WOW - AR3190 looking amazing today 20th Jan 2023

[Stu]

Just a quickie, I’ve looked at the Sun today, and AR3190 looks incredible. Photographic views with fine petal like striations in the penumbra and detail in the umbra. The seeing is a bit wobbly but the detail coming through is excellent, best white light views I’ve had for quite a while.

[SuburbanMak]

Just walked in from a coffee break white light peek with the old Prinz Astral 330, 60mm f11.8.  Amazing views AR3190 is huge and there’s a wealth of other groups (10 in total?), faculae etc. 

[Nik271]

Same here in Oxford, the clouds cleared for a little while and the big sunspot showing amazing detail at x90. Tried using a oiii filter and noticed a little improvement but not much. Only wish the sun was a bit higher to avoid the heat plumes from the houses across the street.

[Franklin]

Seeing must be pretty good around here this morning, solar detail holding up at high magnification. AR3190 is astonishing, biggest sunspot I've ever seen and the detail looks etched using the 3" SD81s with SSW3.5mm and Lunt wedge, SC filter.

[MalcolmM]

Super detail in NI too. I'm seeing an extra dark sideways V inside the umbra, lots of penumbral filaments and the north edge of the umbra is an orangy brown colour, something I have never seen before! Not sure if it's real or an optical effect. Using FOA60Q plus Lunt wedge plus 9mm Abbe.

Malcolm 

[Peter Drew]

Just had a look as well with my Meade 90mm Mak.  Front mounted glass filter and Leica zoom eyepiece.  The umbra of AR3190 looks like the silhouette of a hovering raptor.    🙂

[Alan White]

We have all had a treat today I feel, sadly forecast not so good for the next few days.
That is quite some sunspot.
Was nice in Ha as well.

[Kon]

No time to look at it through the telescope but a quick glance through a solar filter shows the sunspot as dark spot. It is huge, isn't it!?

[Stu]

The seeing dropped off quite a lot later on, but still, was a pretty amazing sight before then. For once we were lucky with the weather and the seeing 👍

[Mark at Beaufort]

Total cloud cover at the moment. Hoping for a clear patch later in the day so I catch AR3190.

[PeterStudz]

21 hours ago, Kon said:

No time to look at it through the telescope but a quick glance through a solar filter shows the sunspot as dark spot. It is huge, isn't it!?

I had a look this morning through the telescope and through some eclipse glasses. You can easily make it out with just the glasses. Busy this afternoon and this evening so it’s great getting something in!

[Stu]

1 minute ago, PeterStudz said:

I had a look this morning through the telescope and through some eclipse glasses. You can easily make it out with just the glasses. Busy this afternoon and this evening so it’s great getting something in!

Managed a quick peek myself and will have the scope out all day of the weather holds. Still looking amazing, and the seeing is quite reasonable too.

[MalcolmM]

Here's a hand held picture from yesterday which, if you zoom in, you can see a hint (I think) of the orangey/brown colouring I was seeing on the north edge of the umbra. Typically, it looks more obvious in the original pic! Did anyone else notice this? Is this a thing or is it some sort of optical artifact in my system?

Malcolm