The Dutch Observatory

Clear Skies with good transparency and seeing.  Solar Activity remains Very Low.  The spot in AR2717 from two days ago is gone and a nice plage visible in CaK and Ha remains.  In addition, some nice faculaes at the Eastern limb are noticeable in 540nm. Some filaments can also be observed near the NE limb, while a nice prominence shows at the SW limb. An interesting Sun for spotless Day 263.

Finally the clouds opened up a little for my observing session after several days of heavy rains, cloudy skies and tornado warnings.  Solar Activity is Very Low.  The small spot that started to show up three days ago in AR2717 is mostly gone again.  I could not identify the spot today, but a nice plage can be seen in Ha and CaK.  Also noticeable are a few filaments near the NE limb.  Time was too short to chase the few proms at the Eastern limb which can be seen a little in the full disk image.  Today full disk images in three wavelengths and close ups of the mentioned areas.

Clear and stable skies with good seeing.  Solar Activity remains Very Low.  Today is Spotless Day 258.  A small filament as well as some prominences could be observed in Ha around the solar disk.  A new faculae was visible at the eastern limb.  For the rest the Sun looks quiet.

A few clouds cleared and the seeing was above average. Solar Activity is Very Low and we only see a few filaments and small proms in Ha.  Today’s images include full disk images in the three wavelengths as well as close ups of the Western limb to see how the remnants from AR2716 look like in different wavelengths  before they turn to the far side of the sun.

Clear and great seeing conditions.  Today is also where I gave my repaired SM40 a new run.  Solar Activity is Very Low with no flares in a while.  In Ha there were a few filaments near the NW limb and some faint filaments near the NE limb. The Sun was quiet in the other wavelengths.  Today again full disk images in the three wavelengths and close ups in Ha and CaK.

Transparency was not good this morning resulting in below average seeing conditions.  Another Spotless Day with Very Low solar activity.  A real quiet Sun today.  The good news is that late this morning UPS dropped off my SM40 which has been for 8 weeks at Meade for repairs to the blocking filter.  So hopefully tomorrow I get a chance to test the results of the repair.  Am crossing my fingers. Today full disk images with an additional close up of the Western limb in CaK.

Today a correction to yesterday’s post.  The Sun showed a small sunspot from approx. 7/20 1500 UT until 7/21 2300 UT, which NOAA’s SWPC reported in their 0330 UT report on 7/22.  This marks yesterday as the end of a spotless spree and not as spotless day 252 as I reported.  The spot AR2716, covering 10 millionths,  lasted only one day.  So since today’s conditions did not allow me to observe, I spend the time making an annotated animation of the life of AR2716, cropping out the area of the spot using NOAA’s image data.  Click the thumbnail below to see the 3 second animation of AR2716 from birth during the afternoon of 7/20, until it disappeared just before midnight on 7/21. (It might take a little time to load the 7MB animation) The frames in the animation are in reality separated by approx. 1 hour each.  It is interesting to see how the spot generates a few pores which drift away from the central spot during the decay.

Clear skies with good seeing.  Solar Activity remains Very Low on spotless day 252.  The plage we followed a few days ago has turned to the far side of the Sun and for the rest, the Sun is pretty quiet.  Today’s images include full disk images and close ups of the center of the solar disk in CaK and 540nm, showing that even in a 80mm scope one can see the granulation on the solar surface.

Lots of con-trails this morning with average seeing.  Solar Activity is Very Low with no sunspots at spotless day 249.  The plage visible in CaK is approaching the Western Limb so in a few days it will be gone.  The faculae associated with it in 540nm can be seen in the processed full disk image, although I did not make a close up of it.  This is the 22nd spotless day in this series since 6/27, the last day we recorded a sunspot.

Below average seeing today.  The Solar Activity remains Very Low.  Today is spotless day 248 and I am including a close up of the plage near the western limb. For the rest there is not much to see on the sun today.