Susnpot 1112 gone?

[dlp]

Have been doing a bit of sunspot spotting today. In the last 10 mins it looks like sunspot 1112 (the group of small spots) has disappeared. Anyone else confirm?

[brianb]

Sorry the whole sun has disappeared behind a cloud sheet .... I'd be surprised if the spit group vanished "just like that" though, it looked very active yesterday .... poor seeing can sometimes make smaller spots "disappear" especially since it is hard to focus accurately in the absence of strong detail.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Just been viewing the sun with my PST. Sunspot group 1112 is still there. In addition we have 1113 and 1115 and some lovely long filaments. Also, some prominences as well.

In fact the sun appears quite active.

Mark

[Mark at Beaufort]

Decide to view the Sun with my William Optics SD66 fitted with a thousand oakes filter and using Hyperion Zoom set at 8mm - 48X.

Sunspot group 1112 very clear even though the sky is starting to go 'milky'. I could identify 6 small spots.

Mark

[RayGood]

Yep, 1112 is still there, I was viewing the sun today mid-afternoon. Sun was not as clear as yesturday. The granulation was more difficult to make out. Yesturday (16/10/2010) was top notch though. Yesturday I saw, next to sunspot 1113 (not 1112), a tiny black dot appear in the granulation, with an expanding dark ring that seemed to subtly erase the granulation inside its circle as it expanded over a period of 5 minutes or so. The shockwave got to about the same diameter as sunspot 1113, and then went out of vissible light and dissapeared. At the same time the subdued granulation within the circle gradually returned to its former contrast and the tiny black dot in the centre disappeared out of site. I did not see this at 19:00 UT either. It was at about 15:00 to 16:00 UT. Did anyone else see this?

I was observing this in white light.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Ray have you been able to cross reference the event with Soho solar mission?

Mark

[dlp]

Thanks guys. Before it 'disappeared' I took some stills with my DSLR. I soon found out (this was my first attempt) that focussing was not the snap I thought it was going to be. This was about the best of around 30 images believe it or not. SW200P DS/Nikon D90/ 12:49pm/1/500s ISO 200.

Incidentally, what's the convention on correcting (or not) the telescope view to 'normal' view please?

[RayGood]

Ray have you been able to cross reference the event with Soho solar mission?

Mark

Thats the thing Mark. I do not know how. I guess I really need to look through some kind of detailed white light image archive of the day, with each image taken by SOHO of at least 5 minute intervals, as the phenomenon I observed only lasted a few minutes.

How do I do this, if such a detailed archive exists at regular time intervals during the day?

[Mark at Beaufort]

Ray - have a look here. I would use the MDI continuum - log in the time yesterday and see what you get.

Search and Download SOHO Near Realtime Data

mark

[RayGood]

Thanks Mark. It does show something of the early stage at exactly the right spot on the sun, just above 1113. Here is the picture file;

20101016_1615_mdiigr_1024.jpg

for the 16th october at 16:15. Unfortunately, it does not show progrssive intervals of the tiny white dot progressing into a black dot and then forming the shockwave/or ring-like structure. Notice that if faculae, it should have hung around for a while. Check the pictures later in the day. It is mysteriously gone. I am telling you, in this same place, the same size, as that white dot you see in the 16:15 image, it formed a black colored dot to which then, an expanding dark ring emerged around it, as I described earlier. Its just a shame, these images arn't as sharp as what I saw on the day through my telescope. It is difficult to make detail in the granulation using these SOHO images. If there were more intermediate photos taken after 16:15, I am sure it would have caught the feature I saw. Again, if anyone reading this saw a similar feature described at around 16:00, please tell?

Thanks again Mark for providing that link. The 16:15 image just happens to show a white dot in exactly the place where either just before or later, I saw the event take place. At least this image helps confirm what I saw in the exact area that I did. We just need regular interval pictures now. Shame it was a short lived event. I am just glad I saw it. Yea!

Now usually, faculae form into black spots. But if one is small enough, it could quickly fade off, either into the background, or leave a tiny black spot, that may only linger around for a short while. This is what I think happened, and because the progression was so quick, from hot to cold, there could have been a surface movement like suction around it (just like water around a plug hole) as the material at the spot cooled off drawing in surrounding material. This could explain the boundry-ring like structure that I saw form around the dot with greatly subdued granulation within the circle. i.e. the surface flow of material disturbing the pattern of surface granulation. The ring, I noticed, began to appear at a specific distance from the black dot, growing only slightly before disappearing. The ring, as it were, was defined as the boundry between the subdued granulation, and that which was not subdued in appearence. The ring appeared around this tiny black dot almost the size of 1113, and then gradually expanded slightly outwards, until it was the same size roughly, of 1113. The border of the ring, then gradually fading off.

After thinking about what I saw for some time, I do not think it was a mini solar tsunami, but rather surface disturbance due to the rapid change of temperature at that dark dot (cooler area), thus, suddenly drawing in surface material within a certain radius, producing the feature that I saw.

That's just my theory. Would seem to explain what I saw, but what do you think, or anyone else for that matter? I welcome any input as to what might help explain what I saw.