aslkahuna Posted March 31, 2012 Author Share Posted March 31, 2012 The C7 flare from old 1429 before it came around the limb may have been its last hurrah since today there's very little besides some small spots and plage left of the region. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny and Warm Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 The C7 flare from old 1429 before it came around the limb may have been its last hurrah since today there's very little besides some small spots and plage left of the region. Steve yeah, 1429 is looking kinda sad these days. I wonder if i survives the transit across the face. Normally, sunspots don't make it past one full rotation, so 1429 had strong magnetism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted March 31, 2012 Author Share Posted March 31, 2012 yeah, 1429 is looking kinda sad these days. I wonder if i survives the transit across the face. Normally, sunspots don't make it past one full rotation, so 1429 had strong magnetism. The SDO imagery two days before it came on showed strong magnetic loops and the X-ray imager from GOES show strong X-ray emission indicative of an active region. I also saw some bright limb surging as well but it all fell apart after the C7 flare and the X-ray imagery shows much less brightness now. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 A M1.7 X-Ray event from behind the NE limb occurred at 1754Z yesterday. It was accompanied by an impressive eruptive limb prominence (EPL). I shot this photo some 5 hours later showing prominence activity was still on going. This is a single shot with a simple point and shoot digital camera as I need a longer cable and another piece of hardware to be able to start video capture and frame stacking. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turtlehurricane Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Impressive you can capture that with a digital camera! Any special lens or camera mode needed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 Impressive you can capture that with a digital camera! Any special lens or camera mode needed? Well the telescope is a Coronado Meade PST 40 mm scope with a 10mm Plössl eyepiece. The camera is old a Sony DSC-90 4 megapixel digital set in manual mode with an 80 ISO and shutter speed of 1/125 second. I use the afocal method and have the Orion SteadyPix camera mount (there's one of those available for IPhone cameras). For disk detail in H-Alpha a much faster shutter speed is needed. Other than the telescope which of course is special, everything else is off the shelf (camera bought in Walmart). The original image is small so I had to crop to make it larger so that you can see the details. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMolineuxLM1 Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 Well the telescope is a Coronado Meade PST 40 mm scope with a 10mm Plössl eyepiece. The camera is old a Sony DSC-90 4 megapixel digital set in manual mode with an 80 ISO and shutter speed of 1/125 second. I use the afocal method and have the Orion SteadyPix camera mount (there's one of those available for IPhone cameras). For disk detail in H-Alpha a much faster shutter speed is needed. Other than the telescope which of course is special, everything else is off the shelf (camera bought in Walmart). The original image is small so I had to crop to make it larger so that you can see the details. Steve Slow Shutter is a good app for the iphone, it has a bunch of settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted April 18, 2012 Author Share Posted April 18, 2012 My camera has settings ranging from 30 seconds to 1/1000 second so it's fairly versatile there. The ISO settings run from 80-400. It's just a matter of bracketing exposures-my 1/160 second exposure was a bit too short so I ran up to 1/125 sec. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted April 21, 2012 Author Share Posted April 21, 2012 Some of today's sunspots. Left to right AR 1465, 1459, 1460. I used my 90 mm Maksutov-Cassegrain for this one at f/13.2 so the image was a bit large for the camera field. Full aperature Solar Filter used and 1/250 second exposure. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Just got this in an email Space Weather Message Code: WARK07 Serial Number: 37 Issue Time: 2012 Apr 24 0204 UTC WARNING: Geomagnetic K-index of 7 or greater expected Valid From: 2012 Apr 24 0205 UTC Valid To: 2012 Apr 24 0600 UTC Warning Condition: Onset NOAA Scale: G3 or greater - Strong to Extreme NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at www.swpc.noaa.gov/NOAAscales Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 50 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude. Induced Currents - Power system voltage irregularities possible, false alarms may be triggered on some protection devices. Spacecraft - Systems may experience surface charging; increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites and orientation problems may occur. Navigation - Intermittent satellite navigation (GPS) problems, including loss-of-lock and increased range error may occur. Radio - HF (high frequency) radio may be intermittent. Aurora - Aurora may be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettjrob Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Reports of aurora visible as far south as KS over the past half hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaoPos Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Aurora - Aurora may be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j24vt Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Faint aurora visible in Stowe, Vermont right now. Unfortunately there is a low band of clouds right on the horizon but you can see the glow outlining them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunder Road Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Just heard a report of visible aurora at the Indiana Dunes. No idea if it's legit, and I'm too swamped in end-of-semester work to go out and look for myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aurora Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 There were some decent pictures on Twitter tonight; nothing like October 24th, but unquestionably decent for how far south they were taken. Can't wait until I move back north in a few weeks and can start 'hunting' again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 The combination of a coronal hole and glancing CME passages resulted in stronger activity than forecast by SWPC. The USAF Magnetometer data indicates a K=7 or G3 but SWPC so far has only called it a G2. Boulder is using the USGS network fr their reports on activity and tends to run lower than everyone else. Based upon how far south the activity has been seen G3 is probably a more realistic category. I have noticed that some of the well known Solar sites have dropped using SWPC's Gemag data based upon data quality issues. As for me, I have always used the USAF Network data because I've worked with it in the past. