SunSpot_AR3112_EarlyFallFoliage_20221005_HomCavObservatory_ReSizedDown2HD

Object Details: As the clouds slowly dissipated here in upstate, NY yesterday afternoon, the Sun, filtered through high clouds, lit up the trees as they begin to show their beautiful autumn colors. Mother nature also had another treat in store as one of the largest sunspot groups in years has just rotated onto the Earth facing side of our star.

Consisting of multiple cores and spanning more than 80,000 miles (130,000 km) end-to-end, it currently has a delta-class magnetic field that poses a threat for X-class flares. Since it is now in a geo-effective position aurora aficionados should keep any eye out for any Coronal Mass Ejections that it might release.

Shown in the attached composite are some quick hand-held shots of the foliage behind (i.e. north of) the RoR observatory I built at our home - the top of the observatory can actually be seen with the scopes imaging the Sun at the bottom of the lower right image. Also shown are three low-resolution screen shots of AR3112 - at center using a short focal length refractor, and on either side using a longer focal-length reflector; and in both cases an applicable 'over-the-aperture' solar filter & a planetary camera / autoguider.

Image details: The images making up the attached composite were taken on the late afternoon of October 5, 2022. The foliage shots used an unmodded Canon 700D and it's 18-55mm 'kit' lens. The center solar image was shot with an 80mm, f/5 achromat with a Thousand Oaks glass solar filter and an ASI290MC with a luminance filter, while the close-ups were taken with a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector and a home-made Baader (visual grade material) solar filter and the same ASI290MC camera with (left) the same luminance filter and (right) an ultraviolet filter. The ASI290MC was controlled by Sharpcap Pro & the scopes were tracked on a Losmandy G-11 running a Gemini 2 control system.

Given that these are single-frame screenshots, they are naturally very noisy & of low-resolution. Although the seeing was terrible during the entire imaging session and high clouds covered the sky most of the time, in addition to the luminance and ultraviolet filters shown here I also managed to capture some images using infrared and methane filters. I have not yet had a chance to stack and process any of the data gathered using either scope but am looking forward to seeing what details I can pull out of the data in spite of the less-than-desirable atmospheric conditions. As shown here the entire composite has been resized down to HD resolution and the bit depth lowered to 8 bits per channel.

Visually, using an 16mm eyepiece on the 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newt. (producing ~ 90X), the entire solar disk just fit into the field-of-view and AR3112 showed an immense amount of detail. Current magnetic maps of the sun's surface show AR3112 possess multiple positive and negative magnetic polarities in close proximity to one another. As such it warrants keeping a close eye on it's evolution as it progresses across the solar disk. In spite of the upcoming full moon, I'm hoping this enormous active region will produce some wonderful auroral activity.

Wishing clear, calm & dark skies (and of course beautiful fall foliage) to all !

Similar solar & planetary composites can be found in the albums at the attached links:

Solar:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760573...

Jupiter:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...

Saturn:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...

Mars:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/albums/7215760574...

Taken on: October 6, 2022

Tags:

HomCav

Observatory

Sunspot

AR3112

white-light

home-made

Baader

filter

8-inch

f/7

Criterion

newtonian

reflector

80mm

f/5

Celestron

short-tube $Everybody's photos tagged with refractor$ refractor

Ultraviolet

infrared

CH4

Methane

specialized

planetary

filters

ZWO

ASI290MC

camera

auto-guider

Losmandy

G-11

mount

Gemini

goto

control

system

SharpCap

Pro

astronomy

astrophotography « less

Sets appears in: • Solar System (Solar, Lunar, Comets, Planetary, Eclipses, Conjunctions) • Terrestrial (Aurora, Meteors, Satellites) more » • Solar « less

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