The Dutch Observatory

Clear skies with average seeing.  The Active Region that was named yesterday as AR2764 did end the spotless streak, but did not make it through the day as it showed a size of zero at the end of yesterday. This ends the 5th spotless streak during this minimum of 30 or more spotless days.  I could not make out any spots in any of the wavelengths, but the plage is nicely visible in Ha and CaK as well as the faculae in WL.  In addition we do have a nice prominence at the NW limb. An other interesting fact today is that the International Spot number (RI) for May was the  lowest so far in this Solar Minimum with 0.2.  We have seen RIs with 0.5 and 0.4 this minimum, but this is the lowest.  However, it still does not match the RI of zero that we saw in the previous minimum.  Today full disk images, and close ups in Ha of the plage and the prom.

Broken clouds today so I had to image in the gaps between the clouds resulting in poor seeing.  The region that came around the Eastern limb on 5/30 was named this morning by SWPC as AR2764.  The Southern area has not developed any spots yet, but both areas have Cycle 25 polarization.  My close up WL captures today were of very poor quality and did not stack in AS2 nor in Registax, so no WL close up today, but  Ha close ups of both areas.

Another day with clear skies!  The NE-region from yesterday shows a faculae and a few pores in WL.  SWPC calls it “small  intermittend pores”.  Also visible are the plages in the SE and Cntr West.  Today full disk images as well as some close ups with the ASI174MM and the ASI120MM of the mentioned areas.

Clear skies with good seeing.  It has been about a week with clouds, rain, clouds, rain, and so on.  But today the Sun shows that it is still spotless.  We see some prominences and plages near the Eastern rim, but no spots can be seen.  Both areas seem to have Cycle 25 polarization, and the spotless streak stands at 28 days.  Full disk images today in the three wavelengths and close ups in Ha of the two mentioned regions.

Another spotless Sun today with a nice plage visible near the meridian in Ha and CaK, as well as a filament extending to the NE.  Full disk images today and close ups in Ha and CaK of the mentioned area.

A Short Summary of CR2230

Carrington Rotation CR2230 covered the time period from 2020-04-24 1529 UT – 2020-05-21 2100 UT.
The observations can be viewed in my Solar Archive for CR2230 which can be accessed at: http://ceastronomy.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=49751

The rotation brought us 21 spotless days, with a spotless streak of 20 days which was interrupted for 6 days while showing 4 Active Regions.  AR2760 emerged on 4/26/2020 and lasted the entire 6 days with the exception that it disappeared for a short time on 4/29.  Another region which was named AR2761 showed only for part of a day one day earlier.  All regions were very small at 10 millionths, with AR2761 being the exception by increasing to 20 millionths on 4/30 and 5/1.   The maximum Wolf Number of 35 was reached on 5/1 when both AR2760 and 63 were reported with 2 spots each.  Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low with a Total Rotation Active Region Area of 100 millionths, while the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 759 spotless days. Finally, during the period SWPC reported two A-class, two B class, and no C-class flares.
This time I would like to feature some combination images showing some prominences at the SW rim.

Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

Mostly cloudy skies today with here and there some clear skies between them. The Sun is again spotless but now shows a few nice prominences at the NE and SW limbs. Imaging was very much compromised today with only a few seconds of exposure time here and there and far in between. But I captured two full disk images today and a close up of the mentioned proms in the NE.

An Analysis of the Transition From Solar Cycle 24 to Solar Cycle 25

I wrote a paper about the current Solar low.  More specifically how the current transition stacks up against transitions between other Solar Cycles.  This paper was published in the 2020 Winter issue of the Strolling Astronomer, ALPO-Astronomy’s quarterly paper.  I am posting it here for those who follow me, and have not had a chance to read this, so they can get a better idea what the current Solar minimum indicates. Follow the link here to read the paper as a pdf document.

Clear skies during my observing session with average seeing.  Another spotless day for the Sun.  The two proms at the Eastern limb are still there and one can see a plage associated with each of them near the rim.  Both of them seem to have Cycle 25 polarization.  Its worth to keep an eye on these two.  Full disk images as well as close ups in Ha of the two proms/plages.

Clear skies, with variable seeing.  Another spotless Sun today but with a few proms at the Eastern limb.  I made a close up of the SE prom which was skinny and high, but the second one in the NE was low and wide.  Almost always something to see.