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WXheights Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 The combination of a coronal hole and glancing CME passages resulted in stronger activity than forecast by SWPC. The USAF Magnetometer data indicates a K=7 or G3 but SWPC so far has only called it a G2. Boulder is using the USGS network fr their reports on activity and tends to run lower than everyone else. Based upon how far south the activity has been seen G3 is probably a more realistic category. I have noticed that some of the well known Solar sites have dropped using SWPC's Gemag data based upon data quality issues. As for me, I have always used the USAF Network data because I've worked with it in the past. Steve Steve - you have any favorite links I've noticed SWPC not really cutting it either. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j24vt Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 This link is a good consolidation of sources: http://www.solarham.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Two other sites are http://www.solen.info/solar/ and http://www.spacew.com the former is Jan Alverstad's site in the Netherlands. Also, you can use the USAF Magnetometer network data which is available on the SWPC site. Also helps to read the actual data such as the Solar wind and IMF data available on Spaceweather.com. I also review the actual magnetometer and Riometer traces available on the HAARP site. This event was certainly underforecast though it should also be emphasized that we really have no real clue as to the properties of any disturbance until it;s a million miles out or about 10-60 minutes before impact. In this case none of the CMEs seemed especially strong but they were filament eruptions which make up in mass what they lack in speed. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunder Road Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Just heard a report of visible aurora at the Indiana Dunes. No idea if it's legit, and I'm too swamped in end-of-semester work to go out and look for myself. Some pretty good pics from the Dunes last night: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151560990080545.835708.95531095544&type=1 Let me know if you can't view them, but they should be public. I have no idea what camera what used to get these shots (and frankly I don't know anything about camera specs) so ask them, not me. Pretty cool though. I'm jealous that this was only 20 miles north of me and I didn't get to see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SVT450R Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 I seen an article today about a monster sun spot measuring 60,000miles across that rotated into view over the weekend any of you solar buffs see anything big coming from this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 Region 1476, which is now close to the Central Meridian, is a Fkc beta-gamma-delta group with an area of about 1000 millionths of a Solar hemisphere which is large but nowhere near any sort of record. It's been firing off impulsive M-class events and has a low probability of an X-class event. We've been cloudy the past two days and I've been sick so I haven't had a chance to observe the Sun recently. As far as size is concerned, 60000 miles sounds impressive but for a large sunspot group is fairly typical. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derecho! Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 Region 1476, which is now close to the Central Meridian, is a Fkc beta-gamma-delta group with an area of about 1000 millionths of a Solar hemisphere which is large but nowhere near any sort of record. It's been firing off impulsive M-class events and has a low probability of an X-class event. We've been cloudy the past two days and I've been sick so I haven't had a chance to observe the Sun recently. As far as size is concerned, 60000 miles sounds impressive but for a large sunspot group is fairly typical. Steve Spaceweather has now gone the way of earthquakes and volcanoes in the mass media; the fairly routine is getting pretty hyped, because people went from not paying attention to it at all, to paying attention to it, with little background or contextual knowledge. You'd think we're on the verge of a Carrington-event killshot from reading the media. The government isn't totally without blame here because NASA called 1476 a "monster" and sent the media into a frenzy (which I have a vague feeling SWPC may not be happy about). There's value in building awareness but this is a bit much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted May 10, 2012 Author Share Posted May 10, 2012 Yes, I cringe everytime I see a story in the media about the Sun. Latest on 1476 has the area at 940 millionths. For the record, the largest sunspot group on record was 5400 millionths in 1947 and since 1956 when I started observing the Sun I've seen groups close to 4000 millionths (region 5395 in 1989 is the largest ever southern hemisphere group at 3800 millionths and the 2003 groups were around 3000-3500 millionths. I think another aspect is that we are seeing a lot more people observing the Sun and they don't have the observing experience yet to know what is big and what is REALLY big and how to quickly identify a truly pathological region. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SVT450R Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 Yes, I cringe everytime I see a story in the media about the Sun. Latest on 1476 has the area at 940 millionths. For the record, the largest sunspot group on record was 5400 millionths in 1947 and since 1956 when I started observing the Sun I've seen groups close to 4000 millionths (region 5395 in 1989 is the largest ever southern hemisphere group at 3800 millionths and the 2003 groups were around 3000-3500 millionths. I think another aspect is that we are seeing a lot more people observing the Sun and they don't have the observing experience yet to know what is big and what is REALLY big and how to quickly identify a truly pathological region. Steve I see what you mean is this biggest in recent years is that why there was some hype on the size thanks for the stats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted May 11, 2012 Author Share Posted May 11, 2012 I see what you mean is this biggest in recent years is that why there was some hype on the size thanks for the stats. Yes, it's one of the biggest since the minimum and is now at 1400 millionths. It fired off a M5.7/2B event last night and could bring an X-class. It IS a large region just not extremely so-still sick so I've not been able to observe it. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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