The Dutch Observatory

2017-09-18. Clear and stable skies today .  Solar Activity remains Very Low with no flares in the last two days. The only region on the hemisphere, AR2680 covers an area of 80 millionths and still contains 3 sun spots.  The two filaments are still nice to see.  And a prom at the SE limb shows very nicely.

Clear and stable skies.  Solar Activity remains Very Low with no flares in the last two days.  AR2680 has increased a little to 90 millionths but still contains 3 sun spots and is an Hsx on the McIntosh scale.  The filament at the Eastern limb shows nice now where it is a little further on the solar hemisphere.  The small filament a little East of center also looks nice and a nice prom is visible at the SE limb.

Clear Skies again with good seeing.  Solar Activity remains Very Low with no flares in the last two days.  Active Region AR2680 covers today an area of 80 millionths while it contains 3 sun spots.  In addition to the single area, two nice prominences are visible at the SE and NE limb.

Finally clear skies after Irma with power and internet back!  Solar Activity is Very Low with no flares in the last two days.  Well, after the bursts of high activity in the last two weeks, the Sun seems quiet again.  The single Active Region, AR2680, covers an area of 120 millionths and contains only one sunspot.  We also can see a few proms and a filament.

The last chance to observe the Sun before the arrival of Irma.  Conditions were bad.  Solar Activity is High with 1 X-class flare (X8.2), 3 M-class and 15 C-class flares in the previous 48 hours.  AR2673 is still visible at the Western limb in the Ha close up, while AR2674 and 78 are almost there.  A new Area is visible at the Eastern limb but has not been named yet and probably will become AR2680.  Total Active Region Area for the Sun today is at 1110 millionths while the spot count is at 19.  Some very nice prominences are visible today even though the conditions were so bad. When I finished my session, the outer banks of Irma were visible from my observing location as can be seen in the last image, while the eye of the hurricane made landfall in the Florida Keys.

The calm before the storm (Irma)?  Another day where the skies were calm and allowed good seeing.  AR2673 remains very active and is still increasing in size.  Today it reached 1000 millionths, and registered 5 M-class flares of which one was an R2 triggering flare of M8.1 . Total Active Region Area is 1660 millionths and the spot count is 44.  Solar Activity is High today with 5 M-class flares and 16 C-class flares. In addition, a nice filament can be seen as well as a nice prominence at the SW limb.

Clear skies, but had only time to observe in the PM.  Well, hurricane Harvey is gone and Irma is knocking at the door!  While these events kept us busy, the Sun has also been very busy.  In fact after a few days of a producing a large number of serious flares, the Sun produced an X9.3 flare in AR2673 yesterday, while the sky was overcast in Atlanta,.  I checked my database and the previous largest flare in the last three years, and probably of the current Solar Cycle, was a X7.0 reported on October 2, 2014. Total solar Activity for today is Very High with 3 X-class flares and 6 M-Class flares in the past two days. Total Active Region Area is at 1690 millionths of which AR2673 accounts for 960. the spot count today is at 39.

30% Cloud cover during my session this morning.  Fireworks have been going off in AR2673.  Solar Activity is High with 11 M-class, and 10 C-class flares in the last two days.  AR2674 has decreased  to 690 millionths, but its spot count has increased to 34, while AR2673 has increased to 680 millionths with28  spots.  Total Active Region Area for today is 1470 millionths and the total spot count is at 72.  The proms at the SE and SW limbs are still very nice.  It has been a long time since we had this much activity on the Sun!

Before I setup, clear skies, but when I was ready to start imaging, 85% cloud coverage. So today’s session was pretty frustrating.  As a result I was not able to get the darks I usually take.   At the beginning of the day, Solar Activity was Medium with two M-Class flares and 10 C-class flares in the last two days.  However, today the Sun has continued it activity and so far created 5 M1.x flares as well as one M5.5 flare, triggering an R2 alert.  AR2674 has grown to 940 millionths while the total Active Region Area for the Sun is 1140 millionths and the spot count is 46.  In addition, two nice prominences could be observed.

Conditions were very good today.  AR2672 disappeared, but got immediately replaced by another region, AR2676.  So we still have 4 regions.  AR2674 has increased and covers 810 millionths today, while the Total Active Region Area is 920.  The Spot count is at 31.  Thanks to AR2674 which produced 3 C-class flares, the Solar Activity is Low today.  In addition we also see some nice prominences around the limb.