The diminishing active region, 22nd June

[Andrew*]

I viewed the sun twice today.

At 11am, there was lots of nice Ha activity around the main active region - a curved filament and large, bright faculae. In white light were visible two quite prominent sunspots, with one in between, and a fourth very small one, all in a line.

Later, the filament had all but gone, the faculae were much diminished, and in white light I could only see one sunspot!

I knew the sun was dynamic but I had no idea it could change so much over just a couple of hours...

Would love to see some photographic evidence or visual confirmation of this curious deterioration of the active region.

Andrew

[brianb]

Sorry, got some images in the morning but clouds rolled in during the afternoon.

I find it's quite usual for small spots to be less visible in the afternoon than in the morning as solar heating tends to worsen the seeing. They can vanish quite quickly though - filaments can depart in 15-30 minutes once the magnetic field that creates them "snaps" and the plages can also turn on & off quite quickly.

[Andrew*]

Hi Brian,

Getting some cracking views right now. There really is only one spot remaining, but the active region is still very evident in Ha, but did change quite a bit.

The prominence at 12 o'clock has developed nicely.

Binoviewers in the 120ED, Ha style, at 180x - best views ever

Andrew