The Dutch Observatory

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.

Clear skies with good seeing conditions.  Today is a special day since it is the 750th spotless day on the Sun since solar max as reported by SWPC.  In fact, the sun is real quiet today.  The only item I could make out was this very small prom at the SW limb visible in the full disk Ha image.  For the rest it was a blank disk, even in CaK.

Clear skies with good seeing.  Another spotless day on the Sun.  This time we did not see any prominences and only a filament in the Southern hemisphere in Ha.  So the Sun is really quiet today.  Today only full disk images.

Clear skies with average seeing today.  The Sun remains spotless.  However the prom in the NE now shows as a detached prom in the full sized Ha image.  Noticed it too late to make close up, so today only full disk images.

Today we have clear skies with very good seeing, but the Sun decided to remain spotless. We still see some proms around the Sun but for most they are pretty faint.  In addition, two filaments are visible in Ha in the Southern hemisphere.

A Short Summary of CR2229

Carrington Rotation CR2229 covered the time period from 2020-03-28 0857 UT – 2020-04-24 1529 UT.
The observations can be viewed in my Solar Archive for CR2229 which can be accessed at: http://ceastronomy.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=49494
The rotation brought us 22 spotless days with a streak of 19 days. We had one Active Region, AR2759, which emerged on 3/31/2020 and lasted for 5 days. The region’s maximum coverage was 30 millionths on April 3 and 4, when it supported 2 and respectively 3 spots. Overall Solar Activity remained Very Low and the rotation increased the spotless days count since solar maximum to 738 spotless days. Finally, during the period SWPC reported three A-class, seven B class and no C-class flares.
At this time I would like to feature some combination images showing AR2759 in three different wavelenghts on three different days.

Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers