Sunspot AR2192

Today I finally got some clear skies and a chance to see the huge sunspot AR2192. It was a fantastic view through the solar telescope and I don't think I ever seen such a huge sunspot.

This is a shot I took today, in the center of the Sun you can see a very long filament. It's longer than the distance between Earth and Moon.

Missing: Nearby star

For almost three weeks now, our closest star, the Sun, is missing. At this time of the year in Östersund, it's usually visible between 08:00 and 17:00. Last know position in the sky was  on October 2nd, low in the west. Hopefully the weather will clear up soon so I can get a good look at the huge sunspot AR2192.

Big sunspot AR1967

Today the Sun finally showed up after what feels like an eternity.

At the moment there is a very big sunspot on the Sun and it has recently been producing a lot of flares and is very active. The sunspot is named AR1967.

This is my first shot of the Sun since autumn 2013. The Sun doesn't get high enough this time of the year to get good and sharp images. At the time, the Sun was only 7° above the horizon, so usually I don't do solar photography this early in the year. But today I just had to get a shot of big sunspot AR1967 to see it's complexity. And what a view it was through my telescope, very impressive. Also there were some great prominences out on the limb.

I've included a scale sized Earth to better show the size of this big sunspot.

Big sunspot

Here's a shot from the sunrise this morning showing the great #sunspot that's currently visible on the Sun. I could clearly see the sunspot in the viewfinder of my camera. It's twice the size of Earths diameter and is one of the biggest spots for a long time.

Yesterday it produced a strong solar flare that produced a CME (Coronal mass ejection) that is almost certainly heading for Earth. So be on a lookout for #aurora the upcoming days.

Dagens sol

Idag var det strålande sol i stort sätt hela dagen så jag passade på att fånga den stora solfläck man kunnat se senaste tiden. I helgen var jag nere i Karlskrona på astroträff arrangerad av Karlskrona Astronomiska Förening (mer om det i ett senare inlägg) och där tittade vi mycket på solen och solfläck 1732 syntes mycket tydligt. Bilden till höger visar en förstoring av området kring den stora solfläcken. Förhoppningsvis kommer solen att fortsätta hålla en hög aktivitet under sommaren, det skall bli spännande att följa dess aktivitet.

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Today was beautiful sunny day so I took the opportunity to catch the big sunspot that have been seen recently. This weekend I was down in Karlskrona at an star party (more on that in a later post) and we looked a lot at the sun with solar telescopes and especially sunspot 1732. The picture to the right shows an enlargement of the area around the large sunspot. Hopefully the sun will continue to keep a high level of activity during the summer, it will be interesting to follow its activity.