MARCH 26TH - WL, AR2974, AR2975, AR2976.

[paulastro]

Observed this morning with the Tecnosky 102 ED F7. AR2975 still showing lots of detail.

NW of the spot on the W edge of AR2975 is an, as yet undesignated, AR consisting of two very small spots.  It can be seen in the crop of the single frame below.  Taken at 7.56 am, 102ED, Olympus E - M5 Mk11, 1/160 at 200 asa.

 

 

[IB20]

Seeing is great today, got the Tak 76DCU out. Showing wonderful detail at 143x even good views when pushed to 178x. AR2975 appearing like a broken heart in the umbral region. AR2976 showing a little cluster of 4 umbral islands. Best WL solar session for some time for me, can’t believe how the Tak is eating up the magnification. 

Edited March 26, 2022 by IB20

[Highburymark]

I thought AR2976 was the star of the show today - really intricate activity. I was at 220x this evening through the binoviewer  - 5pm-on is best time of day here in London, even though I’m looking through more atmospheric gunk the seeing stabilises.

[Paz]

I've been following 2975 in white light since it appeared and will try to follow it's progress  all the way through to it rotating out of view which I've never done before.

I'm mostly viewing at only about 49x with a 72mm refractor and binoviewers as I have to view over close rooftops and the heat from them limits what magnification is possible.

I had a go at measuring the size of 2975 and made it about 43,000km or about 3.5 earths across the whole penumbra (this will be rough, not deadly accurate). 

Is was about 1.25 ticks long in a baader microguide eyepiece. It's the blob/blur in the measuring channel at between 35-36 units along but looked fine by eye.

The green circle is the full solar disk, the field stop is not clear but it out past the outer position angle marker ring.

[Peter Drew]

Treated to a good solar session today despite having picked up a nasty cold from the astro Show, the only thing I brought back!  Spent the time comparing a Lunt 35 and a 4" Vixen PST mod to my main 6" PST mod.  Seeing was variable but the transparency was a little better than of late but best of all, hardly any wind.

Good result with all three, specially the LS35 considering its small aperture, difficult to get used to the small image scale after the high resolution high magnification of the larger units. 

One thing I particularly noticed whilst using the 6", I usually observe with it at the best  setting for Ha and rarely detune it to view the psuedo white light image.  Today though, since the spot is a major one I gave it a go.  Rotating the PST tuning collar whilst viewing I was surprised to see jet black streaks and curves surrounding spot area, they did not appear in prime Ha or full white (red) light mode but about halfway between the two.  Presumably some sort of Doppler effect.  🙂