granulation all over the disk. Lovely stuff.

[Highburymark]

Thin layer of high cloud now but managed to pick up two small spots with the Lunt 60.  

Wrong forum, I know, but surprised to see greater spotted woodpecker, two dunnocksand three jays in the tree at end of the garden today - very unusual for London. 

[vineyard]

I have to practice my white light viewing - tried a couple of times this afternoon but I couldn't see anything.  Maybe I left it too late.  (Would a solar continuum filter make it easier - I do have a normal polarising filter in my white light train?).  Oh well luckily summer's coming so hopefully there will be plenty of chances  Cheers for the head's up Stu.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Didn't spot anything definite in white light, did get some images in Ca-K. There is a bit of plage in roughly the right spot in these images, and a hint of a pore. The granulation seemed a bit perturbed in that area in WL, but the image I did capture mainly showed some stacking artefacts (common with such an empty disk)

[Littleguy80]

2 hours ago, vineyard said:

I have to practice my white light viewing - tried a couple of times this afternoon but I couldn't see anything.  Maybe I left it too late.  (Would a solar continuum filter make it easier - I do have a normal polarising filter in my white light train?).  Oh well luckily summer's coming so hopefully there will be plenty of chances  Cheers for the head's up Stu.

I have the TS Optics Herschel wedge which has an ND and Continuum filter built in. For an experiment, I just switched it over so I just have the ND filter. The green from the Continuum filter definitely adds contrast to the granulation. However, I could still pick it up without the Continuum filter. My experience so far suggests it's a mix of having good seeing, focus being spot and getting your eye to focus at the right level. The last bit is tricky and has taken me a long time to get the hang of. I tend to focus on the surface and then slowly draw my eye back from the eyepiece until I find the right focus point. Once I have got it a couple of times it becomes easier to get my eye to find the right focal point.

[bomberbaz]

Yeah I spotted this with my little Lunt HA when I went out about 10.30 UK time, there was also at the five oclock position (in my scope) a tiny prom coming off. When I say tiny it would have probably swallowed the earth.

[Stu]

3 hours ago, vineyard said:

I have to practice my white light viewing - tried a couple of times this afternoon but I couldn't see anything.  Maybe I left it too late.  (Would a solar continuum filter make it easier - I do have a normal polarising filter in my white light train?).  Oh well luckily summer's coming so hopefully there will be plenty of chances  Cheers for the head's up Stu.

I always use a Continuum filter, it’s a permanent fixture in my setup now. A while back I played around with lots of different setups and combinations, and reached the conclusion that it was a benefit for granulation and faculae. I no longer play around as I’m fairly sure what I have now gives as good results as can be achieved with a 4” scope.

As Neil says, granulation can be seen without, and does depend on the factors mentioned, seeing and focus being most critical. I normally focus on the limb, then look at the disk and make small adjustments with the fine focus. You pick up the point where the granulation snaps into focus and this draws your eye to it.

The scope is important too. I see people using fast achros and am sure that these have too much spherical aberration to give sharp images even with a wedge. A decent f10 or f11 4” scope doesn’t cost a fortune and should give good results so long as it is well corrected in SA.