The Dutch Observatory

After a rainy and cloudy New Years, the sun came out again and showed its face today covered with 7 active regions, reminding us that we are in the solar high.  However, flare activity is limited to some B and C class flares.  Today a full disk image and a closeup of 1644 and 46.

Carington Rotation 2131 came to an end yesterday.  Today the sky was clear for a change.  The Sun has not been very active in the last three or four days.  However 4 active regions make a nice display, especially since all but one are in the Northern hemisphere.  The transparency was so good that I wanted to try a closeup with a 5x barlow.  The atmosphere was a little turbulent, however an image of 1638 came out pretty good with a 5x Meade barlow. 

To some, this was supposed to be my the last picture of the Sun before the end of the world. (The end of the Mayan calendar)   But…. I guess someone forgot to tell the Sun, so nothing happened.  In fact the Sun has been remarkable quiet for the last few days.  But check out the backside of the sun on the Stereo Satellite websites.  Today a lot of clouds, so managed only a full disk image of the sun with three active regions.

A clear Sky again and a little more stable than yesterday.  AR1633 and 34 have grown but flare activity has been real low yesterday and today.  Another full disk image and a closeup of 33 and 34 as well as a nice prom.

The weather has not been too good for solar observing lately, but today I made a full disk image as well as a closeup of a nice prom and a sunspot group between shopping and working on my new solar filter.

Finally the weather cleared up again.  The sun was not very busy today, but the grouping 1629, 30, 31 and 32 is very impressive.  Also a few nice flares at the SW and East limbs if the sun.

A nice but not very busy sun today with three active regions 1621,23,25 and a few prominences and filaments.  Even the number of flares yesterday and today have been low.  Today a full disk image and a closeup of the 1623, 25 combo.

Today marks the beginning of a new Carington Rotation, but I had trouble today finding holes big enough to get a complete run, so I had to limit today’s imaging to one whole solar disk image.  The area 1623, 25 was very interesting, although most flares originated from 1620.  In addition a nice display of prominences and filaments.

An interesting sun with four active regions and a nice group of prominences.

I put a movie clip together showing a three time repeat of the eruption of the 26th (for easy viewing) as well as a three time repeat of how the Solar Dynamics Observatory saw this event.  Please note that SDO’s sequence covers 2.5 hours (4 frames per hour) and my animation 0.5 hour (1 frame per minute).  Click the image to link to the movie.  Wait a little for it to start playing.